RAINBOW: 'Down To Earth' Deluxe Edition Due In January

As one of the cornerstones of British rock, RAINBOW — led by the never-predictable but ever-astonishing guitarist Ritchie Blackmore — became synonymous with some of the most well regarded and popular charting rock songs of the Seventies and Eighties. From the mystic and quasi-religious "Stargazer" and "Man On A Silver Mountain" to the solid gold anthems of "All Night Long", "Long Live Rock And Roll" and "Since You Been Gone", each year in the decade of RAINBOW was marked by some of the best songs and performances captured both on record and in-concert.

Passing through the band were some of the best the genre had to offer. Vocalists Ronnie James Dio and Graham Bonnet, bass player and producer Roger Glover and drummer Cozy Powell, each brought their individual talent to the table to record some of rock's best-loved hard rock on those timeless albums and singles.

On January 24, 2011, Universal Music will re-release "Down To Earth" in deluxe expanded edition.

With a relatively unknown new vocalist installed as replacement to the now-departed (to BLACK SABBATH) Ronnie James Dio, ex-MARBLES lung-buster Graham Bonnet would leave his mark on RAINBOW by taking the band into far more commercial chart accessible territory. With the loss of Dio's dungeon and dragon lyricism and the new "boy-meets-girl" subject matter, those girls were now paying attention and buying singles such as "Since You Been Gone", "All Night Long" and "Lost In Hollywood" in droves.

Released in 1979, "Down To Earth" is RAINBOW's fourth album studio album sees a band revitalized not only by a brand new vocalist but also with the addition of Blackmore's former DEEP PURPLE colleague Roger Glover on bass guitar. With Glover also sitting in the producer's chair, "Down To Earth" delivers the goods of a solid hard rock album with aplomb.

This deluxe expanded edition adds the two non-album single B-sides, "Bad Girl" and "Weiss Heim", and a complete second disc of previously unreleased studio outtakes and alternative versions which allow us to hear "Down To Earth" as a work-in-progress for the very first time.

"Down To Earth" deluxe expanded edition:

Disc 1

01. All Night Long
02. Eyes Of The World
03. No Time To Lose
04. Makin' Love
05. Since You Been Gone
06. Love's No Friend
07. Danger Zone
08. Lost In Hollywood

Bonus Tracks:

09. Bad Girl (7" single b-side)
10. Weiss Heim (7" single b-side)

Disc 2

01. All Night Long (instrumental outtake)
02. Eyes Of The World (instrumental outtake)
03. Spark Don't Mean A Fire
04. Makin' Love (instrumental outtake)
05. Since You Been Gone (instrumental outtake)
06. Ain't A Lot Of Love In The Heart Of Me
07. Danger Zone (instrumental outtake)
08. Lost In Hollywood (instrumental outtake)
09. Bad Girls (instrumental outtake)
10. Ain't A Lot Of Love In The Heart
11. Eyes Of The World (instrumental outtake – take 2)
12. All Night Long (Cozy Powell mix)

When asked about how he landed the gig as RAINBOW's singer, Graham Bonnet recently told Braingell Radio, "[Ritchie] was listening to tapes of lots of bands, and he happened to come across one of my songs. Ritchie auditioned 80 singers and he heard me signing THE MARBLES' 'Only One Woman' and asked how to get a hold of me. It just happened that Roger Glover was working with a friend of mine, Micky Moody, and he give him my telephone number. I had to audition with a song name 'Mistreated', which I had to learn, because I didn't know RAINBOW songs. I actually didn't know who RAINBOW was or even what kind of music they played."

Regarding the circumstances that resulted in your departure from RAINBOW, Bonnet said, "We were rehearsing in Copenhagen, and [RAINBOW drummer] Cozy Powell had left the band, and we had to start over with a new drummer, named Bobby Rondinelli. There seemed to be a lack of interest in rehearsing. [Keyboardist] Don Airey said he had enough, and was going to leave the band. I said, 'If you are going to leave, then so am I…' So I went home to Los Angeles, and they called me up and wanted me to return to the band. They asked me to sing the songs I liked, and have another vocalist sing the songs I didn't. I didn't want to be in a band with two singers and the fun of the band was gone. Eventually Don Airey left and the band fell apart after a couple of years."