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Poynton's Carlton Club Hotel, Melbourne, Australia November 21, 1976 Jam with Ritchie Blackmore, Jimmy Bain, guitarist Greg Cook and drummer Mario Baroni
John van Boxtel (drummer Ram Band, Australia): I became good friends with all of the RAINBOW Band when they toured Australia in the seventees. I was at that time the promoter for Melbournes only licenced Sunday night live venue Poyntons Hotel which is how I got a phone call from the road crew looking for a venue open on a Sunday night, I told them we where closing up, he then suggested if we could orginize any of the women to party on at their hotel which we did, got to know the band real well that night and offered Ritchie to come next Sunday Night to play a bracket. He could pick out a Stratt from RAM MUSIC Stock, which he did and he spend a lot of time with it on our work bench setting it up to his liking, his bassplayer Jimmy Bain became a good friend and we checked out some rock venues and bands.   RAINBOW had to go to Adelaide for a Saturday night gig and be back in Melbourne on the Sunday for us to meet up and go to Poyntons Hotel, on that Sunday everybody was running late, I drove into town and sat in front of the hotel in my panel van when I spotted Ritchie and Ronnie going to their hotel, I got out of the car and reminded them of this special jam night and free beer... They said give us a moment John and we will be back they returned with Cozy Powell, Tony Carey and Jimmy Bain. I only had room for one in the front which Tony took so Ritchie, Ronnie, Cozy and Jimmy got in the back of the panel van, when we got there the place was packed, I got a table cleared next to the stage and sat the guys down after a while. I went to Ritchie and asked if he would get up for a jam. He looked at me and then the stage and said John I would not play on that shit (a Fender Twin reverb and a Guyatone Fender copy). I said Ritchie look around you, there is no way I will get out of here alive if you don't play. He looked at me and saw I was serious then, with a slight smile on his face he said because you are a friend John I'll do it for you and with that he got up and I took him onto the stage handed him the Strat he had setup at RAM MUSIC... Somebody out of the audience jumped on the drum kit and started playing I told him to get off but he insisted this was a jam. I waved for security to move him and got Mario Baroni on the drums (drummer with Rock Steady) plugged in Greg Cook on Guitar and Jimmy Bain on Bass. Then hit the record button on my two track cassette deck and recorded history being made. © Photographer unknown  |