ON STAGE

After having established a group he thought would hold up his requirements, Blackmore set out to express his ambition by setting up an impressive light show that included a cool-looking Rainbow. But however impressive this giant lightning fixture was, it was extremely unreliable providing many glitches and interferences on the PA and amplifiers, that it was sometimes impossible to use. So choosing between the recordings to make-up this album was probably no easy task, and this sole official live album for over two decades was rather frustrating on a few points.

Not only were there some very short album sides (the second and third were simply scandalously short), but some of Tony Carey's solos were disastrous, leading to his dismissal, being replaced by the much better classically-trained Canadian David Stone. But on this album we have to put up with Carey's completely inept performance especially on anotherwise excellent Still I'm Sad. And that track is not the only excellent version: as most of the selected songs are well-played and especially well recorded (maybe even a bit of tampering or touch-ups), which is hardly the case of the other more recent release of that era.

We are graced with a Dio version of the Purple blues Mistreated, a vastly different (extended) Catch the Rainbow, a new fantastic Kill The King (Cozy Rules) and a shining (if you except Carey) Still I'm Sad which unlike its studio version regains the vocal parts perfectly sung by Dio, even if those vocals have nothing to do with the original Yardbirds Gregorian chants. But my other main gripe is that in this selection, aside one track thrown in the Medley, there is not one track from the preceding superb Rising on which promotion tour this album is derived. And apparently, on other recordings released from that era, the same flaw occurs almost every time.

Nevertheless and aside from my two main gripes, this writer simply loved this double set and cherished it as much as the three Dio-era studio albums. An ideal complement with the recent Live DVD of Rainbow's Munich performance in Munich in late 77