In 1978 Rainbow released an amazing album, and for a 15 year old music fan I was in awe, playing it time and again. But then the band imploded and the voice left, so what was going to happen? When I read that the new singer was someone called Graham Bonnet I was even more intrigued. Apparently he had been singer in The Marbles when they had a #5 hit in 1968 with “Only One Woman”, did jingles, and has some solo success but the name was new to me. No-one expected the shift both in direction and musical success which was to come from the resulting album, ‘Down To Earth’, but he was soon his way to appear first with MSG and then with Alcatrazz, and by now no-one was asking who he was.
As one may guess from the album title, this was recorded in 2017 in Japan, where he was joined by Conrado Pesinato (guitar), Beth-Ami Heavenstone (bass), Jimmy Waldo (keyboards) and Mark Benquchea (drums). Here is a man who is on top form, backed by musicians who knew their part and play it well. This is commercial rock with real crunch, by a singer who has lost none of his power – and let’s just context that a minute: Bonnet is singing as well as ever, hitting high notes with ease and holding them for as long as is needed, yet in 2017 he was seventy years old!! He moves through his career, providing us with classics from Rainbow, MSG, Impellitteri, as well as his solo career. “Night Games” in 2017 is more powerful than it was when I bought it as a single back in 1981, while moving from “Since You’ve Been Gone” into “Assault Attack” and then “All Night Long” is sheer genius. If you want melodic hard rock at its very best, then look no further than this. Awesome.
Rating: 9/10
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/grahambonnetmusic/
https://www.frontiers.it/