When Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow took the stage Friday night at Germany’s Monsters of Rock Festival, it was the first time he had played straight rock music in nineteen years.
Blackmore and Candice Night formed Blackmore’s Night in 1995, concentrating on folk-rock music including traditional British music and, since 1997, that has been Ritchie’s soul musical enterprise.
This summer’s resurrection of Rainbow includes vocalist Ronnie Romero (Lords of Black), keyboardist Jens Johansson (Stratovarius), bassist Bob Nouveau and drummer David Keith (both of Blackmore’s Night).
The band played twice over the weekend, on Friday at Monsters of Rock in Loreley and Saturday at Monsters of Rock in Bietgheim-Bissingen. Both nights included six songs from the Deep Purple catalog along with seven (eight on Saturday) from Rainbow.
Friday night’s set list:
Highway Star (from Deep Purple’s Machine Head, 1972)
Spotlight Kid (from Difficult to Cure, 1981)
Mistreated (from Deep Purple’s Burn, 1974)
Since You Been Gone (from Down to Earth, 1979)
Man on the Silver Mountain (from Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, 1975)
Catch the Rainbow (from Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, 1975)
Difficult to Cure (from Difficult to Cure, 1981)
Perfect Strangers (from Deep Purple’s Perfect Strangers, 1984)
Child in Time (from Deep Purple’s Deep Purple in Rock, 1970)
Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll (from Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll, 1978)
Stargazer (from Rising, 1976)
Black Night (Deep Purple single, 1970)
Smoke on the Water (from Deep Purple’s Machine Head, 1972)
Saturday night’s set list:
Highway Star (from Deep Purple’s Machine Head, 1972)
Spotlight Kid (from Difficult to Cure, 1981)
Mistreated (from Deep Purple’s Burn, 1974)
Sixteenth Century Greensleeves (from Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, 1975)
Since You Been Gone (from Down to Earth, 1979)
Man on the Silver Mountain (from Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, 1975)
Difficult to Cure (from Difficult to Cure, 1981)
Catch the Rainbow (from Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, 1975)
Perfect Strangers (from Deep Purple’s Perfect Strangers, 1984)
Stargazer (from Rising, 1976)
Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll (from Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll, 1978)
Child in Time (from Deep Purple’s Deep Purple in Rock, 1970)
Black Night (Deep Purple single, 1970)
Smoke on the Water (from Deep Purple’s Machine Head, 1972)
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