Customer Reviews

Live in Europe

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While the sound quality of this release is not quite as good as the remastered version of On Stage, the additional content makes this the better buy.

There are only two additional songs, but they may be the highlights of the album: "Stargazer" contains some of the most mesmerizing soloing I've ever heard from Blackmore, and "Do You Close Your Eyes" is performed with such manic intensity its like a completely different song from the studio version--a good thing since I don't particularly care for the studio version.

The other songs are just as good as the versions from On Stage, but different. Comparing the two releases you get a nice feel for the band's ability to improvise. Some tracks I like better on On Stage and some better here, but they're all geat. This Rainbow line up was just awesome live.

I never really got into Rainbow until I heard Ronnie James Dio. I must say that his voice sounds even better on this recording than it does in his Dio days. Plus Ritchie Blackmore is a brilliant guitar player. Live the band is incredible with Dio displaying his huge vocal range and Blackmore soloing into the stratosphere. I highly recommend this album to anyone who likes Dio's voice and awesome guitar playing.

For those who want to get away from the highly polished studio sound and hear what the band can really do, this twenty year old live recording puts the band right into your living room. It should be played extremely loud and one should be prepared for quite a listening experience.

This is my favorite live rock album. Most live albums just give you sonically inferior versions of a band's best songs. While the cheers of the crowd and interactions of the band with the audience add some ambience and excitement, you don't really get anything new. Many of these albums are just live greatest hits albums. In contrast, Rainbow gives you extended versions of their songs (up to 17 minutes long) with long solos that no record company would ever let a band record on a studio album. In the case of Rainbow, I find myself actually preferring the longer live versions over the studio versions.

This album captured the quintessential Rainbow lineup with Blackmore, Dio, Powell, Bain, and Carey in 1976 after the release of their best studio album, Rising. While this particular album is no longer available, it is essentially the same as the out-of-print "Live in Germany '76" album and the 2006 trio of live albums from the same tour: "Live Cologne Sporthalle", "Live Nurnberg Messezentrum", and "Live Dusseldorf Phillipshalle 27.9.76", which are still available although pricy.

I think this album is better than the more easily obtainable and better-selling "On Stage" album from the same year. While I owned "On Stage" on vinyl in the 70s and loved it, I ended up buying this on CD about 10 years ago and never bothered to get "On Stage" on CD. My main reasons for preferring this album over "On Stage" are the additions of long versions of "Stargazer" and "Do You Close Your Eyes". While researching this review, I also learned that the "On Stage" recordings were spliced together from different performances in Germany and Japan and are not played in the order that Rainbow would have played them in an actual concert. Since I don't own any copy of "On Stage" anymore, I can't compare the sound between the albums, but I think "Live in Europe" sounds fine.

This album is a real treat that I never tire of listening to. I especially love the very long versions of "Mistreated" (16:00), "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves" (7:50), "Catch the Rainbow" (14:50), "Stargazer" (17:10), and "Still I'm Sad" (15:00).

This is the same album as the import "Live in Germany 1976."

"On Stage" was put together from more than one show (German as well as Japanese), has overdubs, and has an abbreviated set list. "Live in Europe" has unedited tracks from documented concerts and represents a complete Rainbow concert.

Listeners wanting a complete single concert are welcome to get the individual concerts (now available) from which "Live in Europe" was compiled. Each of these 2CD sets is superior to "On Stage" as well.

I don't care for Martin Birch's production in general, whether it's Black Sabbath, Rainbow, Iron Maiden, or whoever else because he makes everything sound very clean and thin. This is as true of "On Stage" as it is of "Heaven and Hell." The German live CDs are preferable in my opinion from a production standpoint alone.

One caveat: my favorite version of 'Catch the Rainbow' (Blackmore's rewrite of 'Little Wing') is from "On Stage," so that album for me is still well worth having.

Once again, the quality of the music has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with this. This is a matter of finances: this double CD contains the EXACT same song lineup as "Live in Germany '76", only six bucks more expensive!!! Not only that: after having listened to it briefly (but without having the opportunity to examine the CD's booklet for confirmation...), I'm willing to bet that these are THE EXACT SAME SHOWS!!! Like I said, I don't have the definitive proof of this, but unless Ronnie James Dio repeated night after night the EXACT SAME speech, verbatim, word by word, I'm still convinced that the shows from which those 2 releases were culled are the same. Sound quality? I can't really comment on it, I just heard half the record, but I didn't really notice anything too dramatic...and yes, some people have said that "Live in Germany '76" suffers from low sound quality. Again, I don'y agree with that, but...I guess if you're willing to gamble, you might give these CD's a try...but being a MAJOR Rainbow fan myself, I know I wouldn't...Your choice...

This is Ritchie&Co.at work,testing their new band,Rainbow and their first studio album against live audiences in Germany.On stage Rainbow were hard to equal,as this fantastic live document testifies.