Graham Bonnet - Flying Not Falling 1991 – 1999 album review

Collecting Graham Bonnet’s solo albums in the 90s often required hiring private detectives to track them down, and a willingness to sell a kidney to cover the price of Japanese imports. This set sees them rounded up, rounded out with bonus live cuts (Alcatrazz and Rainbow faves) and remastered. The Day I Went Mad (1999) features Slash and Viv Campbell adding fretboard finesse to a varied collection of melodic hard rockers, one of Graham’s strongest solo releases. Underground (1997), with fellow Alcatrazz escapee Danny Johnson, has experimental moments, but hits the spot in the main, the Skegness Soprano particularly forceful on Whiplash and a bracing take on Jimi’s The Wind Cries Mary. Here Comes The Night (1991) revisits Bonnet’s pop and soul roots with Rainbow bandmate Don Airey on keyboards, highlights including Sam Cooke’s A Change Is Gonna Come and The Kinks’ I Go To Sleep.