On This Day (April 12)…Difficult to Cure Nashville

Rainbow performed on this day in 1981 at the Municipal Auditorium Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.

Announcement of the show featuring a photo of the band. From left to right: Ritchie Blackmore, Joe Lynn Turner, Roger Glover, and Don Airey. Retrieved from here.

Rainbow were by this point well into their Difficult To Cure Tour, which had begun in February with a set of club dates. Now, they were traveling with Pat Travers, a Canadian guitarist also touring to support a recent album. They had made a large circle around the continent already, starting in Calgary and slowly working their way first southwest, then east. They were joined by multiple support acts throughout the tour; at this concert, the support act was Krokus.

Ticket for the show. Retrieved from here.

The band were at this time performing a large array of older songs stretching back to the Ronnie Dio era of the band, songs from the time Graham Bonnet led the band, and songs from the recently-released Difficult to Cure. Since setlist.fm’s entry for this concert is empty, however, any deviation from the normal tour list that might’ve occurred is lost to time.

There is no known recording of this concert.

The Venue

The group performed at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium. The building first began construction in 1957 and was opened five years later on October 7, 1962. It can be set up to a capacity of up to 9,654 seats.

File:NashvilleMunicipalAuditorium.jpg
Exterior of the venue in 2008. Photo by Gary Layda. Retrieved from here.

While the venue is most often known as a concert venue, it has also held major sports championships, including the 1994 US Gymnastics championships, and political events. Since 2013, the space has also housed the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum after its previous site was demolished. Its site can be viewed here.

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Venue Sources

  • Edit on 2022-04-12: Optimized for new site.

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