LIVE IN MUNICH 1977 (DVD)

In the Seventies we Dutchmen were very lucky to receive the German television as their neighbours because of the football (Schalke 04 is my favorite team) and especially the music programms Beatclub and Rockpalast. In 1977 the WDR broadcasted a Rockpalast concert in Munich with Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow featuring Ronnie James Dio on vocals and the late Cozy Powell on drums, what an awesome line-up! I was so excited about this concert that I decided to witness the Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow tour the next time, one or two years later with Don Airey on keyboards, I was blown away!

This DVD contains that 1977 Rockpalast concert in Munich and it captures the mindblowing spirit of Rainbow in those days: the powerful voice and enthousiastic performance by Ronnie James Dio (the ultimate hardrock singer), the great and varied guitarwork by the former Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, the powerhouse rhythm-section and the exciting extra dimension to Rianbow their sound by David Stone on his wide range of vintage keyboards, the sensational huge illuminated rainbow on stage and the excellent filming of the band and the members, very tasteful and captivating. We can watch a lot of exciting shots on Ritchie Blackmore playing on his Fender Stratocaster, often near his huge Marshall amplifier, sometimes with soft blue light, at other moments in a sea of coloured lights. My highlights on this DVD are: great vocals and a long and compelling solo with subtle use of the tremolo-arm in the bluesy Mistreated, fragile Bach-inspired guitarplay during the intro of Sixteenth Century Greenslaves, a bluesy guitar solo in the final part of Man On The Silver Mountain (close to the early Deep Purple sound), a sensational drumsolo by Cozy Powell, in the closing section accompanied by bombastic classical orchestrations in Still I'm Sad and a biting guitarsolo in the final concert track Do You Close Your Eyes. But I am really carried away by keyboardd player David Stone his performance during Still I'm Sad: the intro delivers stunning work on Hammond (church organ sound) and Mellotron (majestic choir-section), halfway this composition he got a solo spot in which he plays sensational pitchbend-driven flights on two Minimoogs, it sounds like 'Seventies' Rick Wakeman meets 'Pulstar' Vangelis, goose bumps! The bonustracks are 3 video clips from the Long Live Rock And Roll album, interviews with Colin Hart (manager) and Bob Daisley (new bass player) and a photo gallery.

This DVD is close to the heavy prog magic of Seventies Deep Purple and Uriah Heep, not that progressive but what a power and skills, a Seventies rock document!