Graham Bonnet says that he is not interested in hearing Ritchie Blackmore’s revamped version of RAINBOW because the band doesn’t include any of the other musicians who were originally part of the group.
Blackmore performed RAINBOW and DEEP PURPLE material at three shows this past June. He was joined at the gigs by LORDS OF BLACK singer Ronnie Romero, STRATOVARIUS keyboardist Jens Johansson, BLACKMORE’S NIGHT drummer David Keith and bassist Bob Nouveau (a.k.a. Robert “Bob” Curiano, ex-BLACKMORE’S NIGHT).
Asked by Metal Express Radio if he had a chance to attend any of the RAINBOW shows this past summer, Bonnet said: “No. To be honest with you, I’m not really interested. It sounds a bit dumb and horrible, but I’m not interested in what Ritchie’s doing.”
He continued: “If he wants to get RAINBOW, or some of RAINBOW, back together, he should invite some of the original players from the RAINBOW lineup I was in. It should be somebody like Don Airey [on keyboards] and probably Roger Glover playing bass to give the people what they sort of remember from the ’80s. At the moment, that was… To me, it looked like a session band. So I didn’t listen to it. I thought, ‘Is he kidding?'”
