Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice spoke to former if Rainbow, MSG, Alcatrazz singer Graham Bonnet in Montreal Quebec Canada on the Michael Schenker Fest Tour on March 12 2018.
Graham Bonnet spoke about his Audition with Black Sabbath in the 1980’s, his upcoming US tour with the Graham Bonnet band playing ‘No Parole From Rock and Roll’ in it’s entirety and news, timeline and details on upcoming Album by the band
Watch the interview here:
When asked about the details and timeline of the follow-up Album to the Graham Bonnet Band’s The Book
“I finished my part on the new album everything is finished vocally. Now when I go back, we go in the mixing stage but at the moment Beth-Ami Heavenstone is putting down the bass parts. We got the bass to put down a little bit of keyboards. It sounds pretty good I am very pleased. If anybody liked the previous album the Book , they are going to like this too, it has got the same kind of material, same kind of sound and it’s got a little of that Alcatrazz, MSG, Rainbow sound. It will be released in a few of months I think, it will be out this year.”
When asked about the Graham Bonnet Band playing the complete Alcatrazz ‘No Parole from Rock and Roll Album’ in it’s entirety for the 35 year anniversary on their upcoming US tour
“It will be all the material that I made up 35 years ago, we will play all the Alcatrazz tracks off that album along with the Graham Bonnet Band songs. There is a new audience for Alcatrazz it seems like a younger audience, I wish they had been turned on to it back then when we needed a bit more publicity back then. It’s amazing to see kids of 18 years old coming up to me and singing the lyrics.”
When asked about how he turned down an audition to sing for Black Sabbath in the 1980’s
” I can’t actually remember the actual year it was 1980 something. I had a call from one of the guys from Black Sabbath I can’t remember who asked me if i was interested in auditioning cause I just left Rainbow and it was something I wasn’t really sure of. I wasn’t sure of the music, I wasn’t sure if I really fit with my short hair. I wanted to do something different on my own not to be in another band as another singer in a revolving door, so I turned it down.”
USA – GRAHAM BONNET BAND PERFORMS ‘ALCATRAZZ – NO PAROLE FROM ROCK N ROLL’ TOUR
SEPTEMBER
28TH VIPER ROOM – WEST HOLLYWOOD , CA
29TH MALONES – SANTA ANA , CA
OCTOBER
3RD EL CORAZON – SEATTLE, WA
5TH DIVE BAR – LAS VEGAS, NV
6TH BRICK BY BRICK – SAN DIEGO , CA
7TH THE HUB – COLTON , CA
OCT 11 THE CABOOZE – MINNEAPOLIS , MN
OCT 12 BIGS BAR – SIOUX FALLS , SD
OCT 13 THE RED HERRING LOUNGE – DULUTH , MN
OCT 14 RED CARPET – ST CLOUD , MN
Jimmy Kay from The Metal Voice recently interviewed Michael Schenker singer Doogie White (Yngwie Malmsteen, Tank, Rainbow). Doogie spoke about the new album by Michael Schenker Fest, Resurrection, his audition with Iron Maiden in 1993 and his time in Rainbow and Yngwie Malmsteen.
Watch the interview here:
When asked about his time in Yngwie Malmsteen and the songs he enjoyed recording
“With Yngwie it was different cause I had no heart and soul really in it, it was more about the performances live because Yngwie wrote everything. He gave me all the lines and everything to do. I liked ‘Razor Eater’, I like ‘Rise up’ very much cause it had the energy live.”
When asked about the concept of the Michael Schenker Fest on record and on tour
“It was an exciting album to do it’s an exciting concept I think it was very brave of Michael Schenker to put something like this together and to be invited to enter the party . There is lots of friendly competition between the singers although they won’t admit it. Everybody has raised the game, everybody is at the top of their game and it’s a great live rock and roll show and that makes it exciting for the audience. Some people have the new album cause it only came out the day we started so it’s gradually picking up momentum.”
When asked about his 1993 Audition with Iron Maiden to replace Bruce Dickinson
“I had sent a tape in to Iron Maiden. Dickie Dell who was the production manager was at my door and he said what are you doing, I said I am going to Scotland, he said no you are not you have an audition with Iron Maiden Monday. So Dickie Bell gave me a cassette and a letter with the lyrics I think it had about 18 songs on it, mostly from the albums ‘A Real Live One’ and ‘A Real Dead One’. Dickie picked me up and dropped me off at Steve Harris’ place. ”
“The band was set up in a circle with Nicko Mcbrain in back of me and we ran through the songs and had a cup of tea and I had a chat with Steve and I went away and that was it. We played tracks like , Be quick or Be dead, From here to Eternity, The Evil that men do and then the classics like Run to the Hills. Steve had a definite idea on where he wanted to take the band, Steve called me up a couple of weeks later and said we are giving the job to Blaze. Blaze is great he is the hardest working man in Rock and Roll and he always delivers. Steve wanted something different for the band. the easy route for Steve would have been to go get a clone from a tribute band but Steve didn’t he took a brave step and they did two great albums. but really normal services have been resumed. Even if i got the gig it would have ended up the same.”
Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to legendary OZZY OSBOURNE, BLACK SABBATH, RAINBOW, GARY MOORE and URIAH HEEP bassist and songwriter BOB DAISLEY.
In the interview Bob Daisley spoke about his time in Rainbow with Ronnie James Dio and goes in depth in regards to the writing and recording sessions on the classic Ozzy Osbourne albums, Blizzard of Ozz, Diary of a Madman, Bark at the Moon, The Ultimate Sin and No Rest for the Wicked. As well Daisley talks about the court challenges he and drummer Lee Kerslake pursued over the years against Don Arden of Jet Records over unpaid royalties.
Watch the interview here:
When asked about his dismissal from Rainbow during the Ronnie James Dio years (5:29)
“In 1978 Ritchie Blackmore decided that he wanted to go a little more commercial he wanted to have hit records, chart success, so he got a new line up. Ritchie did have the chart success that he wanted with his new singer Graham Bonnet but I think it was at the expense of a certain amount of respect because Rainbow became sort of poppy and commercial. You can’t knock the success but I don’t think it was the best versions of Rainbow. The classic lineup what other people say is the lineup with Ronnie James Dio, Blackmore, Cozy Powell and David Stone and myself.”
On his first rehearsal with Ozzy (9:47)
“I took the train to Stafford England, I got to Ozzy’s house and he had a couple of other guys there a drummer and a guitarist and I don’t know who they were, nice blokes but I wasn’t sort of knocked out by them, no real spark there, it was just ok no real chemistry. So I went to the kitchen with Ozzy and I said look if you want to be serious about this I would like to form a band with you but I don’t think these two other guys are world class players. Ozzy said ok one minute, Ozzy walked back into the rehearsal room and he told those two, pack up fellas it’s not going to work out and they were gone, on the spot.”
When asked about his original contract stipulations with Jet Records and how he was fired from Ozzy’s band (13:41)
“An average deal in those days was around 12% of retail so we were suppose to have 12% for the whole band and because Ozzy had just come out of Black Sabbath and he was already signed to Jet Records as their artist we decided that we thought it was fair that Ozzy gets 6% for himself. The other 6% was suppose to be split between guitarist Randy Rhoads, drummer Lee Kerslake and myself we were suppose to get 2% each. And that would change as we went further down the line as it became more of a band. Also It was a band it wasn’t a solo project, it was a band called The Blizzard of Ozz. We didn’t actually sign the contract because things were getting changed all the time, we had our law firm and they had their law firm and lots of back and forth.”
“The two albums Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman were done about 10 or 11 months of each other including a UK tour in between. We wrote the songs then we recorded the album. The first album was recorded and out before the contract was signed. Then when it came to write the second album Diary of a Madman we said hang on a minute we haven’t got the money from the first album yet. Don Arden the manager at the time said on the phone to us don’t worry carry on the work and it will be all sorted out you will have your contract and money so we believed him and we carried on working. Then we recorded Diary of a Madman and Lee Kerslake and I got fired. Ozzy wanted Tommy Aldridge in the band and Tommy was a friend of Sharon Arden’s as well. During the UK tour they kept pulling me a side saying let’s get rid of Lee let’s get Tommy and I just didn’t think it was the right move, they asked me several times and I said no all the time, so eventually they got rid of me and Lee.”
When asked about Ozzy Osbourne’s musical contributions to Blizzard of Ozz (19:50)
“Randy Rhoads had riffs and ideas. Randy and I would sit on a chair next to each other and work things out together musically most of the main riffs were Randy’s but the music part we did together. We would play a backing track and Ozzy would sing a melody over it and a lot of these melodies were very good. Ozzy had never written lyrics, Randy wasn’t a lyricist and neither was Lee so I did the lyrics. I just wrote lyrics that would fit with Ozzy’s phrasing and his melodies.”
When asked about the court case against Jet Records and Don Arden (45:00)
“We had gone to court against Jet Records and Don Arden, we didn’t get credited on Diary of a Madman they put bassist Rudy Sarzo and drummer Tommy Aldridge and credited them on playing on Diary of a Madman when they hadn’t played a note or beat on it. We got our songwriting credits but we didn’t get our co-production credits and we didn’t get our performance credit royalties. We were going to court against Jet Records. Ozzy and Sharon Arden were helping us because she had a big fallout with her father but we didn’t know at the time was Sharon had bought the rights to Ozzy’s catalogue from her father Don Arden in 1983 and they were getting the royalties. We went to court in 1986 and Don Arden and Jet records paid us an amount but in 1986 those albums weren’t multi platinum they done a million and a bit each, we thought we would continue to get royalties but we didn’t because there wasn’t an actual judgment against Don Arden or Jet Records because he waved a white flag and made an offer and the lawyers advised us to take it.”
When asked if he would keep pursing the court cases against the Osbourne’s camp over unpaid royalties after his latest lose (54:05)
“Oh no.”
When asked how much money he believes he was owed in unpaid royalties today (54:18)
“The Blizzard of Oz and Diary of a Madman have probably sold 4 or 5 million each and the record royalties from performance that’s got to be in the millions that we didn’t get paid.”
When asked if the Osbourne’s called him up today to participate once again on another album would he consider participating? (54:49)
“Well I never say never. I don’t burn bridges, I don’t hate people. If there was a way to do it where we could work something out in a sort of nice way I wouldn’t say its completely out of the question, it’s a possibility I suppose depending on the circumstances on how they sell and offer it.”
When asked about his thoughts about the Ronnie James Dio Hologram Tour (54:43)
“I wouldn’t see something like that I think its a little distasteful but that is just my opinion.”
The revamped version of RAINBOW recently entered the studio to record band’s first new music in more than two decades, according to Blabbermouth.net.
Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore stepped away from his Renaissance-inspired brand of music with BLACKMORE’S NIGHT last year to perform a handful of shows with a brand-new lineup of the band he had formed after quitting DEEP PURPLE.
Although Ritchie initially said that he had no plans to make a new RAINBOW album — explaining in early 2016 that he wanted to “just get back to playing the old songs one more time” — he appears to have changed his mind. He told Japan’s Burrn! magazine for its May 2017 issue that the current incarnation of RAINBOW — which includes singer Ronnie Romero, originally from Chile but now settled in Madrid, Spain — is in the process of recording two tracks. “I wrote one new song, and also recorded one of the old ones,” he said, according to The Highway Star. “Ronnie, who is in Madrid now, added his vocals and sent it back. Rather than make an album, we may release as singles.”
Blackmore was also full of praise for Romero, who spends some of his time fronting the Spanish metal band LORDS OF BLACK and is a member of a new project called THE FERRYMEN. “When I heard him, he seemed like the right guy to sing the [Ronnie James] Dio-era songs of RAINBOW,” Ritchie said. “He is versatile, he can sing like Freddie Mercury or Ronnie James Dio or Graham Bonnet.
“The reason I did not ask [former RAINBOW singer] Joe Lynn Turner [to get involved in the RAINBOW comeback] is because I thought European fans wanted to hear the Dio lineup of RAINBOW.
“I was very surprised that tickets [to the first RAINBOW comeback shows] sold out in 15 minutes. It was nice to know so many people wanted to hear RAINBOW at this time.”
Joe Lynn Turner last year slammed Blackmore for the guitarist’s decision to go out and perform classic DEEP PURPLE and RAINBOW material with a new group musicians instead of reforming RAINBOW with a more “authentic” lineup.
Less critical of the new RAINBOW lineup was former DEEP PURPLE bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes, who admitted to Metal Express Radio earlier this year that he had watched some YouTube clips of the new RAINBOW lineup performing in 2016. “Singing Ronnie‘s [James Dio] songs needs a special kind of singer and I think the young chap did a reasonably good job and I think Ritchie may well have found the guy for him,” Hughes said of Romero. “He was certainly a good fit for RAINBOW.”
In addition to Romero, Blackmore was joined at last year’s RAINBOW gigs by STRATOVARIUS keyboardist Jens Johansson, BLACKMORE’S NIGHT drummer David Keith, bassist Bob Nouveau (a.k.a. Robert “Bob” Curiano, ex-BLACKMORE’S NIGHT), and backing singers Candice Night and Lady Lynn.
The two shows RAINBOW played in Germany last June were caught on camera to produce “Memories In Rock – Live In Germany”, which was released in November via Eagle Rock Entertainment on DVD+2CD, Blu-ray+2CD, and digital formats.
After Ritchie left DEEP PURPLE for the final time in 1993, he reformed RAINBOW for one album (1995’s “Stranger In Us All”) and one tour, ending things in Denmark in 1997.
Today, May 17th is the 40th anniversary of the release of the timeless masterpiece, “Rising”, by iconic heavy rock band RAINBOW. The album was the second studio album of the band, featuring legends Ritchie Blackmore (Guitar), Ronnie James Dio (Vocals), Cozy Powell (Drums), Jimmy Bain (Bass) and Tony Carey (Keyboards, orchestron), released in 1976.
To pay tribute to this very special event, five Iranian rockers joined forces with Iranian rock and metal music journalist and producer, Mohsen “Stargazer” Fayazi, to cover the brilliant ‘Stargazer’ song, which is indeed like a shiny jewel in the rock music world. After spending about four months practicing, recording, mixing and mastering in their tiny home studios, they made a video from their time together working on this effort. They planned to publish the video online today on YouTube, but unfortunately it was not that simple.
“From the very beginning, our goal was to show respect and love to everyone who was a part of that magical record,” commented Mohsen. So to share their passion, he sent an email to Ritchie Blackmore‘s agent to check that it was ok to publish this video online. “It was not as simple as I thought. I really had no clue that the copyright of the first two albums by Rainbow does not belong to them anymore,” Mohsen said. He continues “I had to discuss and explain our situation for a few publishing companies and every time a new company approached me, I had to explain it from the beginning. I think they were a little bit confused, which I don’t blame them for, I am sure it was their first time to receive an email from someone in Iran asking for permission like this. I should mention they were all nice, kind and helpful during the discussion. But after about many emails back and forth, I received the news that the right holders rejected our request, but may consider it if we paid a license fee, though still no guarantee. There is no chance for us to pay any fee as earning money from this was never our plan, we were not selling a recording. Also, due to sanctions, no foreign banks currently work with Iran, so transferring money is impossible. I was really shocked at the way this turned out, all we wanted was to share our excitement, passion and love for this song with rest of the rest of the world. It is a shame we could not do that, though I still feel that they did not fully understood our situation here in Iran.”
“Art is valuable and good music is priceless and that’s why we spent lots of time and energy on this effort. We decided to not publish the video in the end as we really don’t want to be disrespectful. We had lots of great times working on this project and we celebrated this event with a huge amount of love and passion. We really appreciate what those guys did in 1976 and we truly and deeply miss Ronnie, Cozy and Jimmy, they will never be forgotten. We also would like to send congratulations to Mr Ritchie Blackmore for all great things he has done for the music world! I also would like to thank all the members of this project for their awesome work and passion, you all did an amazing job!
R.I.P. Ronnie James Dio, Cozy Powell, Jimmy Bain and Long Live Ritchie Blackmore!”
The personnel who were part of this project are:
Hadi Kiani – (Vocals and sound recording) Ehsan Imani – (Guitar, sound recording, mixing and mastering, video editor) Morteza Hosseini – (Guitar, sound recording) Hamid Alizadeh – (Guitar) Mohammad Nik – (Bass) Mohsen Fayazi – (Producer, video editor and director)
Reports have been circulating that former RAINBOW/DIO bassist Jimmy Bain – most recently with LAST IN LINE – has passed away at the age of 68, posted bravewords.com. A brief Facebook post from drummer Simon Wright (Dio) seems to confirm these reports. Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.
Last In Line, featuring three original members of Dio including Bain, Def Leppard’s Vivian Campbell (guitar) and Vinny Appice (drums) posted new rehearsal footage only a few days ago as the band prepared for the upcoming Hysteria On The High Seas cruise. Check out the footage below:
Check out some classic footage from 1986 with DIO:
R.I.P. Jimmy
THE ROCK ALCHEMIST – Italian Rock Band from Turin with a strong sonic identity that blends modern rock with progressive, hard, alternative, and pop elements!
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 