BLACKMORE’S NIGHT – Past Times With Good Company

I feel bad when I read my review of Blackmore’s Night’s Fires At Midnight. I gave it only 8 points, and it was not worth that. It was worth a few more…

Here’s the first live album by Ritchie and his beautiful wife, hopefully the first out of many. Live, this happy loving couple and their back-up musicians, are true magic, and a live album can not really capture that. Their concerts are really among the best out there, if you’re in the mood to sit down and fully enjoy an evening of beautiful melodies, singing nicer than Carmen Electra without clothes, and of course – Ritchie’s guitar.

This album is indeed a pleasure to listen to, and there is absolutely nothing wrong the content. What’s my little issue then? Simply all the great songs they played (at least at the gigs I saw) that did not make it to this CD. Where is “Now And Then”? Where is “Wish You Were Here”? Where is “Catherine Howard’s Fate”? I could have made a long list, and the fact is, as long as this is a double CD set, nothing justifies the fact that these songs are not included. One thing comes to my mind though; it could be that a full show is being available for the Japanese market, so don’t be surprised if a highly overprized triple CD shows up. Yours truly is stupid enough to place an order, in that case…

So what do the CD have then? It starts of with “Written In The Stars”, which is actually not listed on my promo copy, then the band goes into “Shadow Of The Moon”. It all works, indeed. A few more songs from the debut, the title track from this live CD as well as the two last studio albums – sure I am in love. CD1 ends with “Soldier Of Fortune”, ahhhhh.

Disk 2 starts with Rainbow’s “16th Century Greensleeves”, and to be honest, I can really live without Rainbow songs in a Blackmore’s Night set. No harm intended, I just happen to be among the very few who likes Blackmore even more now in his older and medieval years. CD2 has two instrumentals, and though they are good, they don’t see the same interest as when Candice is on stage. The single “Home Again” works pretty well, and the release ends too early with “Writing On The Wall”, which is very different to most of Blackmore’s Night’s material.

All in all, I enjoy this CD very much, but I see ways it could have been a whole lot better. The music is awesome, the performance is flawless, I am just holding my breath for a DVD that captures it all; the magic, the spirit, and all my favorite song.