Watch Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow perform Perfect Strangers

By Stef Lach
( Classic Rock )
published

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow release live Perfect Strangers video from upcoming Memories In Rock DVD

A picture of Ronnie Romero and Ritchie Blackmore on stage
Ronnie Romero and Ritchie Blackmore

Rainbow have released a live video of their performance of Perfect Strangers in Germany during their recent reunion shows.

Ritchie Blackmore reactivated Rainbow with Lords Of Black singer Ronnie Romero, Stratovarius keyboardist Jens Johansson, Blackmore’s Night drummer David Keith and bassist Bob Nouveau earlier this year.

They played one night in Birmingham, UK, in June and two dates at Germany’s Monsters Of Rock festival the same month. The two festival dates were recorded and filmed and will be released as Memories In Rock: Live in Germany on November 18 via Eagle Rock Entertainment.

The Perfect Strangers clip, which can be viewed below, is taken from the upcoming release. It’ll be issued on DVD/2CD and Blu-ray/2CD, along with a deluxe edition featuring the DVD, Blu-ray, 2CD and 48-page hardback photobook. A 3LP version will launch on December 2.

Earlier this year, Blackmore said further shows could be possible in the future, despite appearing to pour cold water on live plans previously.

He said: “We might do a few more shows again. I enjoyed it, especially the last one in England. The first two were a little bit intense because we hadn’t played together – we hadn’t done a lot of rehearsing, so the first two were a bit hectic and chaotic.

“But the last one in Birmingham seemed to work to me. It was so weird, I think it was 20,000 people – it sold out in 15 minutes and I kind of wondered who they thought was playing.

“When I got to the auditorium, it was so vast that I thought, ‘Maybe someone else is playing this show tonight.’”

Memories in Rock: Live in Germany tracklist

CD1

  1. Highway Star
  2. Spotlight Kid
  3. Mistreated
  4. 16th Century Greensleeves
  5. Since You Been Gone
  6. Man on the Silver Mountain
  7. Catch the Rainbow
  8. Difficult to Cure (Beethoven’s Ninth)
  9. Perfect Strangers
  10. Stargazer

CD2

  1. Long Live Rock ‘N’ Roll
  2. Child in Time / Woman from Tokyo
  3. Black Night
  4. Smoke on the Water

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Stef Lach

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.