Purple Haze (Tarantura TCDNIJIFUNE-5-1,2)
Kohseinenkin-Kaikan, Dai-Hall Osaka Japan – Thursday December 9, 1976
Disc 1(62:41) Moniter Check, Opening, Over The Rainbow, Start, Kill The King, Mistreated, MC, Greensleeves, MC, 16th Century Greensleeves, MC, Prelude In C Major, Catch The Rainbow, MC, Purple Haze, White Christmas, Man On The Silver Mountain, Lazy, Man On The Silver Mountain, Blues, Man On The Silver Mountain, Starstruck, Man On The Silver Mountain
Disc 2(42:48) Forty Miles Of Bad Road, Tequila, Medley, Keyboard Solo, Stargazer, Still I’m Sad, Keyboard Solo, Drum Solo, 1812 Overture, Still I’m Sad, Over The Rainbow, Announcements
Another day another killer Mr Peach recording from Rainbow’s Japanese tour of 1976. The recording is in fact superb, well balanced with all instruments well captured and clear, although the audience is very into the performance it does not interfere with the recording only adding the final element of atmosphere. Mr. Peach managed to capture so many great sounding recordings and this one is no different and is among the best of the tour. The same setlist is played as is with all the dates on the tour but this to me is a special night indeed. After the Over The Rainbow intro the band crashes into Kill The King, Ronnie sounds a little behind the group but quickly catches up and they deliver yet again an aggressive version of the song.
Again a wonderful mistreated is next Blackmore plays some beautiful finger picking chords in his solo section that is accented by the clapping of the audience who follow the band at every turn. , with almost Jimmy Bain’s backing vocals providing a lush sound the powerful voice of RJD who at the end of the track exchanges “notes” with Ritchie just before the final coda of the song. “We would like to do something for special friend who is no longer with us, the other time we did Mistreated for him because he was mistreated. This time a song the two of us wrote quite a while back it starred on the first LP Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow.
For Tommy Bolin a song called 16th Century Greensleeves ! For Tommy…”.(Note: Tommy Bolin had died just a few days before on December 4th) This intro is not listed on the jacket and when I first heard it I had chills down my spine, there where rumors the Blackmore had actually suggested Bolin would make a good successor for him in Deep Purple, regardless the band plays a fitting tribute. A great version of Catch The Rainbow follows, I say it every review but it is so powerful, gentle one moment and a thunderstorm the next. The slow into is beautiful captured in this recording, you can clearly hear every performers playing and to me Tony Careys keyboards sound very good. Jimmy Bain introduces Cozy, Ritchie, and Tony and introduces the next song and the band rips through a snippet of Purple Haze and a hoedown version of White Christmas before ripping into Lazy, played at breakneck speed it elicits applause from the audience that does not falter after they go right into Man On The Silver Mountain.
The blues section of the song gives the band a chance to stretch out, it is nice to hear Blackmore play a straight blues style. The second disc picks up with a Duane Eddy song, really just a few chords and as the band plays a quick snippet of Tequila the crowd claps in double time, Ronnie is in actual dialogue with the audience as someone yells “what song are we gonna do Ronnie?’ something about blackbird. Ronnie ends the conversation with introducing Tony Carey’s solo. Again the keyboards can be clearly heard during Stargazer giving the song a different feel from the guitar heavy song, at times sounding like the howling wind that surrounds the wizard as he hovers above the mortals who dare ask him what next. while Careys keyboards give an ethereal feeling Cozy Powell’s drumming provides the aggressive thundering doom that is the back bone of the song. an epic in 11 minutes.
The band wastes no time and launch into Still I’m Sad, the crowd following at every turn as they clap in time, again Tony can be heard clearly with some great playing using what sounds like Hammond B3 giving the song its somber tone. The crowd cheers loudly after Cozy’s drum solo and 1812 piece and follow the band as the crash into the Still I’m Sad finale. Ronnie gives a “arigato” salute to the audience as the closing strains of Dorothy Gale singing Over the Rainbow, the crowd claps in time and cheer till the end. Again Rainbow delivers as does Tarantura who give us another great Mr Peach recording beautifully housed in a gatefold sleeve.
Full band pictures that are shot from what I am guessing is the balcony adorn the front and back covers while inside are pictures Of Ronnie and Ritchie along with the master cassettes, the CD’s have pictures on them and are housed in white paper sleeves.
2 Comments
Thanks for the review. I concur – another beautiful Mr Peach recording. Sometimes, for me, the crowd is a little too ‘clappy’ when played through headphones, but that’s about the only fault I could hear. One I’ll have to track down.
Thanks for the predictably great review. For me, this release ranks amongst the greatest of Tarantura’s Rainbow recordings by Mr. Peach, with Ave Maria; Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring; and Close Encounters of the Third Kind being other standouts. Osaka is particularly impressive in how fully the bass and keyboards were recorded, and without a hint of distortion. I first heard this during the rhythm pattern coming out of Blackmore’s solo in “Kill the King”, which in some other recordings was apparently a bit too powerful. Here it is smooth, driving and very heavy. The same can be said about the instruments during Blackmore’s extended solo in “Stargazer”. The pictures used on both sides of the jacket add to the feeling, providing a possible glimpse at what a lucky concertgoer may have seen during this concert. As correctly stated by relayer67, this is another killer Mr. Peach recording and Tarantura release.