Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow Play Deep Purple's "Burn" and "Soldier of Fortune"

News
By
published

(Image credit: Steve Thorne/Getty Images)

Ritchie Blackmore and his newly revived Rainbow lineup played the last of three scheduled gigs on June 25, with a show at Genting Arena in Birmingham, England.

For the show, the group added a pair of two Deep Purple classics: “Burn,” from Deep Purple’s 1974 album of the same name, and “Soldier of Fortune,” from 1974’s Stormbringer. The two albums were Blackmore’s last with Deep Purple before he left the group. He reunited with the band in 1984.

Rainbow’s June 25 set also included Deep Purple cuts like “Mistreated,” “Highway Star” and “Smoke on the Water,” plus the Rainbow songs “Spotlight Kid” and “Since You Been Gone.”

Blackmore has said he’s open to the possibility of touring again with Rainbow in 2017.

Christopher Scapelliti
Christopher Scapelliti

Christopher Scapelliti is editor-in-chief of Guitar Player magazine, the world’s longest-running guitar magazine, founded in 1967. In his extensive career, he has authored in-depth interviews with such guitarists as Pete Townshend, Slash, Billy Corgan, Jack White, Elvis Costello and Todd Rundgren, and audio professionals including Beatles engineers Geoff Emerick and Ken Scott. He is the co-author of Guitar Aficionado: The Collections: The Most Famous, Rare, and Valuable Guitars in the World, a founding editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine, and a former editor with Guitar World, Guitar for the Practicing Musician and Maximum Guitar. Apart from guitars, he maintains a collection of more than 30 vintage analog synthesizers.