Rainbow Rainbow Full Speed Ahead Blackmore And Company Find That Pot Of Gold Ritchie Blackmore sat quietly aboard one of the countless commuter flights that run between Washington. D.C. and New York. Dressed head-to-toe in black, with a pair of snakeskin boots high-lighting his outfit, Rainbow's guitar maestro contrasted sharply with the hordes of business-suited executives who filled the plane's seats. Blackmore was oblivious to their stares, however, as he had his huge "ghetto blaster" turned up high, and a pair of headphones on. "I never tell people what I'm listening to," he said with an impish smile a short time later. "Sometimes it can be Bach, another time maybe it's a cello concerto. I never listen to rock — especially anything I've played on." Over his 15-year reign as one of rock's premier guitarists, Blackmore has garnered a reputation as one difficult, unsavory character. Despite his image as a demanding and often moody performer, a contention supported by countless backstage punch-outs and a worldwide swath of shattered Stratocasters, as Rainbow's success has grown over the years, the man in black admits to having mellowed out a bit. "I've come to realize that playing music people can enjoy isn't a sin," he explained. "When I first left Deep Purple and started Rainbow in 1974, 1 was committed to making music I viewed as challenging. Regrettably, that style didn't sell too many records. Over the last few albums, we've added more commercial elements to our music and become much more successful. That was true on Straight Between The Eyes and it's true on the new one as well. On the group's latest album, Bent Out Of Shape, Blackmore's incredible guitar stylings have found a way of balancing the more pop-oriented leanings of vocalist Joe Lynn Turner. On such tunes as Fire Dance. Street of Dreams and Drinking With The Devil. Ritchie's agressive, no-hold-barred riffs manage to both offset and enhance Turner's more melodic, though no less exciting, efforts. As the band's producer and bassist Roger Glover explained. Joe's emergence as one of the band's principle songwriters has helped give Rainbow an even more accessible sound. "Joe worked with Ritchie on almost all of the songs," Glover said. "In the past I had done quite a bit of the writing, but Joe's a great songwriter, and since he's the singer, it makes it easier for him to write the words as well. The new album has a great mix of traditional Rainbow hard rockers and of more commercial things. Some of the band's long-time fans have gotten a bit upset about our more accessible sound, but I always remember what Jimi Hendrix once said. 'There's nothing wrong with walking into a bar and hearing your song on the jukebox.' That's the philosophy that we've adopted, even though we're rocking as hard as ever." Recorded In Sweet Silence Studios in Denmark, Bent Out Of Shape was originally going to be called Don't Fuck Around With Love, according to a bemused Glover. "The record company wasn't too thrilled with that idea," he added. "They wanted something a little more conventional. That's when we came up with Bent Out Of Shape, which is a term Ritchie heard one of the roadies use one day. I was a little worried about it," he laughed. "I thought it might have too much of a gay connotation. "We approached this album in a slightly different way than the last few," Roger continued. "Before going over to the studio, we all went up to Vermont and took a skiing chalet for a couple of weeks. We set up all of the gear in the living room and just rehearsed material over and over again. It proved to be an incredible prolific time for us, and for the first time in our history we actually had an overabundance of material. Usually we have to scrape the bottom of the barrel just to complete an album. Now we have enough tracks left over to put new songs on the B side of singles. It's a great feeling to have some extra material left in the can." One of the principle reason for Rainbow's increased output has been the growth of Turner into the strong counter force to Blackmore's domineering presence. With his amazingly flexible voice, and his talent for writing instantly memorable pop ditties, Turner has brought a new dimension to Rainbow's sound. "I feel very comfortable in the band now, Joe explained. "When I first joined the group, I was obviously a bit apprehensive. The previous two singers had both departed from the group under less-than-friendly circumstances, and I was the new kid on the block. I had heard about Ritchie's attitude, and I didn't know exactly what to expect, but I found out very quickly that his bark is a lot worse than his bite. He's very demanding — but he's no more demanding on us than he is on himself. I've gradually asserted myself more as a songwriter, and on this album I've really hit my stride." As Turner indicated, Blackmore's fiery personality has kept Rainbow in a virtually constant state of flux, with 16 different musicians appearing in the band's lineup over the last eight years. In fact, no two Rainbow albums have been recorded using the same personnel, and that unusual tradition continues on Bent Out Of Shape, where drummer Bobby Rondinelli has been replaced by Chuck Burgi. "Bobby left the group a few months ago," Glover confirmed. "He worked with Scorpions for a while. Whether he'll stay in that band or not, I'm not sure. He's a great guy, and we're still close friends, but we're very pleased with the work Chuck has done with us. He's not a traditional drummer - in fact, he's worked with Hall and Oates — but he can really be powerful when he wants to be. As the bassist I work very closely with the drummer, and I've been able to develop a rapport with Chuck in a hurry. "It is ratter strange about how many personnel changes we've made," Roger added. "When I first joined the band a few years back I told Ritchie that one of the first things I wanted to do was stop the ridiculous number of changes. I wanted to give the group a degree of stability. Rainbow will never lose its identity as long as Ritchie's there, but it's still important to keep the same musicians together. We should be able to do that now." Blackmore, however, isn't so sure about wanting to maintain the same roster of musicians. While he admitted to being "quite content" with Rainbow's current lineup, he quickly added that "there's nothing wrong with the change. It brings new blood into the group and keeps everybody awake. I can be difficult to work with, and I understand those who choose not to deal with me after a while. That will always be their choice." Now that their latest album has begun its rise up the charts, the band has commenced what Glover called "the biggest tour we've ever done." The group has recently completed a 20-date tour of England, and they will begin their U.S. tour in late October. Rainbow is also planning extensive stops in Australia, Japan and maybe even South America. "We're going to places we've never been before," Glover explained. "We'd love to play China if we could get permission. Once that market opens up, it'll be incredible. Right now, though, we're quite content with playing the rest of the world. We hadn't played England in two years, and since we sold out every gig, that was a lot of fun. Now we're heading out to the West Coast of the U.S. to begin this leg of the tour. It's amazing," Glover concluded. "Rainbow has become as big as Deep Purple ever was. In fact, now when we ask promoters if they'd ever like to see a Deep Purple reunion, they say, 'No thanks. We're quite satisfied with Rainbow.'" © Andy Secher, Hit Parader Magazine - December 1983