|
|
|
Rainbow Brussels 01 Nov 1995
|
|
Rainbow Brussels 01 Nov 1995
The tour bus arrived at 17:00. Doogie shouted "good morning" at us (Johan Van Ryckeghem -who else?- and I).
At 21:00 the concert started. The support act, Milky, was -as usual- nothing: after a few moments everybody returned to the bar. This time I had a much better place than in DÜsseldorf: at the fifth row, in front of the organ, I could see Ritchie very well. After the known intro: "Spotlight Kid" the crowd went mad. But after a few seconds, Ritchie changed guitars (why?) and shook hands with the public (wow, he is in a good mood!) and they continued the song. Doogie announced a song, but Ritchie interrupted him, on which the singer said "so soon?!" and then "because Paul Morris bought a new, ugly jacket: Too Late For Tears" Ritchie played some 'strange' notes. During Long Live R'n'R the not-so-numerous-crowd (4000) went wild. Ritchie started a short duet with Doogie, he even kindly gesticulated at him, when it was his turn to sing. Blackmore was in amazing form. A short "Blues" and then "Black Night". White is an ass in working up the public. Some friends told me he is a bit like Bruce Dickinson. Blackers started playing "Falderie" and stretched it; he was sometimes on his knees. Doogie was improvising around the Brussels-theme, he did that a few times more that evening. "Hunting Humans." Awesome leading part for Ritchie. The bassist reminds me some how of Kiss. On the tune of "Sad Alcoholic" , which was "Greensleeves" in disguise, the Man In Black distributed beers with his stick. (On the way back home, in the car, we listened to a tape of Rockpalast 1977, he even played it then, though without words) We thought he wanted to start Lazy, but only a few (2 or 3) notes of it, and on another occasion 2 notes of "Hava Nagila..." Wolf To The Moon" was followed by "Difficult To Cure" with a better organ solo than in Düsseldorf: it was shorter! "Still I'm Sad". Doogie stood on the speakers, which he did a few more times later on. the drumsolo was astonishing. "Man On The Silver Mountain" started with some improvisation from Ritchie, and a blinder-solo; started again a short duet with Doogie. "Temple
Of The King". One word: jaw-dropping-good! Followed by "Black
Masquerade.
(Vosselaar 28 Jul 96, pic Marc Brans) Doogie started explaining about using horses in a videoclip for the new single. BUT!! Mister Blackmore had to spoil the game! NO Ariel!! A short "Since You Been Gone" followed instead, again he played "Blues". Greg Smith did not know what was happening, which you could easily see on his face. "Perfect Strangers". Ritchie bended his knees to play with his "pedal-machine-stuff" (I am almost as technical as Simon Robinson) and to work up the raving crowd. Suddenly... the first notes of "Ariel"? No, but a sing-a-long: "Rainbow came to Brussels" à la "Waltzing Matilda, again brilliant stretched out by Ritchie, who looked like he was having a ball himself (at least I thought so, and others did so with me). "Hall Of The Mountain King" , after this phenomenal song, Ritchie hurled away, off stage. And yes, happy hour was over, the rest is history: no encores! The shouting for extra songs, by the public was not so heavy, until they found out that there were non to come. I was so disappointed that I forgot to look at what time it was finished. (it lasted only 95 minutes). It was a good concert! Though Master Blackmore had to prove his imago. He played better and with more enthusiasm that the time I've seen him with Deep Purple (only 3 times I'm afraid). So, here is the prove that you have to see more than 1 Blackmore-concert; to be on the save side. And
then: for the first time I had an "after show pass". (Marc
Brans did not get one at first, because he is the chairman of the Belgian
Deep Purple fanclub, and not the Rainbow fanclub!). We were 12 people who had a
pass, and were waiting extra-long. The security led us further and further from
stage. After the time that Marc (who did not get a photo-pass neither) and some
others got bored with it and left; someone from the road crew told us the reason
why Ritchie did not do an encore: "he did not have a good time".
Though most of the people I talked to said it was a good concert, with a good
Blackmore. We then were also told that why no encore? "Ritchie thought it was a bad audience, the front rows were OK, but the rest was just standing there and watching." (like he did not like Jon Lord doing that when he was solo-ing). We asked Paul if we could see Doogie, and with the help of young Natalie (by just being there) he came to see us. I asked him: why was there no Ariel? "Candice wasn't there and this song can't be done without her" (so Ritchie was love-sick?) During the concert Johan took some pictures, but had no film in his camera, and now he had borrowed a film from Marc (who didn't need one, anyway) and now he just forget to take some pictures!! Doogie was very friendly, especially to Natalie, I was doing the translation English-French for her; I must admit I had more eyes for her than for Doogie, and yes , she was prettier! Then the security moved us friendly away. So, no chance to ask Ritchie for one of my dreams (a signed guitar). The concert reviews in the newspaper were unanimous: the concert was very good, Ritchie played very well, but what a bastard he is!
|
|
|
