Review by Daniel for Rainbow - On Stage (1977)

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.