Don Airey

"The tour opened at The Underworld in Camden with a disappointing turn-out but they made quite a noise. We got over ninety minutes comprising a generous handful of Rainbow sandwiching eight (yes, amazingly, 8) tracks from his solo album - the five songs plus three instrumentals: Pale Blue Dot, Ripples In The Fabric Of Time and Big Crunch - all rounded off with a Purple song and a second encore of classic Brummie rhythm 'n' blues...." see Nigel Young's full review

The venue at Lorsch was a vast improvement on the dark, subterranean Underworld, though once again there was plenty of room to move about with another disappointingly sized but nonetheless enthusiastic crowd. Don mentioned having played the venue with Colosseum II thirty years ago… and that it was nice of them to have him back! He was so impressed by the sound there that he said it might be a good place to record his next album.

 Having missed two shows (Pratteln and Innsbruck), song endings which had been a little loose in London had now been worked out and we gained three more numbers – Andromeda M31 (another excellent instrumental), and the brief Lift Off track (after Rocket To The Moon and making it now ten tracks from the album) plus Ozzy Osbourne's Mr. Crowley – the latter written on the set-list as Mr. Grimsdale. Apart from a small problem with the Moog at the start of Mr. Crowley, it was a much more solid and polished performance than London.

 set-list (104 minutes):  Intro / Spotlight Kid / Bad Girl / A Light In The Sky (Pt 2) / Pale Blue Dot / Andromeda M31 / Shooting Star / Endless Night / Rocket To The Moon / Lift Off / Love You Too Much / Ripples In The Fabric Of Time / Big Crunch / Mr. Crowley / Brandenburg ~ Over The Rainbow / All Night Long / Lost In Hollywood (interpolating Light In The Black). Encore: Since You Been Gone / Black Night / Gimme Some Loving

review and set-list: Nigel Young

"Promotional postcards printed up for the tour by Mascot Records, the record label, had this date down as the night of the Underworld gig in what would have been a run of eight consecutive nights of gigging from Switzerland to Belgium. A similar schedule (fifteen gigs in sixteen days) had been planned when the tour was originally arranged for last September/October before it was cancelled in July. Thankfully, this time someone had realised the madness in the logistics.  

With the London show having opened the tour instead, this gave the band the first of only two nights off during the tour and they went to a jazz club just outside the Altstadt. Just before midnight, Don stepped up unannounced on to the stage to sit in at the piano for fifteen minutes on two numbers of cool jazz.

 The first number featured vibraphone, double bass, drums, saxophone and harmonica and Don got a brief solo before the harmonica player took over. The line-up on the second number featured two saxophones, double bass and drums. Pulling out my mobile to film this, Clive Bunker said, “Youtube! Deep Purple!” Don got about a minute to solo towards the end of the song. None of the other musicians seemed to know who he was.  The day off also allowed time for the electrics on the band's tour bus to be fixed.

Nigel Young

"The Boerderij is a great venue for live rock music, a good-sized hall, a large stage, a number of bars and rooms - but they have that annoying policy that you must buy tokens to buy your drinks with. And yet they will gladly serve your drink in a bottle. Maybe everybody is so laid back that they would never think of throwing a bottle on stage. I hope so.

Actually, most of the audience did seem very laid back. It had been a long, tiring trip from Stuttgart so I was tired but what was the rest of the audience's excuse? There only seemed to be one in three actually applauding and calling for the final encore. Of course, they were all recording the show! The band's performance was probably as good as the night before - Don praised Laurence and Rob in particular - but, for me, there were too many in the audience who didn't give back as good as they got. And somehow it just didn’t seem loud enough.

Big Crunch was once again a highlight of the set. Don: “That was called Big Crunch, it's what's going to happen when the world ends... Well, not that actual piece. I think we'll be long gone by then.” There was a huge black and white poster outside the venue with a line-up including Danny Bowes and Chris Childs from Thunder and Darrin Mooney. " review and set-list: Nigel Young

Set-list (107 minutes): Intro / Spotlight Kid / Bad Girl / A Light In The Sky (Pt 2) / Pale Blue Dot / Andromeda M31 / Shooting Star / Endless Night / Rocket To The Moon / Lift Off / Love You Too Much / Ripples In The Fabric Of Time / Big Crunch / Mr. Crowley / Brandenburg ~ Over The Rainbow / All Night Long / Lost In Hollywood (interpolating Light In The Black). First encore: Since You Been Gone / Biscayne Blues / Black Night. Second encore: Gimme Some Lovin'

"What can I say - a great show in a small intimate club, with an audience of around 200 people. The "A Light in the Sky" material works pretty well live, especially numbers like "Shooting Star", "Love You Too Much" and "Big Crunch" (a jazzy tune filled with juicy soloing from all the guys). It was great to see the legendary Jethro Tull drummer Clive Bunker in such great shape; at some point I was afraid he was going to smash the drums.

Needless to say, the crowd went nuts for "Mr Crowley", "All Night Long", "Since You Been Gone" and "Black Night". By the way, great singing from Mr Carl Sentance - not only a good frontman but, as it turned out afterwards, a very nice and down-to-earth chap, too. After the show the friendly musicians were at hand signing stuff, posing for photos and chatting. A very enjoyable evening! 

Setlist : Spotlight Kid / Bad Girl / A Light in the Sky / Pale Blue Dot / Andromeda M31 / Shooting Star / Endless Night / Rocket to the Moon / Love You Too Much / Ripples in the Fabric of Time / Big Crunch / Mr. Crowley / Brandenburg / All Night Long / Lost in Hollywood. Encores: Since You Been Gone / Parisienne Walkways (introduced as Biscayne Blues) / Black Night / Give Me Some Lovin' .

review & photo : Marcin Zalewski

"Having read some reviews, the thing I worried about most was how many people would show up. I think that there were about 75. Strange to see, such great musicians for so few people. But the band played as if they were playing for a sold out venue. With only two days of rehearsal they played a superb gig. A lot of Rainbow songs, like Spotlight Kid and Since You Been Gone, Black Night from Deep Purple, Mr. Crowley from Ozzie Osbourne, but mostly, of course, songs from Don´s latest album A Light in the Sky.

Drummer Clive Bunker proved tonight that he is still a great drummer. He understood every song and together with bass player Laurence Cottle gave the songs a real groove. Rob Harris on the guitar was able to play every note, from solo´s to rhythm. Carl Sentance sometimes had trouble singing the Graham Bonnet songs. But in Bad Girl and Love You Too Much he was great. The best track of the evening was Ripples in the Fabric of Time, what a composition!

Afterwards Don said that they are very happy playing together and that maybe about recording together, but schedules may destroy that idea. Too bad, because I am very curious about what Rob Harris and Don Airey could come up with together. If you have the chance to see these guys live, take the chance, you won´t be disappointed!!"

Setlist: Spotlight Kid – Bad Girl – A Light in the Sky – Pale Blue Dot – Andromeda 31 – Shooting Star – Endless Night – Rocket to the Moon – Love You Too Much – Ripples in the Fabric of Time – Big Crunch – Mr. Crowley – Brandenburg – All Night Long – Lost in Hollywood – Since You Been Gone – Biscayne Blues – Black Night.

review and photos: Peter Rossen