This report will be difficult to write. The reason: I'll be somewhat subjective. On the other hand, the fact that Ronnie James Dio is one of the most gifted individuals in the entire history of rock music is nothing more than objective fact. A little history. Ronnie Padavona was born in 1940; his connection to hard rock dates back to the early 70s. In one interview he once stated that it might seem surprising, but performing heavy music for 30 years hadn't bored him in the slightest. While playing in ELF, Dio (under this pseudonym he entered rock history) and his bandmates were noticed in 1975 by Ritchie Blackmore, who had recently departed from DEEP PURPLE. Soon afterwards, nearly the entire ELF lineup became RAINBOW. Three albums followed; the second (Rising) made the band famous, and on the next album, Long Live Rock'n'Roll, we hear tracks that became heavy music classics forever — the title song and "Kill The King." Blackmore was always an authoritarian leader in his band and constantly changed lineups; the unique vocalist lasted longer than most, but after the band relocated to the USA their relationship soured completely, and Dio left. He wasn't without a home for long — at that very time BLACK SABBATH had been vacated by Ozzy Osbourne. A new chapter in Dio's story: Heaven and Hell and MOB RULES — two studio albums with the greatest band. In 1982 a live album was released, and Dio soon left the band again. By this point the man had already become a symbol of hard rock, and in all of rock music his only real peer was probably Freddie Mercury. The band Ronnie founded received the simple name DIO. In 1983 the debut album was recorded — Holy Diver — the sound was noticeably heavier; from then on Dio performs heavy metal (a similar trajectory, incidentally, to Ozzy's). The album appeared at a time when NWOBHM was at its peak; IRON MAIDEN had already released The Number Of The Beast, and in that same 1983 the world heard Piece Of Mind from them, while OZZY released Bark At The Moon. The fact is that a very large number of people regard DIO's debut album as an unsurpassed masterpiece of metal music — and as for the band's subsequent catalogue, they arguably never recorded anything better than Holy Diver. Over the next four years the band worked at an incredible pace, releasing an album per year: The Last In Line, Sacred Heart, Intermission, DREAM EVIL. After a brief hiatus (Ronnie disbanded the group in 1987, then reassembled it in 1989), Lock Up The Wolves appeared in 1990. This album already differs significantly from the preceding ones, and Ronnie soon decided to radically change the sound. But first, this happened on the 1992 BLACK SABBATH record Dehumanizer. After its release, Dio again departed from the fathers of heavy music. The new DIO album appeared in 1993 — Strange Highways. And the next record (Angry Machines, 1996) is unique in its own way. Calling the music or the sound conventional heavy metal is simply impossible. The album is very dark and at the same time very heavy; unfortunately it went unappreciated as it deserved. Two years later came the live release Inferno — The Last In Live — essentially a best-of programme with emphasis on early material and certain songs from the RAINBOW period. The following year Dio participated in the DEEP PURPLE anniversary concert, and that same year made his first visit to russia. Starting the following year, to everyone's surprise, the band returned to active studio work, musically reaching back to their roots. After the conceptual Magica in 2000 came Killing The Dragon in 2002 and, at that point, the band's most recent studio release, Master Of The Moon. In support of that album, the band visited russia for the second time.
2005 — the band decides to tour playing the debut album Holy Diver in its entirety, alongside the best songs from Ronnie James Dio's other albums; crucially, no songs recorded after 1984 were performed on this tour. Word that Dio would be appearing in russia again had come earlier, and by then it was already being spoken of as a large-scale tour. So it proved: having visited countless towns across the russian provinces, on September 23rd the 65-year-old vocalist and his band (Scott Warren — keyboards; Simon Wright — drums; Rudy Sarzo — bass; Craig Goldie — guitar) arrived in moscow, where they played the DK Gorbunova. And now for more detail about that unforgettable evening.
The queue outside DKG that day stretched like a snake; that the show would be a sellout was clear long before it started. Initially the news that DIO would be playing this venue triggered a negative reaction — everyone expected to see them at the Small Sports Arena at Luzhniki — but one way or another the concert took place at DK Gorbunova, with people, in the literal sense, standing in the doorways. Between the floor and the balconies, there were probably three to three and a half thousand people. The crowd had been gathering in the hall since just past seven in the evening. But before the main event, the audience was presented with a support act in the form of ТЕАТР ТЕНЕЙ (Theatre of Shadows). Any support act in this position would have looked ill-placed — the same situation applied here: the vocalist's attempts to warm up the crowd were in vain. To say the hall reacted coldly would be an understatement; "not at all" is more accurate. Between songs, instead of applause, the hall chanted "DIO" in unison. The band played from around half past seven to just before nine; when they finished, the reaction was quite lively (everyone was relieved). Throughout their set the sound was dreadful — quite uncharacteristic of DK Gorbunova.
The band leaves, and the lengthy tuning process begins: several people come out, check the guitars, keys, and drums, then spend about ten minutes adjusting the monitors. Finally, at 20:23, the lights go down in the hall, and the enormous banner at the back reproduces the Holy Diver album cover. The drummer, bassist, guitarist, and keyboardist take the stage; a brief intro plays, after which the musicians begin — it's "Tarot Woman" from RAINBOW's second album. Twenty more seconds, and a slender man of slight build strides quickly onto the stage in leather trousers, a leather shirt, and a lilac cape — looking incredible and moving with astonishing agility for his age. But most importantly — he is holding a microphone, and he sings with genius, sings in a way that most vocalists cannot at the age of thirty. To thunderous applause this celebrated song comes to its end, and "The Sign Of The Southern Cross" begins — a song from the Sabbath period, from MOB RULES. Honestly, it's hard to recall a frontman more naturally warm toward his audience — Dio constantly shook hands, communicated beautifully with the crowd; this was combined with the extraordinary artistry that is so innate to this man. "One Night In The City" and "Evil Eyes" follow, after which Dio pauses before the crowd and raises both hands in the horns — it was he who first brought this symbol to rock concerts.
A brief pause, then Dio's opening speech: he says that on this tour the entire debut album will be played, after which he disappears from the stage, and suddenly a large screen appears before the audience, displaying text roughly as follows: "Planet Earth… 1983… The evil empire of disco rules the world, but it will be destroyed by the armada of Dio" — followed by several more lines that I can't reproduce exactly; the point being that by the end it speaks of the salvation of humanity and that the time for Holy Diver has come — followed by a short animated sequence made with three-dimensional graphics. Eventually a large demon appears, identical to the one on the album cover, who begins to hurl lightning bolts, and soon his head transforms into Dio's head, announcing the album's song titles. And that's the end of the sequence.
Within a minute the band reappears on stage and begins playing the magnificent album from start to finish. "Stand Up And Shout" flows seamlessly into the album's title track "Holy Diver"; at its conclusion the hall responds with a tremendous roar, after which the whole band leaves again — except Simon, who plays a drum solo that in turn flows into "Gypsy," which flows into "Caught In The Middle." The next song was sung from beginning to end by the entire hall, at times drowning out Dio himself (in the floor section, at least, this effect was certainly present): "Don't Talk To Strangers" — one of the most lyrical and beautiful compositions of the evening. Again without a pause between tracks, "Straight Through The Heart" follows — everything exactly as it should be, in the exact same order the songs appear on the album. "Invisible" plays. The lights in the hall dim to near-darkness; someone even manages a few lighters before the slow lyrical intro gives way to the loud and pompous main body of the song. The song ends into the opening of another hit from the album — "Rainbow In The Dark." I want to particularly note the keyboardist's behaviour. Personally, my impression was that he performs roughly the same role in the band as Janick Gers in IRON MAIDEN — a kind of stage entertainer who plays relatively little but has a great deal of fun. For starters, for half the concert he played with one hand while somehow managing to dance simultaneously; and then you had to see how he played even with just one hand. He was genuinely playing — handling the synthesizer like a toy. Overall the keyboard parts were quite deliberately pushed into the background. The guitarist, drummer, and bassist meanwhile sounded simply excellent. The overall sound was perfect — the sound engineers didn't let anyone down. Rudy, incidentally, belongs to that small cohort of bassists who play without a pick. "Shame On The Night" brought this section of the concert to a close — it's the last track on the album. At the song's conclusion the lights in the hall again dimmed to near-darkness; the musicians left the stage or retreated to the back — all except Craig Goldie, who was to play his solo. Midway through his brilliant performance, Scott Warren joined him, and they brought it to a close as a duet.
The band is back on stage — a brief passage, and then two more verses of the title track "Holy Diver." Time for the classics. One of RAINBOW's finest songs follows — "Gates Of Babylon" — and again Goldie's brilliantly executed solo passages were there to be savoured.
The next composition is, for yours truly, the favourite from everything BLACK SABBATH ever recorded — the title track from the 1980 album, HEAVEN AND HELL. The song's structure shifted multiple times; essentially the first part was fairly standard, followed by several passages, choral singing with the hall (the whole thing ran for around 10 minutes), and the song concluded. A few seconds' pause — and I'd almost despaired, thinking they had chosen the version we hear on Live Evil, the 1982 Sabbath live album. But no — the bass guitar launched into blistering fast riffs, and… at this point I was genuinely astonished: in the next minute and a half, Goldie played Iommi's solo parts essentially without alteration, in the same form as they appear on the studio version. As for what was happening in the hall — it's hard to describe. People weren't merely jumping; they were literally leaping the moment Dio sang "They say that life's a carousel…"
The band appears at the centre of the stage, but there's no encore in the classic sense — the band doesn't leave the stage; they take up their positions again, and the celebrated RAINBOW debut track plays: "Man On The Silver Mountain." And then the opening riffs of one of rock's great anthems — "Long Live Rock'n'Roll." After "HEAVEN AND HELL" it had seemed like Dio was a little tired; but after this composition that impression vanished instantly. For a minute and a half, three thousand people sing along to "Long Live Rock'n'Roll," and the band takes another bow. A girl climbs onto the stage and presents Dio with flowers; simultaneously, a small elk with large antlers lands on the stage. Dio makes the horns sign above this plush toy and leaves the stage. A few songs before this a large flag bearing the word DIO had also been thrown onto the stage. In general, despite the crush at the front, there was not a single stage diver all evening; across the whole concert a few people climbed onto the stage and calmly left via the side steps without any involvement from security.
An encore in near-total darkness — and soon the band is on stage again playing "Last In Line." After which a few words: Dio explains that everything happening on stage this evening means that "We Rock" — this composition has ended Dio's concerts for many years, and so it did this time. Only at this moment did I look at the clock — 22:29 — remarkable. This 65-year-old man had delivered an enormous concert; his fitness, his voice, his inimitable artistry and stage presence are undoubtedly the envy of the overwhelming majority of musicians.
BRAVO! LONG LIVE ROCK'N'ROLL
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Report by Alan
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Setlist:
Intro Tarot Woman The Sign Of The Southern Cross One Night Of The City Evil Eyes Video (Intro to Holy Diver) Stand Up And Shout Holy Diver Drum Solo Gypsy Caught In The Middle Don't Talk To Strangers Straight To The Heart Invisible Rainbow In The Dark Shame On The Night Guitar Solo / Guitar + Keyboards Duet Holy Diver Gates Of Babylon HEAVEN AND HELL Man On The Silver Mountain Long Live Rock'n'Roll
Encore: Last In Line We Rock