Rainbow Band

Difficult to Cure is the fifth studio album by the British hard rock band, Rainbow, released in 1981. The album marked the further commercialization of the band's sound, with Ritchie Blackmore once describing at the time his appreciation of the band Foreigner. The album material was started with singer Graham Bonnet still in the band, getting as far as recording an early version of "I Surrender", before Bonnet left the band due to his dissatisfaction over the material. American singer Joe Lynn Turner, formerly of Fandango was recruited and sang over already completed musical tracks. Turner stated that, because of this, he was singing in higher keys than he would do normally (and would do subsequently). "I Surrender" would be the band's highest charting single in the UK, reaching No. 3. A remastered CD reissue was released in May 1999, with packaging duplicating the original vinyl release.

Straight Between the Eyes undoubtedly has one of the worst album covers in rock history, but the record is an unexpected return to form from the journeyman hard rockers. Just a record before, Rainbow sounded as if they were verging on Billy Squier territory, but here, they reverse course and deliver a solid, no-frills hard rock record. It isn't just that the material is stronger, though it certainly is, it's that Roger Glover abandoned his smoothed-out, radio-ready production that marred Difficult to Cure. That's not to say that Straight Between the Eyes doesn't sound dated – Rainbow was a band that was forever tied to its era – but the album does have a harder-hitting, muscular sound that is more appropriate for the band.

Sonny Sharrock Band - Seize The Rainbow (1987) {Enemy Records 88561-8205-2 rel 1992}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 306 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 105 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 7 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1987, 1992 Enemy Records | 88561-8205-2
Jazz / Rock / Avant-Garde Jazz / Instrumental Rock / Experimental Rock / Guitar

The follow-up to Sonny Sharrock's entirely solo comeback album, Guitar, Seize the Rainbow puts the guitarist at the helm of a rock-styled power trio featuring bassist Melvin Gibbs and Abe Speller and Pheeroan akLaff on drums (producer Bill Laswell also plays bass on one cut). The overall sound of the album is surprisingly straightforward, heavy metal-tinged jazz-rock, though the caliber and taste of the musicians makes it something far more than what rock guitar virtuosos of the period were recording. Still, there isn't too much way-out craziness, aside from some of Sharrock's trademark slide-guitar explorations on the spiritual title track and the riff-driven rockers "Dick Dogs" and "Sheraserhead's Hightop Sneakers."

Live in Germany 1976 is a live album released by Rainbow in 1990. The tracks are cherry-picked from a series of German dates (Cologne on 25-9-76, Düsseldorf 27-9-76 Nuremberg 28-9-76 and Munich 29-9-76) recorded on the world tour in 1976. It was re-released two years later in the USA as Live in Europe on a different label. The content is the same for both although sleeve notes differ.

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (sometimes stylised Ritchie Blackmore's R-A-I-N-B-O-W) is the first album by British rock guitarist Ritchie Blackmore's solo band Rainbow, released in 1975.

On their second effort, Fly to the Rainbow, the Scorpions begin to establish their trademark hard-rock sound while exorcising the last of their remaining psychedelic hippie tendencies. In fact, the band bursts out of the gate in surprisingly straightforward fashion with the hard rocking "Speedy's Coming" before resorting to the aforementioned bad habits on otherwise promising tracks such as…

On their second effort, Fly to the Rainbow, the Scorpions begin to establish their trademark hard-rock sound while exorcising the last of their remaining psychedelic hippie tendencies…

Man - Live At The 'Rainbow' 1972 (1998) {Eagle Records EDL EAG 124-2 rel 1998}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 341 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 145 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 10 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1972, 1998 Point / Eagle Records | EDL EAG 124-2
Rock / Prog-Rock / Psychedelic / Pub Rock / Hard Rock

Man were arguably at their peak in 1972, with guitars and solos still locked firmly on stun, and their improvisational powers so taut that it was impossible to predict what might happen next when they played. Certainly the U.K. tour that culminated at the London Rainbow remains one of the most fondly remembered of all the band's excursions, and though the sound quality is just a shade on the murky side, this four-songs-and-a-fiddly-bit souvenir captures all the magnificence of that crowning night.

Ritchie Blackmore decided to pull the plug on Rainbow following the supporting tour for 1983's Bent Out of Shape. To commemorate the end of the band, he released the appropriately-titled, Finyl Vinyl. A double-record set of live recordings and a handful of studio outtakes, primarily culled from the Joe Lynn Turner era but also featuring selections with Ronnie James Dio and Graham Bonnet, Finyl Vinyl offers a haphazard alternate history designed for hardcore fans (by 1986, that's pretty much all Blackmore had left).