From the Dusty Archives: Dio, the Little Wizard, in Top Form Bringing Rainbow and Black Sabbath Classics Back to Life (2002)

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 11 June 2026

Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik

Location: Graz / Orpheum Teater / Austria
Concert date: September 18, 2002
Attendance: 1200
Ticket price: €35.00

The Austrians Firestorm opened the night. Hmmmm, I had two or three beers in me (can’t remember exactly anymore), and this Austrian imitation of glam shock rock with open, simple riffs went down great. At first glance, the band, dressed in sadomasochistic gear with light-blue contact lenses, actually looked seriously evil. But the music really surprised me. I’d expected some “puking” instead of singing and, well, a complete bloodbath. Quite the opposite. A perfect cover of “Wild Boys” by the now-legendary Duran Duran, whose members were real incarnations of princes on white horses for teenage girls in the first half of the eighties, was sadly the only song in their repertoire that I knew. The band leader naturally had the final say. He sang lead vocals and played lead guitar. The solos mostly came at the classic song outros, but he fired off two inside the songs too. The guy with his Gibson Explorer didn’t overcomplicate things with solo spots (read: the three-finger soloing of a sixties rocker) and so kept the punch going. He sang high and at times really whined a lot like Simon Le Bon (Duran Duran). The view of the two girls in the band was a treat. The first, a rhythm guitarist with a Gibson SG, was especially lively, she looked downright untamed and constantly urged the passive crowd to finally “shake it” a little. The second, the keyboardist, came across a touch more mysterious. And that probably made her even more drool-worthy. You, you pervert, the things going through my head. All the members showed how tight the band is, back vocals included. So Firestorm are no joke, and they proved it with an extremely decent and committed performance, which shocked me, because I’m really not used to that from Austrian homegrown bands. Older physical persons – I mean men in their “most vital” years (40 and up) – of course grumbled and whined about Firestorm the whole time. Except for one. That guy was drunk as a skunk, and when he saw that Dejan and I were the only ones “shaking it” in the front row to the rhythm of “dance music,” he started pestering us like crazy and hanging all over us. I don’t know, I clearly have rotten luck, but if there’s just one pain in the ass in the whole hall at a gig, he’ll always end up right next to me. At Motorhead three months ago in the same hall, one guy like that, naturally “stiff as a board” from all the alcohol, grabbed me by the genitals while he was shoving his way to the front row. Firestorm made the most of their half hour. Provocative, no question. But they still need to polish things up and “spit in their hands” properly so that it really roars on stage the way it should. Let’s wish them all the luck.

DIO:
Then the roadies had quite a long show of their own. Of course they’re scared of and fully respect the authority of His Excellency Ronnie James Dio, who loves to go ballistic if a speaker so much as accidentally farts a little when it shouldn’t. Anyway, through thick fog and to the sounds of the intro, the band members clambered onto the stage. “Killing The Dragon,” goosebumps right away. Uf, that riff!!! Dio, Dio is right in front of me! A 60-year-old guy, a meter-tall man who lets out a yell that strips us right out of our skins. And once again Dio was Dio like thirty years ago. Right away I felt the magic between the legend Jimmy Bain (ex-Rainbow) and Ronnie on stage. Two good old companions with no secrets between them.

And there was more. Doug Aldritch (ex-Bad Moon Rising, Burning Rain), that is. When they went straight on without a pause into “Egypt (the chains are on),” the famous classic from Dio’s debut, with a worn-out Fender Stratocaster in his hands, a youngster who carries the eternity of the creations of R. Blackmore, J. Page, T. Iommi and the like… I couldn’t believe it. The way he nailed Iommi’s solo in “Children Of The Sea.” Playing from the very bottom of the sacrum (os sacrum). He turned into a one-of-a-kind medium. Pure, raw “feeling,” in other words. The most a musician on stage can offer you (along with a good set list, though Dio’s set list can only be bad in one case: if he built it from two records, “Strange Highways” and “Angry Machines,” which is nothing to worry about, since he stubbornly ignores songs from those).

Next up was Simon Wright (ex-AC/DC) with his drum solo. Soon the familiar backing from the opera “Carmina Burana” joined his pounding, and Simon didn’t beat around the bush, he just machine-gunned the INSERT from the opera on his drums. There, something different again. Bravo!

So we wouldn’t start yawning, once Simon was done with his solo battering, Dio fired up the crowd with “Stand Up And Shout!!!!” The crowd went nuts. Dio with his trademark gestures. Unique and unrepeatable. When you know that Ronnie is what he is. The little man was in his element and giving off incredible vibes. He kept shaking hands with the fans in the front row, giving each of them a look and a smile. Without a shred of arrogance. Not like most singers, who sweep past the front row in a second with the “gimme five” routine and don’t even look at the crowd while doing it. I had goosebumps, and Dio carried on with “Don’t Talk To Strangers,” followed by the Rainbow classic “Man On The Silver Mountain.”

And yet, shock after shock, which we kept going through thanks to that incredible set list (holy cow, I only just thought about it and I’m covered in goosebumps again)… Doug’s solo spot, that is. The turquoise, beaten-up, worn-down, peeled Strat was already, just by appearing on stage, a creation that offered more than a piece of wood with six strings and some pickups bolted on. And when Doug started… That’s it. Lived-in, completely lived-in. When man and instrument melt into one. I don’t remember a solo spot like it. Not Steve Vai, not Victor Smolski, not Y.J. Malmsteen… forget that school-taught musical “fanciness,” that’s out. There’s no room for coldness here. Strictly simple, primal feelings. The way the guy kneaded the pull-offs, dusted off the hammering inside fifths, strolled up the neck with arpeggios and decorated the whole thing with short bursts of quickly improvised riffs, excellent licking and hanging off the tremolo. On top of that he pulled cathartic grimaces, twisted his mouth, and in the end lay down on the floor with the guitar and nearly staged real sex with it while coaxing the melody out of it. Doug was in such a state that he hurled the guitar with all his force back toward his amps and the foot of Simon’s drums. “There, you got yours, who’s next!?!?” Yeeeah, devastation to the very end!!!!

After that sorcery, Dio and company went on reviving Rainbow (“Long Live Rock’n Roll”). During his solo spot Doug hurt himself, bleeding from behind his left ear, and he’d scraped the skin off the middle finger of his left hand too. But he didn’t care. Untamed and totally wild.

All right, all right. Slow down a bit, guys, I’m really going to explode. And they actually did. Two songs from the “Magica” album followed, where Doug could finally catch his breath. Then came the big finale. The ultimate madness kicked off with the speeding, steel-hard Black Sabbath legacy “Mob Rules.” After it came complete silence, broken by that famous splendid keyboard intro announcing that the concert was slowly sliding toward its end. “Holy Diver.” Something was clearly off. Dio was slapping his left hand against his thigh and waved at Simon a few times, as in “speed up the rhythm already,” but Simon wouldn’t be “disturbed,” so there was quite a bit of irritation on Ronnie’s face. Was Simon running out of steam toward the end of the show? I strongly doubt it. A bit of conditioning training wouldn’t hurt Simon in that case, or he simply wasn’t paying attention to Dio’s gestures to pick up the tempo of the existing rhythm.

Guess what Dio saved for last? Heaven followed and… hell. Yes!!! “Heaven And Hell,” when the stage was wrapped in black and a spotlight with a beam of red light lit Dio’s face from below, so Ronnie looked like a real devil. Ahh, that grandiose eternal riff and the magic of Iommi’s invention, Doug once again fully immersed, in Tony’s footsteps, Dio roaring into the mic with all his might once more, with Jimmy on his right (looking toward the stage) leading the pre-chorus on bass. No, no… don’t let it end! Yes, just an illusion. The main part of the concert was over.

The guys came back and opened the encore with “Last In Line.” Dio was cranky again, which he showed plainly with his gestures. The monitor sound wasn’t right. They continued with “Rainbow In The Dark,” where Scott on keyboards finally got a more visible role. And that was the end. They skipped the classic “We Rock.” Why, you didn’t have to guess twice. Because of the sound. Dio was furious. To be honest, the sound wasn’t perfect, Dio’s vocals weren’t well audible because of the lousy “mix,” and unfortunately Ronnie was drowned out by Doug’s guitar several times during the show.

But however you look at it, only legends conjure up an atmosphere like that. Why couldn’t I (or rather, didn’t want to) go to Hughes/Turner two days ago, holy cow, I’m mad at myself. These people are like good old wine. Experience, self-confidence, it’s simply a feeling of invincibility and eternity. These are people who created everything, and even today they literally kill on stage with their performances, that’s how high-ambient an atmosphere they’re able to conjure up. There’s less and less of that these days. Originality, primal power, the giving of raw emotions.

photos: Aleš Podbrežnik

English version(intie with Jimmy Bain included – scroll down the barr)

This is a very long report so I decided to divide it INTO a few chapters. I hope that you will be able to find the facts that you are most interested in without any problems.

1. PRE-CONCERT ACTIVITIES:
I was especially honored that day, HAVING a perfect view next to me on the back seat of our car. This is really rare, when my girlfriend decides to visit a gig. And Dio was the one she just couldn’t miss. We had a great time during our car drive to Graz talking about everything, but mostly about women. So the time passed quickly and suddenly we were in front of Orpheum. We had some problems with parking the car, so we made a few circles and finally succeeded in finding a cool place. At 6:30 p.m. we entered the Orpheum’s main gates and went directly for our tickets (35 Euro/person) and further on to spend our “change” on T-shirts. Merchandise was expensive as hell. The next logical move was to wait by the hall’s door that were still locked. At 7:30 p.m. we exploded through the main entrance and got our positions in the first row as usual.

2. CONCERT
2.1. Support act
The support group, Austrians Firestorm, came on stage at 8:00 p.m. Due to their sado-masochistic image and pale blue colour of their contact lenses, they looked very evil. I expected barking instead of singing, in other words a complete deicide. But my expectations were wrong this time. Firestorm are a good imitation of glam shock rock scene. Well, by that time I had two or three beers and I felt good. I really enjoyed group’s performance. Unfortunately everything that sounded familiar to me was a cover FROM Duran Duran (“Wild Boys”). It was perfectly figured out. Firestorm took things in their hands very seriously. They did it with enthusiasm and very precise. The leader of the band was playing lead guitar (Gibson Explorer model). His guitar solos were added mainly in fade outs, but two of them also found their place in middle sections of the songs. Plus that he performed lead vocals clean and high. But he has still a lot to practice on, I felt still a little lack of power here. Solos were easy structured and perfectly fitted INTO sound of the band as whole. GROUP of five members consisted of two girls. First was a rhythm guitarist using her Gibson SG model. She was very alive and untamed on stage, working very hard to warm up a very passive audience. The other girl took duty over keyboards. The band as whole also performed back vocals very well. Those half an hour was a proof that Firestorm aren’t a joke and that in I’m sure that we’ll hear a lot about this band in the future. I wish them good luck.

2.2. DIO
Roadies occupied the stage for quite a long time, giving us a real hard time while waiting for Dio to SHOW up. I understand their position. Ronnie is a professional. If one of monitors fart in a way it shouldn’t, Ronnie can go mad. So sound technicians have always plenty of work here. After I almost died of waiting, we could saw silhouettes on stage that was covered by fog. “Killing The Dragon”, yeah that riff. It began! Dio in front of me. Dio with 60 years in his pocket. A meterman that still kills with his shouts. The same shouts as they were 30 years ago. I felt the magic between two old friends Jimmy Bain (ex-Rainbow) and Ronnie (also ex-Rainbow). There are no secrets between those two guys. What a power voltage, but more was yet to follow.

Doug Aldritch (Burning Rain, ex-Bad Moon Rising) was guilty for that. After fade out of “Killing The Dragon”, the band continued their SHOW without pause with a classic song FROM Dio’s debut album (“Holy Diver”) “Egypt (the chains are on)”. Doug, with Fender Stratocaster, a youngster who carries all legacy of such maestros as R. Blackmoore, J. Page or T. Iommi are. I couldn’t believe my ears, when I heard how he did “Children Of The Sea” solo. If I closed my eyes for a moment, I would have thought that T. Iommi is on stage. I am talking about pure feeling here. Let us leave school knowledge beside. You won’t find rational coldness here, but pure emotional burnt offerings. Doug turned INTO a mediator and just let his feelings to express through soulful performance.

Simon’s turn was soon to follow. Simon Wright (ex-AC/DC) performed his drum solo through Carmina Burana main motive in the background. He perforated that motive with great rollings during his jam session. It was a new, different approach, I’m not used to anticipate. An interesting idea. How to make Carmina Burana sound even more ambiental and powerful, both at the same time. Now, can you imagine Carmina Burana main motive driven in heavy metal riffing?

After Simon finished his drum solo, the band went on full with “Stand Up And Shout”. The crowd went mad. Dio with his unique gesticulations, his acting… He is he. Just a man expressing himself as we all should, without fear FROM any authorities. He is living his life. So his vibrations were really something special. I felt peace and love. He was giving his thanks to the crowd in the front row by shaking hands. Anytime he gave his hand to someone, he looked that person in the eyes and smiled. This is why I call such acts like Dio unrepeatable. Pure magic. Band continued with “Don’t Talk To Strangers” and Rainbow’s classic “Man On The Silver Mountain”.

We went through plenty of shocks so far but more was yet to follow. The next one was Doug’s solo on guitar. Again soulful. When guitar and man collide. Fantastic. It was just pure drive of fast “in mind” created riffs perfectly mixed with first class arpeggios blazing all over the guitar’s neck. Oouuuch, what fast hammering with great pull-offs added. Everything was brilliantly spiced with nice licks, using of tremolo and taping bridges incorporated. A best possible puzzle. Again Doug turned himself INTO mediator, giving us a chance to enjoy and see a phenomenon when pure feelings overdominate musical knowledge. I don’t remember a guitar solo that could be played with such great balls. Soulfully. Doug was so inspired and full of enthusiasm, that he wounded himself. He was bleeding out of his finger on his left hand and also under his left ear. But he didn’t care. At the end of his solo performance he put down his weapon, laid beside it, still drawing tunes out of it. When he finished his trick, he threw the guitar in front of Simon’s drum kit, completely sweaty. Devastation ’till the end!

After that magic, the band continued in bringing Rainbow spirit alive by performing “Long Live Rock’n’Roll”. O.K. guys, calm down a bit, I’m gonna explode. And they did. They’ve slowed down a little bit. Two pieces FROM “Magica” album followed, so Doug could relax a bit. But not for long. The ultimate breakdown arrived. It was an iron piece, a part of Dio’s Black Sabbath stuff “Mob Rules”. After that great silence swallowed the hall for a moment. Then very familiar sounds broke it. Intro of “Holy Diver”. When they came to the main riff, the beat was to slow. Dio immediately felt that, giving Simon a sign to speed up things a little bit. But Simon didn’t let himself to be disturbed and continued to play the piece in unchanged lower gear. Dio was very angry because of that. I saw that look on his face. But nevermind. We came to the last piece. This was the return of heaven… and hell. Dio’s face spotted with red light seemed like Lucifer’s one. This was in my opinion the highlight of the gig. Uf, that grandiose eternal riff invented by Iommi. Don’t let this end. Ah, unfortunately just a grand illusion. It was the end.

Guys returned for an encore. They began with “Last In Line”. During performance of “Last In Line” Dio showed some frustrations again. Sound wasn’t right. And after “Rainbow In The Dark” the band finished their gig. They’ve left out “We Rock” FROM their set list due to sound problems. During the entire SHOW Ronnie’s vocals were sometimes obscured by guitars. Sound was therefore, concerning the vocals, far FROM being perfect.

But anyway, these are legends that bring magic, an ambiental experience that is very rare to find nowadays on stage. They carry on all their self-consciousness, experiences and a feeling of being unbeatable. That makes them eternal. They are like good old wine. These guys are even today, with all their years, real killers on stage. Revealing the power of ideas, which derives out of pure primordial feelings.

3. POST-CONCERT ACTIVITIES:
At the end we had some more entertainment. We wanted autographs. Both, roadies and security guards lied to us. They tried to convince us that the band won’t SHOW up and that is better for us to go home. If we had believed just one of them, it would be a real disaster. First of the band, who joined us in front of backstage, was Doug. He was delighted to receive some good critics about his performance. “Dio can raise you in heaven or crush you down straight to hell! It depends how you co-operate with him. I’m very honored to work with him and I’m HAVING a big time right now!” Doug wasn’t affected by someone’s really untasty comment: “But Rainbow and Ritchie Blackmore are still the best!” Then Jimmy came out of the backstage. Totally cool person, always prepared for a discussion. When he was asked to bring some guitar picks, he replied: “Of course man, I’ll be back in the minute!” It lasted more than a minute for Jimmy to get back, but when he did, he brought with him a dozen guitar picks.

Then the biggest moment happened. Ronnie himself came out of backstage. Dressed in his dark brown leather jacket. As on his photos in early eighties Black Sabbath co-operation. My friend sworn himself before the concert that he will fall on his knees if we succeeded to get Dio’s autograph. And he really did it. He fell on his knees in front of Dio, saying: “Dio you are a God to me!” Dio was a little embarrassed, when thanking my friend. Roady, who took care of Dio’s personal security, the same liar, who tried to convince us to leave the place, ’cause band is not in the mood right now, said to my friend: “Relax please!” Was he thinking perhaps that we would eat Dio alive? Stupid. Dio was giving thanks to each one of us. He talked to everybody, asking our names, where are we coming FROM and similar things. As a good old friend. I didn’t feel any distance between him and us. I’m still shaking when thinking back.

What the hell? The same guy, Blackmore’s admirer, even asked Ronnie the same old stupid question: “Is there any possibility for Rainbow reunion?” Dio simply replied: “Yes, there is always a possibility!” So he answered him something or nothing, as a good and well experienced politician. Stupid answer on a stupid question. If you ask me, it would be a real pity for something like this to happen. Ritchie’s narrow minded ego isn’t worth all of Ronnie’s talents. If we only compare poetry that Dio is writing. Not to mention how Ritchie’s mind went worse due to his strange musical adventures with his Candice. Dio simply rules! Rainbow reunion, what a crazy idea to think of. They are a part of music history. Only Dio is worth of keeping alive the spirit of bands such as Elf, Rainbow or Black Sabbath (in their early eighties). He, he, he. We got autographs FROM all band’s members. We laughed to the security guards, who tried to get rid of us as soon as possible just to go home and to bed.

4. A LITTLE CHAT WITH JIMMY BAIN:
This is still not the end of this report. Meanwhile, when we were waiting for Ronnie to come out of backstage, Anja had a little conversation with Jimmy Bain. It was funny because she didn’t recognize him, and when she joined us, she simply explained that she talked to “one guy over there”. Jimmy was dressed in an anorak and old jeans after the gig. A completely different image FROM what we saw one hour ago on stage.

Jimmy: “Where do you come from?”
Anja: “From Slovenia, ex-Yugoslavia.” Jimmy: “On border with Hungary?”
Anja: “Yes, and Austria, Italy and Croatia also.”
Jimmy: “There were certain rumors that we’ll play in Croatia, but than something went wrong, and that tour date was canceled.”
Anja: “What a pity. Croatians are much warmer people than these Austrians.”
Jimmy: “Yes. Today when I was walking around Graz, people stared at me as if I landed down FROM Mars! Uf, very unpleasant looks, I really got a bad impression.” (Jimmy showed some frustrations.)
Anja: ” Yes, that sounds familiar.”
Jimmy: “So, are you going back to Slovenia now?”
Anja: “Yes, it is only two hours FROM here when driving with a car. I came here with those people over there.” (points finger onto us)
Jimmy: “I see, are they a family?”
Anja: “Aha!”
Jimmy: “I’m still fascinated. That kid (points on my friend’s son) sang all songs we performed today. Unbelievable. And his mum also!”
Jimmy: “Are in Slovenia all girls so pretty as you are?”
Anja (as a world champion of HAVING the greatest sense of sarcasm): “I don’t know any of them.”
Jimmy: “Don’t believe ya… I bet that you do!” (Jimmy shows her a bracelet made out of little ropes and asks her to bind that bracelet around his wrist)
Anja: “Where did you get this?”
Jimmy: “Today here in Graz, one guy FROM India sold me this thing. But please don’t bind it to strong.”
Jimmy: “Today the feeling wasn’t as good as usually. Stage was to high, we couldn’t communicate with the audience as we are used to. Yesterday we played in front of 2000 people in Vienna.” (meanwhile one guy stepped closer and observed both of them)
Jimmy: “Is this your guy?”
Anja: “Oh, no. He is over there. Do you see him, jumping full of enthusiasm around Ronnie carrying that green map, waiting for autographs?”

Than a guy who was obviously disabled came up to Jimmy. He was blind, and also HAVING psycho-motorical problems. It was also clear that he drank too much. So he was a real pain in the ass to all of us. Too aggressive. Jimmy had a real problem getting rid of him after giving him an autograph.

Jimmy: “I did a real stupid thing. I gave an autograph to a blind guy!”
Anja: “Who cares. It means a lot to him. He can hear you, feel vibrations, he knows that you’re not bluffing and that you are sincere. And that you are playing out of navel.
Jimmy: “Yes, we are playing FROM the heart, FROM that… whatever you said. This is everything I know. To play good.”
Jimmy (looking for a more relaxed theme): “How long are you with him?” (he thought about me, was I by coincidence Jimmy’s pain in the ass?)
Anja: “For a very long time.”
Jimmy: “Oh, I see. I’m married for a second time. I went through six years of marriage now, but I am in front of a new divorce.”

Jimmy gave two “Aftershow Party – Dio Tour 2002” permanent tickets to Anja and asked her to join the band on that evening. Well, after all, Jimmy failed to convince my girlfriend and luckily she is still here in Slovenia with me..

Well, I don’t remember so diverse things happening during a concert. Another fantastic experience. Pure entertainment. Dio obviously won’t give up. He is planing to record a new album entitled “Magica II” and that will be followed by another tour. We’ll see what the future brings. Life is so beautiful.

photos taken by: Aleš Podbrežnik

Setlist

DIO:
01. Killing The Dragon
02. Egypt
03. Children Of The Sea
04. Push
05. Drum Solo (S. Wright)
06. Stand Up And Shout
07. Rock’n’Roll
08. Don’t Talk To Strangers
09. Man On The Silver Mountain
10. Guitar Solo (D. Aldritch)
11. Long Live Rock’n’Roll
12. Lord Of The Last Day
13. Fever Dreams
14. Mob Rules
15. Holy Diver
16. Heaven And Hell
—encore—
17. Last In Line
18. Rainbow In The Dark
19. We Rock (not played)