Jimmy Bain's Thunderbird

[Pekka]

Cool band! Never heard of that lineup.

Yes, it was only during the late '82 I believe. Lynott, Rimson, Darren Wharton, Gus Isadore, Jimmy Bain & Mark Nauseef.

[Pekka]

Too add a little confusion: I just read a quote in a Rainbow autobiography of keyboardsmith Tony Carey on Jimmy Bain: "Little Jimmy was great to have around. Great humour and a real rock'n'roller. Totally reliable on stage and he played that huge Gibson Thunderbird bass with something like 5.000 watts. I really liked him."

So that TBird might have crept on stage with Rainbow a couple of times after all, at least it left a lasting impression with Herr Carey.

It did. This is from the '75 pre-"Rising" gigs:


In case the pic doesn't show: http://cache2.asset-cache.net/gc/148302027-22nd-november-bass-player-jimmy-bain-from-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=GkZZ8bf5zL1ZiijUmxa7QZCYRWTl0inkhhytC1%2ba%2bAmvs76UbMzhIJ%2fh2bAhLrT%2f8up7sDNlL50qQfPX6tXOAw%3d%3d

[Pekka]

Another, a bit later 'cause he has cut his hair. Actually it's from a gig eight days earlier...


http://cache1.asset-cache.net/gc/148302026-14th-november-rock-group-rainbow-perform-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=GkZZ8bf5zL1ZiijUmxa7QQXE4fpIg9H%2bDWnQmbdKUkrAfRuFAjWJGmvW929hmIi1mdY%2bcY9753Z7Kbqrt2ksng%3d%3d

[uwe]

Links no work!

[lowend1]

In a roundabout way this fits here though it is the later line-up with David Stone and Bob Daisley - Ritchie had just received his first hair transplant too:

Transplant? Way too thick to be a transplant. Looks more like a selection from the Rug of the Month Club.

[Pekka]

Links no work!

Damn! And the pics no show! Gettyimages no like direct link.

"Jimmy Bain 1975" to google pic search, like this:
https://www.google.fi/search?q=jimmy+bain+1975&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi589bK5ajJAhVLhiwKHdcRCiwQ_AUIBygB&biw=1366&bih=657

[uwe]

Nice, when I saw him in 1976 he played that Telecaster bass though - even back then I would have remembered something as outlandish looking as a TBird. With Powell's bass drums pounding away, the TBird would have given issues cutting through. The Telecaster sounded nasty, but got itself heard.

Some talentless and heavy-handed Aussie band was the opening act back then. I believe they never amounted to much.

[Highlander]

They used to play the pubs in London... really odd bunch... singer often came on in a kilt playing the bagpipes... and as for the guitarist and those shorts...

[uwe]

Hopeless. Drummer was bad company too.

[Pekka]

Nice, when I saw him in 1976 he played that Telecaster bass though - even back then I would have remembered something as outlandish looking as a TBird. With Powell's bass drums pounding away, the TBird would have given issues cutting through. The Telecaster sounded nasty, but got itself heard.

Was it one of those gigs that got released later on?

The bass sound on "On Stage" is very good, not nasty at all. The two pickup Telecaster I presume.

[veebass]

Some talentless and heavy-handed Aussie band was the opening act back then. I believe they never amounted to much.

By then that Scott chap would have been the singer. I had encountered that band a few years earlier with a different singer to start with. We were initially bemused but largely unimpressed, far preferring a heavy little outfit called Buffalo that had been around for a while and an emerging one called Radio Birdman that really blew us away. Neither, of course, had the success we thought they should have, but key people from those bands continue. At about the time you refer there were two great Melbourne bands emerging, Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons and The Sports. Flowers (later Icehouse) were starting to do the inner city in Sydney. Another powerhouse band was distilling at about that time, Cold Chisel. It was a great time to be band watching in Pubs around Sydney and there was plenty of work for our little outfit!

Gratuitous display of Radio Birdman logo.

[clankenstein]

Nice logo.I saw radio birdman in london ,I think in 2005.they absolutely  rocked of course.

[uwe]

Was it one of those gigs that got released later on?

The bass sound on "On Stage" is very good, not nasty at all. The two pickup Telecaster I presume.

I really can't say anymore! The Frankfurt gig was not among that trilogy of gigs that got released later on, but it was the same tour. I'm not much of an On Stage fan, it came too early in the bands career (and featured recordings too late in the tour where Cozy Powell later on moaned "my playing was already suffering because I was too knackered"), featured almost nothing off Rising, got released when that particular line up was already history and the production is extremely flat. Strange that Martin Birch who did such great work with Purple, floundered on almost all Rainbow albums he produced: the debut is murky (compare Stormbringer or Come Taste the Band to it, both have aged much better), Rainbow Rising has hardly any bass or keyboards in the end mix, especially the European one (it sounds like Cozy and Ritchie rehearsing with Dio singing to it, the demos sound much better and audibly feature the whole band), even the orchestral parts are way too much in the background, On Stage is flat (compare Made in Europe to it which practically jumps out of the speakers at you, even Last Concert in Japan SOUNDS better, never mind Bolin's flawed performance on it), only Long Live Rock'n'Roll is up to Martin's producton standard. I always wondered whether Blackmore kept Martin Birch on a tighter budget or intervened too much for the production outcomes being so poor.