Graham Bonnet - Wednesday 19th March - The Garage, Islington

A relative rarity for me these days - a headline act who I have not seen before. Sold on the premise that there was likely to be mainly Rainbow material played, this looked like it may be a nice evening out. And so it proved. Whilst not the most celebrated of the Rainbow vocalists, Graham fronted a solid set - with a backing band who had apparently only had 20 minutes rehearsal. I gather he'd flown in from LA - makes you wonder if the band were a sort of Rainbow / Deep Purple tribute band? Would their vocalist then get upset? They were certainly more than adequate in any case.

Mr Bonnet has quite a distinctive style - not sure I've ever seen a rock vocalist open their mouth so wide. Hardcore Rainbow fans tell me the material he sang on his only album with the band wasn't the best, but here all sounded fine and there were a few "favourites" thrown in for good measure - some of which he didn't sing on the original records.

Venue was a bit busier than anticipated - over half full and the show was good enough to make us book up for the next leg of the tour down the road in December. Maybe the set may have expanded by then.

Setlist
Eyes of the World
Love's No Friend
Since You Been Gone
Bad Girl
Makin' Love
Keyboard solo [Temple of the King / Tarot Woman (intro) / Toccato and Fugue / Mr. Crowley / Perfect Strangers]
Kill The King [Instrumental Version]
Drum solo
Catch the Rainbow
All Night Long
Lost in Hollywood
+
Long Live Rock And Roll