Rainbow Whitley Bay Ice Rink 8th September 1983
The next time Rainbow visited the North East it was to play in the cold and cavernous Whitley Bay Ice Rink, which was the venue of choice of bigger bands in the 80s, before Newcastle had an arena. This was now Rainbow MK VIIII (!) and the line-up was Ritchie Blackmore (guitar); Roger Glover (bass); Joe Lynn Turner (vocals); David Rosenthal (keyboards); Chuck Burgi (drums). Support came from ex-Runaway Lita Ford.
Whitley Bay Ice Rink was a pretty awful venue for a rock concert. It held a lot of people but standing on top of an ice rink covered in wooden boards is not the best setting for a gig, and it was always soooo cold. 
However Rainbow’s performance made up for it. Ritchie was on excellent form, controlling his guitar and the band with strange almost magical hand gestures. A bootleg recording exists of the show. It was a long set by Rainbow standards, probably around two hours. Very loud and a storming performance. One of the best times that I saw Rainbow live. I think Ritchie’s strat was smashed into pieces, which he threw into the crowd, if I remember correctly. This was the last time I saw Rainbow. The next time I saw Ritchie it was back in Purple at their massive comeback show at Knebworth.
Setlist: Spotlight Kid; Miss Mistreated; I Surrender; Can’t Happen Here; Catch the Rainbow; Drinking with the Devil; Difficult to Cure; Power; Blues; Stargazer; Stranded; Death Alley Driver; Fire Dance; All Night Long; Maybe Next Time; Since You Been Gone; Encore: Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll
Archive for the ‘Lita Ford’ Category
21 Mar
Rainbow Whitley Bay Ice Rink 8th September 1983
Posted by vintagerock in Lita Ford, Rainbow, Ritchie Blackmore. Tagged: classic rock, concert, concerts, gig, gigs, heavy metal, heavy rock, music, prog rock, rock, rock n roll. Leave a comment
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