Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow to release first new song in 22 years this Friday
22 years on from the release of their last single ‘Ariel’, Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow will be unleashing a new track later this week.
Entitled ‘Land of Hope and Glory’, the song is currently available to pre-order on iTunes ahead of its release on Friday (26th May).
As well as the new song, the band will also be releasing a new version of the Russ Ballard penned 1981 Rainbow classic ‘I Surrender’ with new vocals recorded by Ronnie Romero.
The artwork looks like this:
After immersing himself in the world of Renaissance music for two decades with Blackmore’s Night, Ritchie assembled a new Rainbow line-up for a trio of triumphant shows in 2016 including Birmingham’s Genting Arena.
Together with confirming a four-date UK tour for this summer, last month Ritchie confirmed to Japan’s Burrn! Magazine that new material was in the pipeline.
“I wrote one new song, and also recorded one of the old ones,” Ritchie said. “Ronnie, who is in Madrid now, added his vocals and sent it back. Rather than make an album, we may release as singles.”
Alongside the newly recorded songs, Ritchie and co. are releasing the live double album ‘Live In Birmingham 2016’, featuring all 15 songs performed at the sell-out show, on Friday 9th June 2017 via Eagle Rock Entertainment.
The full track-listing is as follows:
Disc One:
1) Over The Rainbow / Highway Star
2) Spotlight Kid
3) Mistreated
4) Since You Been Gone
5) Man On The Silver Mountain
6) Soldier Of Fortune
7) Medley: Difficult To Cure (Beethoven’s Ninth) / Drum Solo / Bass Solo / Band Jam / Keyboard Solo (inc Toccata & Fugue in Dm) / Difficult To Cure (Beethoven’s Ninth)
8) Catch The Rainbow
Disc Two:
1) Perfect Strangers
2) Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll
3) Child In Time
4) Stargazer
5) Medley: Black Night / Woman From Tokyo / Black Night
6) Burn
7) Smoke On The Water
Tickets to Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow’s June 2017 arena tour, including a headline slot at Stone Free Festival, are on sale from Planet Rock Tickets now.
They play the following shows:
JUNE 2017
London The O2 @ Stone Free Festival – Sat 17th
Manchester Arena – Thu 22nd
Glasgow The SSE Hydro – Sun 25th
Birmingham Genting Arena – Wed 28th