Rainbow Japan Tour 1984 Castle Hall, Osaka, Japan - March 11, 1984 Rainbow's concert was at the Castle Hall. The hall is the largest in Japan. The number of seats is three times as many as in the Festival Hall, where Alcatrazz played in January. The hall was filled with young kids, it was immediately clear how popular Rainbow is at the moment. They had not played live in the last four months, which was the reason for their long soundcheck war of attrition. As soon as the room went dark, a huge cheer went up and the members of Rainbow came on stage. Just like on their previous visit to Japan, they started with "Spotlight kid". One of the encores was "Smoke on the water", sung very well by Joe Lynn Turner. The last time Rainbow toured Japan, Turner was in bad shape and was very disappointing. Now I heard that he would leave the band after the Japanese shows. Dave's solo was again very long, but it kept me interested. Then Chuck, the new drummer, I thought his drumming was very tight and much better than Bobby (I'm sorry, Bob!!). About Ritchie's guitar playing; what else can we say about him. He has never disappointed us. Everyone was deeply impressed by his playing. Even though Ritchie didn't smash a guitar, we were very pleased with the concert. Yoshie Moctida Budokan Hall, Tokyo, Japan - March 14, 1984 On March 14, 3 cameras were set up right in front of the stage with the intention of capturing the whole thing on video. The Japanese group Action was the support act. During their performance in the Budokan, not everyone had the patience to wait. There was already a lot of shouting for Rainbow. At 7 p.m. the hall lights went out for the second time. Everyone immediately started shouting excitedly "RITCHIE, RITCHIE!!!". Yeah, the party started. The big eyes looked intently at the audience. They made big spots during "I Surrender". I was very impressed by the fantastic "Catch the Rainbow". I loved it!! The highlight was "Beethoven's Ninth" with the orchestra. It was sublime! I was under the (wrong) impression that I was in the most holy place. The orchestra was visible above the drum kit and illuminated by rainbow-colored spots. The show lasted about two full hours and I have to admit: "Rainbow is the king of hard rock!" Finally the tracklist: "Over The Rainbow intro tape", "Desperate heart (although I'm not sure)", "Miss Mistreated", "I Surrender", "Spotlight kid", "Catch The Rainbow", "Power" , "Keyboards solo", "Street of Dreams", "Fool for the Night"; "Guitar solo", "Beethoven's Ninth (with the orchestra)", "Guitar solo", "Drum solo", "Blues", "Stranded", "Death Alley Driver". Encores: "Firedance", "All night long", "Woman from Tokyo", "Since You Been Gone", "Smoke on the Water", "Over The Rainbow outrotape". Marcy Funabashi