Rainbow

London Rainbow November 13, 1977

The “killer-diller” best night of four, Geoff Barton wrote in Sounds a week after the show. Sometimes you just get lucky…

Every seat in the Rainbow was draped with a paper banner bearing the slogan ‘Long Live Rock’n’Roll’ – the title of the one new song Sounds had primed us to expect in a set that, disappointingly, omitted Stargazer. But when the lights went down, all cares melted in the maelstrom of the frantic Kill The King.

On the slower-paced Mistreated, Sixteenth Century Greensleeves and Catch The Rainbow, the changing colours of the rainbow arch spanning the front of the stage added magic. Beneath, Ronnie James Dio mesmerised and Ritchie Blackmore played at the top of his game, frequently unaccompanied, improvising as if possessed.

In truth, Long Live’s raucous singalong was no substitute for Stargazer. But as the painted backcloth of the guitar castle from the first album fell to reveal the rising fist of the second, Man On The Silver Mountain hefted everything to a new level. A burst of Blues, a snatch of Starstruck, and then into the epic set closer Still I’m Sad climaxing around Cozy Powell’s unforgettably bombastic drum solo.

The audience’s rabid reaction throughout had made Blackmore a happy chappie, so he did return to encore, with Do You Close Your Eyes, torturing his Stratocaster to destruction and my teenage self to utter delirium.