Rainbow - On Stage (1977)^{Release ID: 13379}

I have to admit that, despite the steady stream of unanimous praise that seems to be heaped on them, London supergroup Rainbow have never been my cup of tea, at least not when looking at their back catalogue holistically. Sure, their classic 1976 sophomore record “Rising” is certainly a very solid effort & I’m not denying that I get a lot of enjoyment out of it but the only other one of the band’s eight studio albums that I find much appeal in is 1982’s “Straight Between The Eyes” which is arguably Rainbow’s least popular release. This is a pretty good sign that Rainbow simply don’t play in the same playgrounds as I frequent & I’ve kinda found myself subconsciously accepting that I may never achieve the same sort of adoration that many of my metalhead peers do over the years. Recently though, I found myself in need of something to listen to while looking after my two young kids for the day & Rainbow’s 1977 “On Stage” live album popped up in my Spotify feed. For some reason I thought to myself “You know what? Everyone else seems to gush about this record. What can it hurt giving it a few spins, eh?”. So here I am…. full of high hopes & the promise to at least fill an obvious gap in my knowledge of rock/metal music history.

“On Stage” is made up of live tracks that were recorded between September & December 1976 when Rainbow were on tour in Germany & Japan so it’s not a showcase for a single performance but the best of several. Interestingly though given the timing of the shows, the tracklisting includes virtually nothing from the “Rising” album that the band were touring for at the time with only a short snippet of “Starstruck” (clearly the weakest track on “Rising” in my opinion) being represented. The majority of the record is made up of material from 1975’s “Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow” debut album with the addition of a cover version of Deep Purple’s “Mistreated” (which Ritchie obviously wrote) & a sneak peak at a future classic in “Kill The King” that wouldn’t see a proper album release until 1978’ “Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll” record. Most of the tracks are extended & include lengthy improvised jam sections which see the six tracks stretching out to a 64 minute run time.

The clear & organic production job is very good for a live album from that period & it does exactly what any good live production should do by giving the listener the feeling of actually being there in the audience. I could have done without the silly “Over The Rainbow” intro from the “Wizard Of Oz” but once the band kicks into gear you’ll be treated to some of the finest rock performances you’re ever likely to hear, highlighted of course by the legendary talents of Ritchie Blackmore & Ronnie James Dio. Now, let me get something else off my chest. Despite being a guitarist myself, I’ve never actually had a lot of time for Blackmore from a technical point of view. I’ve always appreciated his creativity but he seemed a little sloppy to me in comparison to some of my more favoured axemen. But here we see Ritchie confidently pulling the wool from over my eyes so that I can finally see what I’ve been missing & by George he pulls off quite the triumphant victory over my stubbornness in the process. I can very easily hear where people like Yngwie Malmsteen have cloned certain parts of his technique here & it’s hard to argue that Ritchie was ahead of his time after experiencing this record. RJD’s contribution is simply perfect as always. I don’t think there’s a musician alive that could have taken the limelight away from Ronnie as he’s a star among stars & you’re unlikely to find a better example of that than you do here.

Now a warning for all you diehard metalheads that are stuck in your ways, despite containing arguably the earliest example on power metal in opening track “Kill The King”,“On Stage” is NOT a metal record overall &, to be fair, it rarely tries to be. Contrary to popular opinion, Rainbow were never a metal band (at least not for a complete album). They were a hard rock group that contained unique elements that heavily influenced the more obviously metallic groups that followed them. Hell, a lot of the jam sections of “On Stage” aren’t even rock with Rtichie & co taking their audience into a wide array of different territories from blues right through to classical & it’s worth noting that his ambitions have ultimately produced the definitive versions of many of these songs in the process. The 15 minute version of “Catch The Rainbow” is really quite stunning & has taken one of the couple of tracks that I found enjoyment in from the debut & transformed it into an epic centrepiece that rewrites the book on melody & atmosphere. I’ve never liked “Sixteen Century Greensleeves” but this version comes a little closer to being interesting while the new packaging of closer “Still I’m Sad” has seen me paying attention for the very first time.

Perhaps a release like this one is tailor made for an old musician like myself. I'm more than open to the idea of extended improvisation, I live to hear musicians pushing themselves & succeeding & I love to see an artist take their art & give it a fresh coat of paint. Rainbow may still not quite fit into my taste profile from a stylistic point of view but boy have they pulled off an entertaining release here. It’s really pretty surprising how successful “On Stage” is when you consider that I don’t have any time for the “Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow” album that most of the material is drawn from. How is it possible that they’ve not only managed to pull off an acceptable live album without drawing on any of the best material from clearly their best album in “Rising” but have actually gone one step further by forcing me to consider whether “On Stage” may just have pipped “Rising” out of the top spot for my favourite Rainbow release. Well done gents. This is a very fine performance indeed.

For fans of Deep Purple, Scorpions & Thin Lizzy.

There’s just something about the magic of this band, particularly compared to Blackmore’s previous exploits - Purple was classical gas meets heavy blues, that pounding, racing organ just crashing through like a meteor shower on the roof. Rainbow is elegance, fantasy, delicate brush strokes and swinging white Stratocasters. Rainbow is Ronnie Dio’s throaty bluster as a triptych to his world of shining castles and deft sorcery.  

“On Stage” is stacked with legendary players Powell, Bain, Blackmore, Tony Carey and RJD spinning their pioneering fantasy metal in front of German and Japanese crowds. The tracklisting is strange right off the bat - just the type of unexplained oddity we would come to expect from Blackmore. Recorded on the Rising tour, but there’s hardly any Rising material. If you’re anything like the rest of us, this represents more than a slight disappointment, but if it’s any consolation, the performances are stellar, and for fans of the man’s impeccable fretburning coupled with that titanic voice, “On Stage” is a must-hear (and incidentally, there’s a dreamy version of “Stargazer” on the ’76 Live in Germany collection, but the drums are sort of buried in the mix on that one).  

It may not be cut from a single performance, but it flows like one – with a single exception. The dueling interplay between Carey’s warbling keyboard squiggles and Ritchie’s spacy bends during the blues jam in the “Man on the Silver Mountain” medley is abruptly interrupted by a few bars of “Lady Starstruck” (inaudibly, the crowd murmurs I told you they had a new album!) and an awkward fit of Dio’s vocal improvisation before finishing out the song. Yeah, it’s weirdly forced – like the band didn’t want to include any Rising material at all. I’ve never understood it. Plus, the record starts with “Kill the King” and nobody had even heard that one yet. Clearly, Ritchie is in charge of song selection. Hide the lutes!  

“Catch the Rainbow” smooths over the confusion with all the lavish grandeur synonymous with this band, every player swelling the melodrama, from Dio’s perfect vocal to Bain’s warm bass, the majesty of the keys to torrents of guitar licks and volume-knob swells that walk the tightrope between classical and blues. It’s obvious the band is most comfortable with the material from the first album, stretched out here and there, “Still I’m Sad” lengthened from four minutes to about eleven, but those keys dish out more pomp than a Papal ceremony. The addition of Coverdale’s “Mistreated” is another oddity on the record, a song that would be come a regular concert staple. RJD knocks it out of the park, and Ritchie conjures perhaps the most intricate, breathtaking solo of the entire show, expanding an already long song into a scintillating jam.  

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the megawatt rainbow stage prop so proudly described on the back of this gatefold sleeve, 40-foot span across the stage, 29 feet high in the middle, 3000 light bulbs, first of its kind in the world, yada, yada. Every piece of equipment is also listed from 6 crown DC300A Power Amps to “1 aluminum stand for pipe organ” – there’s no arguing, the guy who did the liner notes was a stickler for detail.  

Suffice to say, I’ll never understand the glaring omissions from the band’s greatest album (Rising should be played in its entirety if you ask me), but the material from the first record is performed with such stunning depth and gusto for "On Stage", the studio versions are pretty much rendered flat by comparison.  

That’s probably why I have it on CD and vinyl - either means it’s one of my favorite records or I just stole somebody else’s copy while drunk. Wouldn’t be the first time….