Dio – The Complete Donington Collection
Joe Siegler
- AllMyVinyl #75
- Band: Dio
- Album Title: The Complete Donington Collection
- Release Date: 24 May 2024
- Date purchased: 2 Jul 2024
- Location purchased: Record label
- Color of vinyl: black / picture disc
- Number of discs: 5
- Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube ]
This will be a very short one to the others, because of the nature of what this is.
Officially the title of this product is “Dio: The Complete Donington Collection”. It comprises the at the time already existing releases “Dio: Live at Donington 83” and “Dio” Live at Donington 87″. It also adds in an additional picture disc which is not new, there’s only two songs on it, and both are taken from the existing releases. It does look nice, but I question why this extra picture disc exists – as the content on it is already in my hands on one of the other discs. Each of the two sets are double vinyl, so the overall set is five discs. Although Side 4 of both sets have no music, it’s just etched artwork. So while there’s 5 total discs in this set, the fact that two of the sides are just etched art and no music means it’s REALLY just four discs? Does anyone do anything with etched artwork on vinyl? You look at it when you get it, and then never seen again unless you get the disc out to play the other side.
I have this because I was talking with my label rep for BMG and we were talking about the Anno Domini set, and he casually mentioned this set having come out a few weeks prior. I said I didn’t know anything about it, he asked if I wanted one, so he sent me one. That’s how I learned of this things’ existence and the only reason I have a copy is a casual conversation about another release by another band. :)
This is basically a vinyl version of the Dio at Donington 83 & Dio at Donington 87 releases which I’ve had on CD for awhile. I know the two were merged together at one point in the past on CD. They actually were released independently the year before on vinyl, but this box exists (I’m told) to gather unsold stock from the individual releases and package ’em together as a set, so the individual vinyls are inside a larger box (not that large, mind you). I’ve got pictures of it below (If you’re reading this on social media, there’s more pictures on my blog where I’m not limited to just four of them – ha).
This basically boils down to whether you like live Dio or not. If live albums aren’t your thing or for some reason you don’t care for Dio – or especially both then this won’t be for you.
Live albums aren’t my favorite thing – unless I happened to be there, which is rare – I admit. There has to be something special about a live album for me to want to buy it – even bands I buy everything from I don’t always want to buy live albums from. However, the songs on here show the powerhouse that Dio Mk I really was. Vivian Campbell in 1983 for Dio was smoking hot. I mean he followed in the path of Ritchie Blackmore & Tony Iommi with Dio, so he had to be. The Donington 83 shows how good that first version of Dio really was. The second one was with Craig Goldie in 87. Now I love Craig. My favorite ever individual Dio song is a Craig Goldie track (but it came from Magica). That one is no slouch either – but it’s an interesting way to contrast the guitarists styles as there’s a handful of tracks that appear on both albums.
I’m not getting into commenting on individual tracks on this one simply because it’s a live album, and there’s not always a ton of stuff to say about live tracks. Bottom line if you like Dio, you’ll probably really like these songs.
I know this one is short, but I don’t find a ton to say about live albums, and especially a box set of nothing but live material that I didn’t even know existed until the summer of 2024 (and I write this still in 2024). Don’t mistake my lack of writing for a lack of interest – there’s some great shit on here.
Bottom line – if you like Dio and like live albums, you’ll probably adore this. Lots of great playing on all aspects of the set – no doubt. I really enjoyed this, and had totally forgotten how much of a powerhouse Mk I Dio really was live – you’d think I’d remember that more, as I saw Mk I live a few times.
