Since You Been mucked about with

If you are not a fan of the MCU films then this may have passed you by, the trailer for the third Guardians of The Galaxy movie. These days companies put a huge amount of effort into their online trailers and this one is no exception. And as much work goes into just the right soundtrack. Here the producers decided that what would fit the bill best was Rainbow’s 1979 smash Since You Been Gone!

In common with many other vintage rock tunes chosen for this purpose the producers also decided to beef it up to fit the loud cinema soundtrack systems. Here though that beefing up has largely meant chucking most of it away altogether! Graham Bonnet’s amazing vocal remains, a fair bit of guitar, after which we start to struggle to recognise much. Cozy has left the room. Roger and Don likewise as far as we can tell.
And as for being a ‘nice little earner’ we mustn’t forget it was a cover version originally anyway (Russ Ballard 1976). Still it may well drive traffic to the Rainbow version (the trailer aired during a recent big American sports final) and fractions of cents will wing their way to somebody as a result. It is often the case that the music used for trailers does not make it across into the movie so we’ll have to see. But given DTB are big fans of the first two Guardian films they will report back when it hits cinemas in May.
And no, Ritchie hasn’t undergone a Madonna like transformation above, that’s Russ playing with Candice and co. in 2017. Thanks to the ever vigilant Tim Summers for pointing us to the story.

Guitar alterations

This photo has been floating about on the web for some time, but thanks to Mike Richards we can locate this to Newcastle City Hall on the 1980 Down To Earth tour. This is mainly because he spotted a mate in the balcony in the pic he went to school with! It was taken by another friend, Andrew Sokell, so he says it’ll be nice to see the picture properly credited at last (Andrew did him a print as a souvenir).  Rainbow were in such demand by this time that they played two nights at the City Hall, on Feb 19 / 20. fronted by Graham Bonnet (we think this is where the story about Graham getting his hair cut to annoy Ritchie happened, details in his biography!).  Anyhow, it will bring back many memories of Ritchie’s often precarious end of show antics as he debates whether to trash yet another balcony (I think we’ve posted one of Simon’s photos of Liverpool Empire getting similarly knocked about in the past. We have, here it is). Interesting to note the PA speakers have been strapped together in anticipation. Our thanks to Mike for the loan of the pic.

Vorwärts mit Ritchie

Fans moaning about the recent new Rainbow tracks only being issued as downloads can sort of calm down as they now plan to round the iTunes MP3s up on a CD EP called Rainbow Vorwärts.  BUT so far it will only be sold at upcoming Rainbow shows, which rather rules out a large chunk of any potential market. Hopefully they will make some available via mail-order for those who cannot get along, an ebay shop is only $15 a month to set up…  Otherwise you will need to befriend someone who is going and get them to grab you a copy!

The EP will have four tracks so far as we know, Black Sheep of the Family, Waiting For A Sign, I Surrender and The Storm (a beefed up cut which I think Blackmore’s Night did some years ago). Waiting For A Sign was apparently written for Stranger In Us All (apparently a demo with Doogie on exists), but this is also a new version. Although we did think these new tracks being slipped out indicated a new Rainbow CD might be on the horizon, Ritchie has said not as he ‘doesn’t write those sort of songs any more….’

Thanks to all who have been keeping me updated on this.

Rare breed

I’ve no idea what to make of this, but it’s on the iTunes website as a five minute download available from April 26th, so make sure you have 99pence in your Apple account ready! Though I suspect anyone hoping for an awesome remix off the first album is going to be disappointed.  And why had Ritchie gone all Poirot with his name? Thanks to Tim Summers for sending the link. As for the menace who sent me the sleeve with Ritchie’s face substituted which I saw first, detention beckons!

Dates

We mentioned Rainbow’s tour dates a few weeks ago; these have now been confirmed with just four shows in Europe for 2019. I guess this does mean there might be more in Russia or the Far East. Anyhow, the dates are on our 2019 diary page now.  The flyer for the Finland gig is shown below.

HMV specials

HMV have issued a number of special edition vinyl represses this year again (you may recall the marble vinyl In Rock from last time) to mark the BBC supported National Album Day. The one which may be of interest is a coloured vinyl issue of Rainbow Rising in their shops now (not online).  My thanks to Russ Berger for the heads up via Mark Maddock.

Joe Lynn Turner

Joe Lynn Turner was taken to hospital late last week having suffered from a myocardial infarction. Needless to say all live engagements are off for now, but JLT should be able to resume live work after a good rest and the right medication. This all happened over in Belarus where he now lives, and he was treated at a hospital in Minsk.

Photo of Joe Lynn Turner on stage with Graham Bonnet by Marko Syrjälä courtesy Easy On The Eye Books

Rainbow over Russia

Although Blackmore has made it to Russia a few times with Blackmore’s Night, they’ve never had him in rock mode, so the announcement of two Rainbow shows over there in April 2018 should go down well. Thanks to Mark Maddock and Mike Richards for the info.

Bonnet biography on sale

The publishers are now taking pre-orders for Steve Wright’s exhaustive  Graham Bonnet biography The Story Behind The Shades, with a September delivery date confirmed. Anyone who orders ahead of then from here gets a bit of a discount too.  There is a regular softback, 176 pages (plus 160 rare photos and 170 items of memorabilia!), and also a signed copy in a deluxe slipcase with a laminate which is exclusive to the publisher’s online store. Details of the editions on their site.  The Rainbow saga is included, and there is a nice forward from Purple’s Don Airey too.

Graham’s band have a new drummer (who actually joined for the UK tour late last year) and a new guitarist, but did bring in three members of his original 1967 group for the one-off encore at Skegness last month.  There is a new studio album in progress, a live set from 2016 in Italy out on CD and DVD, and he will be guesting with Michael Schenker in the UK later this year. Incredibly Graham got to see Deep Purple for the first time ever the other night and met up with his old mates Roger and Don afterwards (first time in 37 years!), posting a selfie we’ll show below.

Off

Rainbow have had to pull the Manchester concert. Last week the Arena was saying shows would restart (and we reported this below) but clearly work is taking longer than hoped, and they will not now be able to reopen until September.  It’s probably too late to find an alternate venue.  Ticket holders are being refunded and we know some people who have had their refund already.  UPDATE – forgot to say, the refund also offers a discount on tickets for other shows to make up.