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Somewhere Over The Rainbow |
By Ryan Sparks
Over the years Classic Rock fans have been secretly holding out hope
that mercurial guitarist Richie Blackmore will one day take off the
feathered cap and tights drop the lute and once again pick up his
Stratocaster and crank up the Marshalls with his band Rainbow. No
serious Rainbow reunion could ever take place without the two principal
players being involved, that being Blackmore (who founded the group in
1975 after leaving Deep Purple in the dust) and original vocalist Ronnie
James Dio. For whatever reason the two haven’t shown much interest in
working together again both having moved on a long time ago. After
leaving Rainbow in 1978 Dio went on to kick start the MK II lineup of
Black Sabbath and eventually carved out a successful solo career which
began in the early 80’s. Blackmore soldiered on with Rainbow for four
more albums, steering the band in a more commercial direction with a
revolving cast of musicians until the band finally ran its course in the
mid 80’s. The highly successful Deep Purple reunion would keep Richie
busy until the mid 90’s when he eventually turned his back on the band
and left for good in 1993. Fans were surprised when the man in black
decided to give Rainbow one more kick at the can, albeit with a
completely different lineup once again as the band released Stranger
In Us All in 1995 which inevitably turned out to be their swan song.
Shortly afterwards Ritchie decided it was finally time to bid adieu to
the stadium rock scene, trade in his guitar and pursue the Renaissance
music that had always been near and dear to his heart. How close the
classic Rising era lineup came to reforming in the late 90’s
perhaps we’ll never now, but it appears that Ritchie is quite
comfortable with his ongoing Blackmore’s Night project and now that Dio
has reestablished his ties to Sabbath with Heaven and Hell any kind of
reunion seems to have slipped firmly out of reach.
Rainbow fans need not despair however as a new project with a twist has
appeared on the horizon to ensure that this timeless music is not
forgotten. Over The Rainbow is a truly unique band that brings together
former Rainbow members from various different incarnations. The
principal players involved include vocalist Joe Lynn Turner and drummer
Bobby Rondinelli ,from the bands most commercial and successful era of
the early 80’s, keyboardist Tony Carey from the original touring band
and bassist Greg Smith from Rainbows final lineup. The real kicker here
though is the guitar slot which is being held down by none other than Jurgen (J.R.) Blackmore. Yes J.R. Blackmore is none other than Richie’s
son. Who knew the man in black not only had a son, but one that played
guitar to boot? The band which is playing a cross section of material
from every era of the band has already played select dates in Russia and
the Ukraine and has three shows in Japan lined up for April. Joe gives
us some insight into how it all originally went down.
“Tony had this Purple / Rainbow idea but there’s already a band out of
Holland, they’re a cover band and they have their website and stuff but
I never liked that too much. I never tried that because it seems like a
cheap way to cash in with a bunch of different players. If you’re going
to do something it has to have some substance and be genuine otherwise
people are going to be saying ‘You’ve got to be kidding me’ and it comes
off really cheesy and so on. I had a lot of contact with Tony and I
actually told him that I didn’t like the whole way it was being done
with this other band. They were only playing club dates in Holland but I
don’t know… it was kind of cheesy and it wasn’t ringing true to me. The
way it really happened was I had been getting pressured every time I was
in Russia. I would be sitting there at the bar after the shows having a
few drinks with the promoters and they’d say ‘Wouldn’t it be great if
Rainbow got back together?’ The last time I was there I had to say ‘Look
there’s no way Ritchie is going to do it and without Blackmore on guitar
it’s just not going to happen’. Then I thought yeah… Blackmore on guitar
and they went ‘What’s the matter?’ because I looked completely startled.
I stood up with drink in hand and I went ‘I got it. Jurgen Blackmore!’
and they said ‘Who the hell is that?’ I told them that not many people
know that Ritchie has a son and that he’s been playing guitar for thirty
years”.
In Joe’s mind at least Jurgen was not only the missing piece but the
integral ingredient to making this project a reality.
“I mean I used to know him when he was thirteen or fourteen” he
continues. “I thought that if he would do it then he was the point man
that I needed. The rest of the guys had to come from the different
incarnations of Rainbow to at least represent the band because this is
not a fluke or something that’s being done cheaply or anything like
that. We want to be genuine and authentic. This is the real deal and we
want to be serious about it because you’re never going to get this stuff
anywhere else except for sometimes in my solo sets, but other than that
forget it. So they were bewildered about Jurgen and I guess they did a
lot of Googling and what have you and found out who he was, but when I
came back to the States I didn’t really want to talk to anyone about it
except for my manager “.
“There had been talk about getting Rainbow or Purple factions back
together for a couple of months and Joe called me and asked me if I
wanted to put a project together and I just said ‘Yeah let’s do it’”
say’s Bobby. “Joe and I were the first two to hook up with this. Tony
actually got us thinking about it about six or seven months ago when he
was putting something together for the Russian President’s inauguration
but that never happened. Then Joe and I started talking and getting
involved with Jurgen. Then we talked about getting Tony and Greg
involved.”
It might not have been as simple as that because there was still the
matter of whether or not the relatively unknown guitarist would be up to
the task of stepping into his Father’s shoes. It turned out that not
only was Jurgen eager to dive in, but he was just about to reach out to
Turner for reasons of his own.
“I told my manager ‘Look I’m going to call Jurgen, I have to’ and it was
so coincidental that I was going to be in Germany with RPM which is the
Rock, Pop Masters project that I do” says Joe. “ I told him that I was
going to be in Hamburg and that I had something that I wanted to talk to
him about, so I asked him if he would meet me for dinner because I
hadn’t seen him in so long. We must have spent about four or five hours
at dinner, you know how that gets when the wine starts flowing and the
conversation gets going. We we’re talking about the past and I hit him
with this project idea and he loved it because he had been doing T.V.
and radio jingles, playing in bands and doing his own instrumental
records but he had never been out on the stage touring or anything like
that. He’s kind of like a babe in the words really. My first concern was
whether he’d have a problem with his father’s legacy or whether he was
psychologically tormented and he said ‘No not at all. I will be nervous
just about doing this because I’ve never been on a big stage like this
before. But I have to tell you Joe, I was going to call you Joe’ and I
said ‘What do you mean?’ He was like ‘Yeah I was getting ready to
finally come out with a bunch of original stuff and I was going to ask
you to sing on it’. I would have probably said yes because it would be
Blackmore / Turner or Turner / Blackmore and just that alone would have
been interesting. I’m so pleased that he was brave enough to say yes
because I really think it takes a lot of balls “.
Asked to describe the younger Blackmore’s playing style Turner has this
to offer:
“He has a great sound and he likes to play really linearly, he’s not a
speed demon but neither was Ritchie. Malmsteen was a speed demon.
Ritchie was always very melodic even his arpeggios when he did play fast
were still melodic so Jurgen has that covered. Scarily enough he looks
like Ritchie and it’s funny because he does that thing with his hands
when he plays guitar which is what Ritchie used to do, shake it and put
in on the neck.”
What about physical resemblances?
“He’s a little broader in the shoulders because he’s part German, his
mother is German so he’s got that German blood line too” states Joe.
“He looks like Ritchie and it was freakin scary when I looked at him
because his eyes are exactly those piercing dark eyes that Ritchie has,
and the curly black hair and the nose.”
Both Tony and Joe are in complete agreement that Jurgen shouldn’t try
to emulate his legendary father but rather put his own stamp on these
tried and tested rock anthems.
“He doesn’t have to be his Dad, he’s not his Dad, nobody is but he’s a
hard rocker and I’ve heard him play and he’s wonderful” continues Tony.
“He’s an amusing, funny and really bright guy. He doesn’t speak a lot of
English but he’s got me, so in some ways I’ve taken him under my wing a
little bit. I think he’s going to do fine. The psychological pressure
has got to be enormous but he’s a big boy. Everybody jumps into the deep
end at one point or another. I was seventeen when I left home in search
of I won’t say pussy, but fame” he laughs. “That was jumping into the
deep end too.”
“I told him my comment which was that I don’t fill Dio’s or Graham’s or
Gillan’s shoes because I make my own footprints and he laughed” adds
Joe. “It was an old comment as arrogant as it was but you have to be
yourself. So I told him to just learn the basic songs and when it comes
to the solos to just play them any way that he wanted. He told me that
he thought he could handle it and that psychologically he wasn’t worried
about it. “
With Jurgen on board the five musicians began to sort out the matter of
a set list (more on that in a bit), but let’s backtrack a little bit and
get some insight from both Tony and Joe as to their thoughts on why
Ritchie or Ronnie refuse to have anything to do with a proper reunion.
“Dio won’t do it that’s a fact, and Ritchie is in Sherwood Forest which
is also a fact” states Tony rather bluntly.
Was your name ever bandied around or did these rumors ever get serious
enough over the years to the point where someone contacted you to see if
you were interested?
“Yeah usually through third parties but the point is Ronnie has always
said there was no chance he would do it” continues Tony. “Then Cozy died
so the original touring band of Cozy, Ronnie, Ritchie, Jimmy and myself…
after Cozy died well that’s a big hurdle. Ronnie didn’t want to and
still doesn’t want to sing anything related to AOR pop or chart hits.
He’s still into Dungeons & Dragons on the eighth level, which is his
thing. That’s why he left the band in the first place. Ritchie used to
carry around a cello in 1975 and nobody took him serious, but he was
dead serious as it turned out and he found his thing. He always felt
that he was living in the sixteenth century and it’s not a question of
it being a put on or a sham because that’s what he feels and that’s what
he wants to play. In his eyes he’s going forward although he’s really
going five hundred years back but he’s on the run from the Sheriff of
Nottingham” he laughs.”This is a great thing and we all respect him for
it but we obviously had this big hole to fill because save for a couple
of exceptions Ritchie co-wrote every piece of music that we play.”
Considering Tony didn’t originally leave Rainbow on shall we say the
best of terms and coupled with the fact that over the past thirty years
he has managed to maintain a moderately successful solo career of his
own with his Planet P records, why has he decided now to revisit this
particular period of his past?
“Well I’ve done everything else and I think I’ve come full circle. I
started off in a country band when I was a teenager, we were like
Crosby, Still & Nash and I didn’t’ have any experience in hard rock.
Then I met Ritchie in L.A. and he offered me a job and I took it. We did
Rising and I actually played on the Long Live Rock ‘n Roll
album as well but it’s been pretty well documented that I left in the
middle of the recording. In 1978 I moved to Germany and I’ve been here
ever since, which is thirty years. I got into production and I did a lot
of German and Swiss language stuff and I’ve produced records for Joe
Cocker and John Mayall. I’m a self taught guitarist and I do a lot of
one man shows or with trio’s, so I don’t even play keyboards. All that
is great but I’m kind of hungry to play the Hammond organ again” he
says. “The kids today that have keyboards, and not to take anybody’s
talent away from them because there’s always talent out there, but one
of the presets on their Japanese keyboards will be Hammond and that’s
not the same” he laughs. “You play a Hammond with both hands, both feet
and both sides of your brain, with as much heart as you can throw into
it. It’s a really difficult beast to master as it were. Nobody’s doing
it anymore except for maybe Don Airey. I’ve also been the lead singer in
all of my projects since ’78. I just really want to kick back, play the
Hammond, play the synthesizers and have some fun and let someone else be
the singer. At the same time also respecting the sex, drugs and rock ‘n
roll traditions of 70’s hard rock, although nowadays it’s books, drums
and rock ‘n roll.”
Joe also respect’s the decision of his former boss not to cooperate on
the reunion front even though he tried at least once to kickstart one
himself.
“Ritchie is never going to have a reunion, he’s done. He’s married and
he told Jurgen himself ‘I’m tired and I don’t want to do this, I just
want peace in my life. I’m happy what I’m doing with Blackmore’s Night’.
Candace wants a solo career and Ritchie just doesn’t want to kill
himself anymore on the road. You’ve got to respect the guy and I always
have. I tell people ‘Just leave him alone’ because I know he loves what
he’s doing and if you’re a friend of someone then you’re happy for your
friend you know? Yes I did try in the early days to push him to do
something, this was when he was putting the first Blackmore’s Night
album together and he wasn’t locked into anything at that point. I just
figured let’s give it a shot, we had Chuck Burgi and these other guys
together on the phone but we couldn’t get past the mother-in law” Joe
says with a laugh.
What about Ritchie’s feelings towards Over The Rainbow, did Jurgen get
his father’s blessing?
“Yes he was really happy for Jurgen” says Joe. “He said it was about
time that he came into the world arena and he told Jurgen he was very
happy that he was doing this. I’ll be honest with you; Ritchie isn’t too
thrilled about anything with the Rainbow name in it because he always
feels that people have stolen from him all his life. Whether it was with
Purple or whatever he always feels that he’s being kicked around. I
don’t think that’s entirely true because he’s not exactly the easiest
guy to get along with as we all know, but at the same time we just said
‘Look we’re not calling it Rainbow’ and this is exactly what I thought
it would be, Over The Rainbow and we are Over The Rainbow, maybe we’re
way over it. This is not a tribute because we were all in the band, so
if it is a tribute then it’s a tribute to ourselves”.
On the subject of tributes and reunions, this writer actually views Over
The Rainbow as being better than an actual reunion and here’s why. For
one thing Ronnie would never sing the more commercial stuff from the
bands later period or for that matter anything that he wasn’t involved
in originally, thus negating a lot of solid material. Over The Rainbow
will deliver a great cross section of material that encompasses their
whole career.
“Yeah that’s a good point. We’re going to do all the best Rainbow
material. That’s what the fans want and that’s what we want to portray.
There’s a lot of good music through every Rainbow lineup so we’ll do
some of all of it” says Bobby.
“You’re so right about that and I’m going to use that” states Joe
emphatically. “The Rainbow fan is getting a full cross section of
everything right across the board absolutely. “He’d never sing my stuff
but Ronnie won’t sing anybody’s stuff because Ronnie is Ronnie” he
continues.
As for how Joe handles the band’s back catalogue, “I don’t want to go
out and ape Dio, I sing the songs my way. I nod my head to them and I
think Ronnie’s brilliant and I’ve always been a big fan of his but I
just sing them my way. I might put a bit more of a growl into the first
verse but other than that I’m going to sing it my style”.
What about Dio’s medieval themed lyrics? One has to assume you’re not a
big fan.
“’I’m totally not” he says. “Carey has been the biggest proponent of
that he’s like ‘Man there’s no blues in this’ and I’m like that too
because if it doesn’t have soul then… I remember Ronnie made a comment
something to the effect of that when I came into the band it became a
poor man’s Foreigner” he says laughing. “I said ‘Well that’s pretty good
company, I’ll sell a couple of million records that way sure’. When
they approached me it was because they wanted to go in commercial
direction and that’s what I did. I did my job. How come I sing everybody
else’s stuff but nobody sings my shit?” Turner says with hint of
bitterness. “Then you scratch your head and say ‘Because they can’t do
it justice?’ No really, you need to have some soul in that stuff and be
singer / singer and not just a white bred – there’s more emotion in that
stuff so you’ve got to have that heart and soul. I know Ronnie can sing
the blues like a motherfucker and I was a big fan of all his past bands.
So I don’t know I’m not going to belabor it but I always wondered about
that.”
Making sure all the bases are thoroughly covered Joe even plans to dip
into material from Stranger In Us All as well.
“That’s something that once again will make this very unique because it
will be all these different members of Rainbow playing everybody’s
stuff. I’m singing Doogie’s (White) songs and everybody is playing
everyone’s stuff, but yet we were all in the same band. There are two
songs from the Doogie era of the band even though that version of the
band wasn’t very popular if you know what I mean. That wasn’t exactly a
big chart buster. We’re going to do “Wolf To the Moon” and “Ariel” and I
love both of those songs, they’re great.”
Playing the material from the Turner led era of the band also gives
someone like Tony a chance to put his own spin on songs that he didn’t
originally have a hand in creating.
“I like almost all of them” he says. “There’s a couple I don’t like but
I won’t name them. The point is a song is a song and you can play “Long
Live Rock ‘n Roll” on acoustic guitar and make it as heavy as you like.
It has nothing to do with the sound, the instrumentation or the drummer
or anything. Over The Rainbow is a completely new group of people and I
can definitely tell you that I’m not going to be playing anyone’s 80’s
keyboard arrangements. I never play anyone else’s arrangements and I try
not to learn them. I approach each song as a unique piece of music to
play. You can play Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on a piano or you can play
it with a hundred piece orchestra, it’s still the same piece of music.
As long as the song has enough integrity to make it worth playing then
we’ll rock the shit out of it. I don’t care about any kind of legacy
thing or who played that awful keyboard on “Since You’ve Been Gone” and
so forth. I didn’t say that” he says laughing.
Ok so what about a set list then? With so much material to draw from the
decision process can’t be an easy one with the main challenge being how
make it all fit nicely into an hour and a half to two hour show.
“It’s going to be pretty close man because we’re going to play
everything that we’re learning” states Joe. “We’re learning more than we
need simply because some of them might not work and we might get caught
with our pants down, so we’ll probably learn about twenty songs. I hate
to say it but from my era there are a lot of songs that people want to
hear, there’s like ten songs. I mean what am I supposed to do?” he says
unapologetically. “We had one of the most popular incarnations of the
band in the sense of radio hits so of course the two or three hits will
be there. There are other songs that are just staples like “Death Alley
Driver”, “It Can’t Happen Here”, “Spotlight Kid”. We’re going to do
“Miss Mistreated”. We have to do “I Surrender” but we’ll learn “Power”
and all of that stuff. I looked at the list and I know that my songs are
top heavy on the list and they said ‘You guys were the most popular of
all the bands. Regardless of if they’re hardcore fans of Ronnie or the
pop fans of Graham you guys had the most commercial success’. I don’t
know how to apologize for that and I don’t think I have to. Everything
will be well represented. “
“I’m sitting here as we speak going over the lyrics for “Kill The King”.
We have to do all the big songs and you can almost put the set together
in your own mind” continues Joe. “Stargazer”, how could you not do “Man
On The Silver Mountain” or “Tarot Woman” so we’re doing it. Then you go
to the Graham stuff and you’ve got the obvious, “Since You’ve Been Gone”
we’ve got to do that even though everyone goes ‘Oh God’ because none of
the guys really like that one. It’s probably the most pop thing they
ever did, and they talk about my era of the band! At least my era of the
band had real songs that rocked!” he says with a mighty laugh. “I
listened to Ritchie’s solo in that one and it sounds so corny, they were
obviously trying to be a pop band or something. We’ll do “All Night
Long” ‘cause that one rocks and we’ll do “Lost In Holywood”, so a lot of
great stuff.”
Bobby has been fairly quiet up to this point, what’s his take on the set
list?
“We all submitted our lists and then whittled it down. We’ve got some
pretty powerful stuff and I think it’s going to be very exciting” he
says rather matter of fact. “It’s more about just remembering the
arrangements than the challenge of playing it you know? There’s a lot of
songs that we haven’t played in years and some of them that we never
played. Some of the songs are from when I was in the band and the other
stuff is songs that I loved growing up. It’s pretty cool. “
Considering that during his time in the band in the mid 70’a the live
set didn’t feature much material from Rising I asked Tony if fans
would get a chance to hear more of that material performed by Over The
Rainbow.
“Actually our set list features more of the stuff from Long Live Rock
‘n Roll because we had considered Rising done and dusted as
it were. At the time we were trying out material for the next album,
which in Ritchie’s wisdom was a great way to approach it. Anyway by the
time we had cut “Kill The King” in the studio we nailed it because we
knew it. We’ll be playing that one live. We’re playing “Tarot Woman”,
“Stargazer” maybe “Gates Of Babylon”. I hope we play “Still I’m Sad” I’m
pushing for that one. We’re doing at least five Ronnie numbers.”
Much like he did in the 70’s where he played a large role in the overall
live attack by essentially acting as a rhythm guitar player doubling
Richie’s riffs with his keyboards, one would imagine he will give Jurgen
the same support?
“I expect to do exactly that. We are of course the two soloists and
we’ll both step out and do our bits. The classic rock approach to
Hammond organ playing is actually being a rhythm guitar player. Two
guitars with an organ player are in the same frequency range so it’s
going to sound messy. When you have a five piece band onstage with two
guitar players and keyboard player somebody is going to be buried.
However, with a four piece like the Deep Purple or Rainbow setup I’m
going to stick to the bone crunching riff side of things until it’s my
turn to solo and then I’ll surprise everybody with my trumpet expertise”
he laughs jokingly.
On paper one has to admit that this impressive cast of musicians
certainly seems poised to tear things up onstage not to mention that
strictly from a marketing perspective the idea of having Jurgen on
board is nothing short of genius.
“Thank you. I think so too” agrees Joe modestly.
The fans will probably come out in droves even if only for curiosity
sake.
“ I would” he continues. “I would be looking for the closest town to go
to check it out. There’s another Blackmore on guitar? That sounds like a
good evening out, plus you get to hear songs from all era’s of the band.
I really think it’s going to turn into something simply because it’s
such a novel idea. My quote is ‘I think even Ritchie would go to this
show’ he says laughing.”He can come to the show, see his son and some of
his buddies and who knows what could happen if he does? If we’re
playing over in Germany and he’s not playing with Blackmore’s Night and
he has a night off he might get up onstage. That would be historic.”
Perhaps some more research is in order to see if Ritchie has any more
kids the music world is unaware of, who knows he may even find a cello
player.
“Yeah right a black haired girl playing cello with a nasty temper” Joe
fires back. “Then I’d have to call it Blackmore’s Rainbow yeah” he says
laughing at the idea.
Bobby agrees with the fact that this band has the potential to be quite
a powerful beast indeed.
“Yeah I think it’s going to be great, very powerful. Not to mention we
have some of the best rock music ever written to choose from to play
live” he says. “I’m really looking forward to the fifth gig” when it’s
all oiled and rolling along” he laughs.”I’m really looking forward to
this”.
It may too early to speculate on the bands future beyond these live
dates but it would be interesting to see if they end up generating
enough interest to eventually propel them into the studio to write and
record an album of original material. The members seem to be in
agreement agree that if all goes to plan then this could indeed be the
case, however they’re careful not get ahead of them themselves.
“I see a future for us if first of all nobody gets murdered in the green
room, which I don’t expect” says Carey jokingly. “I’ve known Joe since
1983, he’s a funny guy and we always get on well. I’ve only known Bobby
for a few months and I don’t know Greg Smith at all yet but I will soon.
Assuming there’s no blood inside the dressing room then I think the
purpose will be to let this unit gel towards eventually starting to
develop new material, which usually happens in sound checks. If this
band continues past what will be I don’t know… who knows fifty or sixty
shows in the summer, then it will be because we’ve proceed to the point
where we can record some new material with the same classic sound. I’m
not speaking for Joe or Bobby, but for me and I know for Jurgen, our
interest in this is to keep classic rock alive with new material because
we don’t want to be known as just an oldies band. I do have to mention
that we won’t sound anything like a dinosaur band, we’re going to wear
heavy shoes and we will blow you away.”
“Honestly it’s not a reunion and people get confused because Over The
Rainbow is really its own band” says Joe.” Then people will ask me if
it’s really a band and if we’re going to do original music. We already
talked about original music and we’ve got ideas but nowadays and you’ll
understand this with the business being in the toilet the way it is,
you’ve got to really shift your ideas around.”
“We would be incredibly pleased that people would want to hear more of
it and that we could get a deal or whatever. That would be great but
we’re not trying to reinvent the wheel here” he continues. “We just
think that there are a lot of Rainbow fans out there that would be
interested in seeing this and I think the Jurgen factor is an incredibly
interesting one and I think he knows that. We‘ll start in Russia and the
Ukraine, then we have three or four Japanese dates and apparently this
economic crisis is hitting everybody, so when we go down everybody goes
down. So where we might have originally had twelve dates we’ll have six
and so on. They said ‘Look go out and establish the act and if you’re
going to do three shows in Japan, they’ll be three pretty good shows in
three big cities and word of mouth will go from there’. I think they’re
working on parts of Europe like Germany, Scandinavia just called in
looking to book some stuff so I definitely think we’ll go through places
like Spain in the spring and summer.”
“I think the plan is to do more soft ticket stuff in the States and I’m
sure we’ll be able to do some clubs and everything, but by soft ticket
stuff I mean all the summer fairs and festivals where you pay one price
to get in and see a bunch of bands” says Joe elaborating. “I think we’d
be perfect for Rocklahoma because it’s all classic rock stuff. We could
do the Moondance Jam or something like that because there’s a lot of
those kinds of festivals and more and more every day. We have a really
great agency Paradise here in the States so we’re hooked up with Steve
Schenck over there and he’s really thrilled about the prospects of this
because he thinks this is pretty genius as well. He said ‘Man if you
like classic rock and you’re a Rainbow fan or any era then this will
work for you’. I’m just crossing my fingers and doing my homework here
and hoping for the best. I know we’ll obviously get better as we go
along but I have a feeling it’s going to rock right from the start
because we’re all pretty seasoned musicians. Jurgen is just going to be
carried by this complete rhythm section with Tony, Bobby and Greg
they’re going to kick ass. All Jurgen has to do is fly overtop that. “
Surely with all the hype surrounding this project, at the very least
these shows will more than likely be captured for posterity either by
way of a live album or DVD?
“We’ll probably do a live album” confirms Joe. “I’d imagine we’ll do
that because it’s easy, it will just come off the board, but at the same
time to do an album of all original material you need a record company
behind you and I don’t know if there is one yet. I’d like to think there
will be some interest but I can’t put the cart before the horse. In this
day and age if there’s a record company- if the fans want to hear a
record from us and the record company thinks so then we’ll do one but
other than that I’m not going to cook a pie in the sky or create any
false truths or anything. So it’s a project as long as it can stay alive
and as long as the people want to hear it. If somebody gives us an
opportunity to make an album then we’ll do it because we’ve already
discussed it. It’s authentic and its real but we understand that we
cant go any further than that you know? “
As for the possibility of a DVD Bobby’s take on it is an interesting one
and further proof that in today’s online world anything you want is
really just a mouse click away.
“Bobby said something the other day” says Tony. He said ‘It will
probably be on YouTube before we get back to the hotel’. “Officially
though, maybe in Japan because we have these nine concerts to play to
kind of get warmed up so I wouldn’t want anyone to film these concerts,
but maybe they’ll turn out to be the best shows who knows?”
“We need to keep the spontaneity and improvisation that is pretty much
missing from todays programmed acts” he continues. “I don’t want to name
any names but you hear band ‘A’ from night to night and they sound
exactly the same. I’ve never played two numbers the same way twice or
even on the same instrument. It was all improvisation and my solos that
were captured on stage were completely different from night to night and
maybe not all done on the Hammond because I had four mini-Moog’s around
me and all kinds of stuff. So it’s pretty much up in the air and because
of that its very exciting, and fucking cold in Russia too” he jokes.
“I’ll tell you what though it may have killed Napoleon and Hitler to
invade Russia in the winter but it won’t kill us” he says laughing.
Whatever the future holds for this project it’s the perfect opportunity
for these five musicians to come together to celebrate Rainbows music
once again and also to give a little something back to the fans. It
certainly seems appropriate considering that Rainbow practically put all
of these guys on the map in the first place. Bobby get’s the last word.
“Rainbow was my first big break. It was the best time. I went from
playing clubs to playing places like Nassau Coliseum, Madison Square
Garden and The Budokan. I saw Rainbow on tour the year before I joined
you know? I saw them with Graham and Cozy, so I was joining a band that
I already dug.”
overtherainbowrocks
www.joelynnturner.com
