Original DIO Members Vivian Campbell, Jimmy Bain, Vinny Appice, Claude Schnell Join Forces For "Some Gigs"

Former DIO and current Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell has revealed via Facebook that he is planning to join forces with three other original DIO members to play "some gigs" that will see the musicians performing material from the early DIO records that Campbell appeared on.

"I met up with the original DIO band guys, Vinny Appice (drums), Jimmy Bain (bass) and Claude Schnell (keyboards) again [Monday] night [April 30]. Now that I've brushed up on how to play those solos again, we're planning to jam some more and plan to do some gigs, too. We found a great singer who can really do justice to Ronnie's  parts."

Campbell, Appice and Schnell previously jammed together in late February. Vivian wrote at the time on his Facebook page, "I had so much fun playing 'Rainbow In The Dark' with Steel Panther (in January)that I've organized a get-together with my old DIO bandmates to jam some more of the old songs. I've been listening to the records trying to remember how the songs and solos go." He added, "Well, that was a hoot playing the old songs with the DIO guys again. I even broke out the original black Les Paul that I recorded them on (needs a re-fret really bad!). All in all, it sounded great and now we're thinking of taking it a stage further." Regarding who handled the vocals during the late-February jam session, he said, "A chap called Andy Freeman (friend of Vinny's) stopped by for about a half hour and sang a few of the songs. He was incredible!"

Campbell and Ronnie James Dio worked together on the first three DIO albums 1983's "Holy Diver", 1984's "The Last in Line" and 1985's "Sacred Heart" - before Irishman Campbell left to join Whitesnake in 1987. Their subsequent relationship was strained, to say the least. 

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