Glasgow 2017 is heavily featured on MIR2, if I recall correctly
At the time, I was a bit let down by what I thought was a somewhat inferior audio mix compared to MIR. Martin Pullan did both albums
I was a bit disappointed that in the Romera era they never played “Ariel” (co-written by Candice) or other songs from “The Stranger In Us All” and it’s a shame that they never tried “The Gates of Babylon” live.
(Btw. I’m listening right now to Live in Santiago 1996)
1 Like
Yeah, Birmingham was a good show, I think mainly because we could hear all these songs again that we’d been missing. Also, the place was packed and everyone was singing along to every song, so at least for me, you kind of forget how it was performed. Although I remember thinking Ronnie Romero was a really good singer, and even better in 2019.
I saw Loreley, Bietigheim-Bissingen, Glasgow and Berlin - had tickets for Munich but gave them to someone else. If I had to rate them: Loreley was shamefully bad, Bietigheim-Bissingen only plain bad, Glasgow a slight recovery from a long debilitating illness and Berlin a relapse, Glasgow had been an exception.
So yeah, Glasgow, its high points approached barely decent. That’s pretty stellar for Reunionbow’s deep sea submerged standards.
1 Like
Brutal review, there 
I saw the two german gigs in 2016, and London the following year.
The remaining 2017, and 2018 gigs, I spent quite a bit of time on through the various bootleg releases, both audio and video.
The 2019 dates kind of passed me by, for other reasons.
Loreley, although feat. a rough and under rehearsed guitar player / band, had something magical about ut. the historical significance, the spectacular surroundings, the whole vibe on that cliff…it was something truly special.
The next night was pretty much on par imo. some people claimed it was superior to opening night, but imo, Loreley had Ritchie often at least reaching for some of his old self. To my ears, he started playing safe the second night.
And although it souldn’t matter - on opening night, at least he looked like he meant business. By night two, the old farmer’s outfit was back…
Birimingham 2016 is probably the best of the 3. I remember thinking at the time that this would surely be the official release, if there was one. I was of course delighted when it became obvious that Germany was filmed on a large scale, and that I would be a part of the release.
The Birmingham soundboard is a bone dry recording, so it really doesn’t to them justice. Would love to hear it properly mixed…
London 2017 was probably the best gig I saw. The band was tighter, Romero was getting more comfortable in the role, and the set list at least had a few changes from 2016. The multi-cam audience video confirms, at least to me, that it was a good gig. And I’ve never gotten answer as to why it wasn’t represented on MIR2 ?
2018: I think the second Russian show is as good as modern era Rainbow could be. I understand that a third live release didn’t make sense, but I would love to hear a proper recording of that show. The band clearly benefits from x amount of shows behind them…
2019: I’m glad we apparently are getting an official release in the not too distant future, namely the Sweden Rock show. I’ll gladly pay for any pristine concert film with Ritchie on guitar, even though he’s past his prime, and then some.
I’ll say this though; I do have a multi cam audience dvd of the last show in Spain. And the atmosphere seems great, and the band put on a good show. I would rather see them put out this show as an official release, and I don’t know how these things are decided. Could it simply be that Sweden Rock has a more extensive camera set up covering their stage, which will result in a better looking film?
The spanish show has two pro shot clips out there; 3 minutes of Mistreated, and the complete Burn.
And time passing is a funny thing; after the recent Blackmore appearence with Purple, I went back to check out the 2019 clips. Although it’s 7 years already, somehow he seemed 15 years younger.
Anyways; modern era Rainbow has given me A LOT of joy. and it enabled me to see Blackmore play rock guitar again. I’m just grateful it happened.
And keep the archive releases coming, to remind us of what a genius he was, and sometimes still is
2 Likes
I know that Sweden Rock offers to video the performance, for a fee of course. I think many festivals nowadays provide that service, if you’re willing to put up the money.