Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, Genting Arena, Birmingham - review with pictures
Wow, did that really just happen? Sometimes at a rock show you'll witness something quite unexpected - and seeing Deep Purple and Rainbow guitar legend Ritchie Blackmore utterly fluff his all-time most famous riff definitely falls into that category.
Having kicked into the rock shuffle that is Smoke On The Water, Blackmore suddenly appeared to be playing a completely different song to the rest of the band. A quick adjustment and all was well again, but on an otherwise triumphant night, it was a bit like seeing your star player score an own goal when you're about to chalk up a glorious 5-0 win or an ice skater tumble on the way to Olympic gold.
Wednesday night's gig was almost a year ago to the day that Blackmore plugged in his white Strat again, ending decades in what many fans see as his renaissance folk wilderness, and brought his reincarnated Rainbow to Birmingham.
But it's fair to say that fan reactions 12 months ago were mixed - while many hailed the return of the king, others were left disappointed, especially those who were expecting a feast of Rainbow songs and found they instead had a buffet of that band's hits mixed with picks from the 72-year-old's tenure with Purple.
This time round, hopefully, most people knew what to expect - even if many might want to think of this band as 'Purple Rainbow'.
The Rainbow hits were present and correct of course, from opener Spotlight Kid through to I Surrender and Since You've Been Gone. Singer Ronnie Ramero really shone on the Ronnie James Dio-era songs though, particularly on the outstanding Stargazer and utterly sublime Catch The Rainbow. What a find the Chilean is.
Blackmore himself seemed to ditch his glowering 'man in black' image of old, playfully interacting with the front rows and members of his band. His guitar tone remains unique, full of staccato stabs and fluid runs - often going off piste to improvise on a theme - although he unexpectedly sidestepped the guitar solo to Since You've Been Gone in favour of going straight into the riff for Man On The Silver Mountain.
Elsewhere, he returned to his Deep Purple glory days, powering through the mighty riff to Burn, the slow-burning Mistreated, a lovely acoustic reading of Soldier Of Fortune and an astonishing Child in Time.
During the show the big screen at the back of the stage paid moving homage to dearly departed members of the Deep Purple and Rainbow family - Dio, Cozy Powell and Jon Lord - to huge cheers from the crowd.
But the one nod to the past which wasn't entirely welcome was the insistence on keeping long, momentum-sapping, 70s style keyboard and drum solos in the show - queue a drift to the loos from many.
Earlier, 70s glam heroes Sweet, led by original guitarist Andy Scott, did a superb job in warming up the audience - most of who were on their feet by the end.
"Normally I'm the oldest person here," Scott told the crowd. "But not this time. Thanks Ritchie!"
