568. Dio / Intermission. 1986. 4.5/5

Back in 1986, in the middle of the Sacred Heart tour, guitarist Vivian Campbell quit the band, and former Guiffria guitarist Craig Goldy was drafted in to take his place. Amongst the confusion, Dio released this live (apart from one song) EP entitled Intermission, perhaps as a way of introducing Goldy to Dio fans, perhaps just to put some more material out there to keep the fans happy.

No matter what the plan, here then is Dio live sans Campbell, which to me was somewhat of a tragedy, as he was a hero of mine at the time (still is, I guess). And no matter how good this sounds, you immediately notice the difference in the guitaring between the original versions with Vivian, and the live versions with Craig. Now there’s nothing wrong with it being different – a guitarist should be able to put his own stamp on songs in a band – but it just isn’t Vivian, and I can’t get past that!
The live versions are also noticeable for the greater influence the keyboards have, certainly more pronounced here than they are on the studio versions.

Away from all of this, Intermission is a worthy instalment in the Dio legacy. A selection of the band’s best is here, along with an excellent medley version of “Rock ‘n’ Roll Children” with Rainbow’s “Long Live Rock and Roll” and “Man on the Silver Mountain”. Slap in the middle (which was Track One of Side Two for those that had the vinyl like me) is the only studio track on the album, “Time to Burn”. It mightn’t be a world beater, but it again introduces Craig Goldy’s guitaring to the Dio universe, and is catchy enough.

This was released in Australia just before his tour in September 1986, and served as an excellent appetiser to that wonderful moment when I first saw Dio live. As a live EP in a collection of a career spanning five decades, it a pretty fair listen still.