Thursday 13 February 2014

Rainbow Singles Boxed Set 1975-1986


It seems odd when you think that it is almost forty years since Ritchie Blackmore first left Deep Purple to lead his own band "Rainbow". Many thought that it was a foolish move at worse and that he would soon return to the deep Purple fold. Well of course we all know that he did eventually return to the deep Purple fold and reform the Mark II version of the band alongside Ian Gillan Jon Lord Ian Paice and bassist Roger Glover who had latterly been a member of Rainbow

Rainbow were seen as a serious band, so serious that Blackmore regularly changed the line up looking for that special something meaning that on these singles there are at least 15 musicians passing through the ranks.
All of these singles it might be said are absolutely top notch although at the start of their career singles were not considered as important as albums. What this boxed set proves is however as time moved on Rainbow became quite a regular name in the singles charts becoming more commercial as time went on

The great thing about these boxed sets is that as well as gathering together all the singles in brand new re mastered format in picture sleeves they also throw up the extra tracks that were added to things like 12" singles so you get some great latter day tracks such as the sound check performances of things like Power and All Night Long which were recorded during the last Rainbow UK tour  to promote the album Bent Out Of Shape. These tracks of course appeared on the 12" singles of tracks like Street Of Dreams and Can't let You Go although other tracks not originally on albums such as Weiss Heim and Jealous Lover are also welcome additions for those who do not have the deluxe editions of the rainbow albums

It is all too easy to say that boxed sets like this are overkill and overpriced but in reality there is a definite market for sets like this both for the hard core fan and the collector alike and Universal have done such a great job not only on the re mastering but also the packaging and the price is also pretty reasonable when you consider what you actually get.and that is before we even consider the music which is as you can imagine coming from Ritchie Blackmore generally excellent throughout and that is exactly as it should be

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