Ritchie Blackmore at the NEC 2016

[garthrockett]

https://classicrock.teamrock.com/news/2015-11-02/ritchie-blackmore-announces-birmingham-show

Tickets on sale 10am Friday......not a chance of getting any I suspect.

The band members are announced Wednesday but I'm sworn to secrecy......

[garthrockett]

So here we are, after 12 months of hype and speculation. There’s been some wide ranging views on the whole enterprise – who ought to be singing, what songs, is it Rainbow, etc. The week since the two German dates has seen widely differing views culminating in some quite damning social media criticism of the gigs, band members, song presentation, even about Ritchie’s waistline!! So what of Birmingham?

As ‘Pomp and Circumstance’ belts out it’s particularly poignant this week in the UK and it’s hard not to get caught up in the energy and audience expectation. The appearance on stage of the band is rather low-key by comparison, though Blackers gets a huge roar before he riffs straight into ‘Highway Star’. It’s a new arrangement I feel doesn’t work too well, but at least they are trying something different. ‘Spotlight Kid’ follows, and by ‘Mistreated’ the crowd -and band- have settled down. Coverdale is consigned to the history books here, as Ronnie Romero comes to the fore, completely nailing the vocals, although the vocal mix drops out near the end. Ritchie gives a succinct and tasteful take, not up to 1976 but good enough to keep things moving dynamically.

Ronnie’s vocal delivery is different to previous Blackmore front men; the raspy powerful delivery gave the songs a fresh sheen and a whole different dynamic. He’s a quiet prowler stage-wise, with little patter, but who cares when he can sing like that? His take on the Dio era material was consummate, Mark III Purple near perfect, the Purple/Gillan stuff a tad less convincing but full marks for ‘Child in Time’ , done properly for one last time. (For those not there just imagine 16,000 people singing the ‘oooo-ooo-ooo’ chorus !!) While 'sublime' is the only word for the epic "Stargazer".

As for Ritchie’s performance, the guy’s 71; cut him some slack. Blackmore doesn’t owe us anything. Yes, there were a few mistakes, the runs aren’t as fast as 1971, and the song tempos have slowed thankfully (memories of the 1983 tour still give me nightmares!!) but the songs are given reverence and the solos are contemporary, his mindless fast flash of the mid 1980s era consigned forever in favour of taste and preciseness born from 20 years playing acoustic with Blackmore’s Night. There were enough of those neo-classical runs and licks to satisfy me at least.

Few would care what rhythm section Ritchie employs but the guys have done a decent job over the three concerts. While Bob Neauvo might be a bit busy bass-wise drummer David Keith proved size isn’t everything (!) and drove the shows along well enough with a retro 1970s groove and spot-on time keeping.

The whole thrust of the concert is always centred on the vocal and guitar interplay, my only concern was its a little too polite in places, but in others it meshes powerfully together and the vocals and guitar soar off together brilliantly. Jens Johansson lent the necessary colour and flourishes in all the right places, although the mix didn’t help at times. We’ll draw a veil over the keys solo, which was a mess.

Overall, the band collectively had enough flashes of excellence to make one a tad wistful that the whole undertaking isn’t lasting past three live dates as the band, given a bit more time and effort, would surely assume more polish, personality and permanence in equal measure.

Highway Star/ Spotlight Kid/Mistreated /Since You Been Gone/Man On The Silver Mountain/Soldier Of Fortune/ Difficult To Cure/Catch The Rainbow/ Perfect Strangers /Long Live Rock 'N' Roll/Child In Time/ Stargazer/Black Night/Burn/Smoke On The Water.

[SHROPSHIRE RED]

I agree , Ritchie slower than he used to be. Stargazer was superb.