MOSCOW, October 13. /TASS/. Former Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore will play concerts in Russia with his legendary band Rainbow in the spring of 2018, a spokesperson with the concert agency that organizes the tour, told TASS.
The legendary rocker will perform at Moscow's Olympic Stadium on April 8 and at the Ice Palace in St. Petersburg on April 11.
Previously, Blackmore had visited Russia several times on his Blackmore’s Night project.
This will be the first time he comes to Russia with Rainbow, the band he recreated in 2015.
"In the spring of 2018, Ritchie Blackmore with the re-created Rainbow will arrive in Moscow and St. Petersburg as part of his Memories in Rock 2018 tour. Indeed, that’s a great event, which is historically significant," the spokesperson said.
Rainbow’s current line-up includes David Keith on drums, Bob Nouveau on bass, Jens Johansson on keyboards and Ronnie Romero on lead vocals. Blackmore describes the vocal style of the Chilean singer as "a cross between Ronnie James Dio and Freddie Mercury."
The band’s set list includes best songs of Rainbow recorded between 1976 and 1984 with different vocalists (Stargazer, Since You Been Gone, Man on the Silver Mountain), as well as Deep Purple’s legendary hits, the spokesperson said.
"Not only are songs from Deep Purple’s golden-era like Highway Star, Perfect Strangers, Black Night, Lazy, Smoke on the Water or even Child in Time on the program, but also those that were recorded with David Coverdale: Soldier of Fortune, Burn, Mistreated," the representative with the concert agency said.
After leaving Deep Purple in 1975, Ritchie Blackmore teamed up with the musicians of the band Elf and founded Rainbow. The band recorded first three albums with singer Ronnie James Dio. Later, Blackmore collaborated with two more singers Graham Bonnet and Joe Lynn Turner. Blackmore disbanded Rainbow twice: first in 1984 (reformed in 1994) and in 1997. Rainbow recorded eight studio albums that were sold more than 28 mln copies worldwide.