VIVIAN CAMPBELL's LAST IN LINE To Make Its Live Debut In California

July 22, 2013

Former DIO and current DEF LEPPARD guitarist Vivian Campbell revealed in April 2012 that he is planning to join forces with three other original DIO members to play "some gigs" that will see the musicians performing material from the early DIO records that Campbell appeared on. Dubbed LAST IN LINE, Campbell, Vinny Appice (drums),Jimmy Bain (bass) and Claude Schnell (keyboards) will be accompanied by singer Andrew Freeman, who has previously fronted HURRICANE and LYNCH MOB.

LAST IN LINE will play its first-ever show — a warm-up to the band's U.K. tour — on August 3 at Slidebar in Fullerton, California.

Speaking to David "Gus" Griesinger of BackstageAxxess.com at this past January's NAMM (National Association Of Music Merchants) show at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California, Campbell stated about reuniting with the original DIO band: "I'm excited about that. We're calling it LAST IN LINE after the second [DIO] album. It's the original DIO band — myself, Vinny Appice on drums, Jimmy Bain on bass, Claude Schnell on keyboards, and we found a terrific singer called Andy Freeman, who can totally do justice to the songs. Actually, he doesn't sound anything like Ronnie [James Dio], which is great, [because] I don't wanna draw that comaprison. Ronnie was a very unique singer, but Andy is a great singer in his own right, and he certainly sings the songs very respectfully.

"The original band, we actually wrote the majority of that material as a band, so I feel like we're entitled to go out and play it. I don't think we're a tribute band or a cover band or anything like that.

"There's obviously a big legacy of DIO music, and I think I'm right in saying that most people would think that those early DIO albums are the strongest, so we are just chuffed to play it."

Campbell and Ronnie James Dio worked together on the first three DIO albums 1983's "Holy Diver", 1984's "The Last in Line" and 1985's "Sacred Heart" — before Irishman Campbell left to join WHITESNAKE in 1987.

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