Rainbow continue on their merry way, with an American jaunt beginning on May 9th in Memphis and finishing on June 30th in Jackson, Tennessee. Stone and Daisley are still with the group. The Liverpool Empire has banned Rainbow after the damage done at the gigs there last year. The 'Long Live Rock'n'Roll' album went straight into the UK Top Ten in some charts, with advance orders of 40,000. 'Gates Of Babylon' seems to be the favourite, it is certainly the most original number on the album.

The warm-up tour was a non-starter in some places, the group arrived to find the stage too small even to fit the gear on. Two cancelled were at Colwyn Bay and Leeds. Some people got barred from club gigs for being under 18. The band learnt 'Only My Soul' but decided to drop it at the last minute to shorten the set, though it was included once on the tour, up in Redcar.There has been one line-up change since, with temporary keyboard player Brian Johnston being replaced by Pete Solley, who was once in Procol Harum.

The tried and tested rock'n'roll approach took the place apart. With a stage only two feet above the ground, Coverdale had to connect, and from the opening number 'Lady', it all clicked into place. The crowd were with them from the word go, those that could see - some resorting to climbing into the rafters for a better view. They came back for a short encore, 'Going Down', the track Purple used to end the 1974 dates with. Stuck atop my stool all night, I couldn't help feeling that Coverdale's return to the stage had been one of the most successful of any Purple member.

A good buy value-wise, with four unreleased tracks on it. It came out on June 2nd. Martin Birch produced it, Coverdale not being too happy with Glover's more - uh - delicate style. It is pressed in white vinyl with a special sleeve, if you're one of the first 15,000 that is, and all copies have a special label. There is a special film of the group, shot at Pinewood Studios, showing them miming to the stuff from the EP. This will tour cinemas in June as a support to a soft-porn movie called 'Bilitis'.

As far as we know, a team-up with Maggie Bell is still on, but there is no more news of it. The fate of the second PAL album is unclear, Coverdale reckons they played him the backing tracks to see if he wanted to put vocals on them, but he declined.