Rainbow performed on this day in 1980 at Rudi-Sedlmayer-Halle in Munich, Germany.
Rainbow were at this time on their Down to Earth tour, undertaken to support the album of the same name. This was the final concert the group performed in Germany before reaching the UK, ending the European leg of the tour. They had been performing on the continent for about a month by this point.
Interestingly, this concert brought about a meeting between guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and an old acquaintance of his from his Deep Purple days. This was singer David Coverdale, who apparently attempted to get backstage to say hello. However, according to a report from the time, Blackmore was unhappy to see him, and even knocked him out!
Incidentally, if David Coverdale managed to meet anyone else in the band, this may have been the first meeting between Coverdale and drummer Cozy Powell. Powell would later join Coverdale’s band Whitesnake, succeeding drummer Ian Paice. It may also have been the first meeting between Coverdale and keyboardist Don Airey, who also performed on Whitenake’s legendary self-titled album of 1987. Airey, incidentally, is the only person to be a member of Deep Purple and it’s two major spinoffs, though an honorable mention also has to go to Roger Glover, who managed to produce at least one album per band (and serve as a member of two).
This concert is known to have been recorded, and is in circulation online.
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