Rainbow

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.

With Joe Lynn Turner on board, Rainbow tried one crossover record and one no-frills hard rock record – which meant that Bent out of Shape, their third album with Turner, provided a fine opportunity to get a little arty. Not that the band has turned into Genesis or even returned to the mystical pretensions of its early work; they have merely broadened their horizons…

Allegedly planned for an official release back in 1974 or 1975 but scrapped by the creation of A Night at the Opera, Live at the Rainbow '74 fills in part of Queen's history: it is the first official live album to capture the band at their pre-Night at the Opera fury. The brief 1989 release, At the Beeb, touched upon the same territory, capturing their two sessions from 1973, but this is something else, a full concert – and in the case of the double-CD, quadruple vinyl, two full concerts – that showcases the band's rapidly increasing range, not to mention their brute force…

Long Live Rock 'n' Roll may be singer Ronnie James Dio's last album with Rainbow, but at least he went out on a high note. While the material is not quite as strong as on the previous studio effort, Rising, Long Live Rock 'n' Roll maintains the momentum the band had built up. "Kill the King" had been previously heard on the live On Stage record, but here it sounds more fully realized…

Opening with the gothic majesty of 'Tarot Woman' the difference in playing from the debut is immediately obvious,Powell's thundering drums propel the track with Bains bass underpinning everything,while Carey's keyboards enhance and compliment Blackmore's superb guitar playing while Ronnie's vocals are the icing on the cake,simply put its a brilliant track and would have been the albums highpoint if it wasnt for another track to come…

The departure of Ronnie James Dio gave Ritchie Blackmore a chance to reinvent Rainbow, which he does to a certain extent on Down to Earth. Adding former Deep Purple colleague Roger Glover as bassist and Graham Bonnet as vocalist, Blackmore tones down some of the excess of the Dio years, particularly in terms of fantastical lyrics, and turns to straight-ahead hard rock, only occasionally adorned by prominent synthesizers…

Originally issued in November of 1981 as a double LP compilation, the sixteen-song The Best of Rainbow features several of the greatest songs from the first five studio albums recorded by moody Ritchie Blackmore and his ever-changing supporting cast in Rainbow. The anthology peaked at number 14 in the U.K., and The Best of Rainbow was subsequently reissued in 1993 as a twin CD set.

Perhaps the first example of "dragon rock" – a style perfected by bands like Iron Maiden and Dio in the early to mid-'80s – was Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, a rather pretentious 1975 collection from the guitarist's first post-Deep Purple project…