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GRAHAM BONNET BAND
Live...Here Comes The Night
Frontiers Music Srl, 2017

If one reads the information about new releases by certain rock musicians at a certain age, one might get the impression that the noun “legend” and its corresponding adjective “legendary” are a bit overused sometimes. The info sheet that comes with Live...Here Comes The Night by the GRAHAM BONNET BAND uses the adjective right in the first sentence and it is indeed difficult to disagree. Graham Bonnet is mainly remembered as lead vocalist in RAINBOW's possibly most commercially succesful phase. Down To Earth, the only album he did with RAINBOW, is widely regarded as a classic and so is the hit single “Since You've Been Gone” from that album. However, Bonnet's largely succesful stint in RAINBOW overshadows other fruitful and memorable stations of his careers – MSG, ALCATRAZZ, IMPELLITTERI and a lot of solo work. Graham Bonnet has been incredibly productive since the beginning of his recording career with THE MARBLES in 1969, which definitely warrants the term “legend”.

Frontiers Music has now released a live album and video available on CD, DVD or Blu-Ray filmed and recorded at Frontiers Rock Festival III in Trezzo (Milan, Italy) on April 24, 2016. Graham Bonnet's band features Beth-Ami Heavenstone on bass, Conrado Pesinato on lead guitar and Mark Zonder (WARLORD and FATES WARNING) on drums.

The album is best described as a best-of album recorded live. The fifteen tracks include the RAINBOW classics “All Night Long”, “Since You've Been Gone”, “Lost In Hollywood”, MSG's “Dancer”, which is named for whatever reason “Dancer EU (24b)" on this album, “Assault Attack”, ALCATRAZZ's “God Blessed Video” and “Island In The Sun” as well as Russ Ballard's “S.O.S.” and many more highlights from Graham Bonnet's long career.

With so much classic material, there is very little reason to complain about the track list but it's also difficult to single out individual tracks. The album is best enjoyed in its entirety, although it might be hard to resist the temptation to put “Since You've Been Gone” or any of the other RAINBOW's songs on autorepeat, especially if you're still disappointed with Ritchie Blackmore's latest live efforts that went under the name of “Rainbow”. Seriously, the GRAHAM BONNET BAND shows how the Down To Earth single can be nailed live.

The band, composed of stellar musicians, is always spot-on. Thanks to the clarity of the production, you get a crystal clear but powerful and heavy live sound. The band is simply brilliant, particularly Conrado Pesinato's guitar work deserves a special mention but so does Beth-Ami Heavenstone's bass playing and bass sound as well as Mark Zonder's drumming. The musicians work perfectly as a band and Graham Bonnet hits almost every note with reasonable ease. At 68, his characteristic voice still shines through each and every song and is incredibly versatile. Whether you like his voice, is definitely a question of taste, though, but that's also part and parcel of being a vocalist that deserves the label “unique”. Thus, far from being a clichéd heavy metal singer, Bonnet has always had his own style and this also comes across on the present live record.

Live...Here Comes The Night is a great album for heavy rock fans in general and Graham Bonnet followers is particular. And if anybody wants to explore Bonnet's music, this live release is a superb starting point.

4.7 Out Of 5.0

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