Shadowing Practice: REAL Reason I Left Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow: Graham Bonnet - Learn English Speaking with Video
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yeah well we were rehearsing in uh copenhagen trying to write the next album
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and um we had a new drummer because cozy had left
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so we had this new drummer with a huge fucking hairdo
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and uh talk about hair and uh we will go to this rehearsal room
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and some days there were like two people
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there another day there'd be three of us there one day
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there was me there nobody was interested especially richie
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i'm supposed to be you know making up new songs for a new album
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and uh i think the laziness was
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because we had a song from russ ballard again uh a song called i surrender
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and that's the only song we had
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and uh i said to roger
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i said well what we're gonna do we haven't got anything
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he said well we've got i surrender the russ ballard tune he said do you want to go in
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and do the backing harmony i said yeah we'll start there at least
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so i went in and did some backing harmonies
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which weren't used in the end i don't think uh and
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that was kind of it i didn't do a lead vote on it at all
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and uh it was very uh not very it wasn't productive at all
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because richie wasn't coming in and showing us what to do you know
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and some some days he would
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and anyway it just got to like well what the what are we doing you know we have nothing
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and time was passing by
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and you know the album started recording like yesterday
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and okay well we've got got to i surrender yeah okay well what else have we got
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so you know he's sitting looking at each other
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and don says donnie always says i'm gonna go home oh no don't go home right come on no no don
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i need you here because me and don are very me me
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and don and cozy very close three musketeers and when Cozy was gone it was like kidding me anyway
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Don says I'm going I don't like the new the new the drummer and everything says
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Cozy's gone it's not the same and nobody's turning up for rehearsal anyway
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so uh he said I'm gonna go home and I said well uh if you go home
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Don I'll go home too because I'm not finding this very interesting
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or excited or what either nothing's happening so I went home
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and he didn't he stayed he said you bloody mess
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so he stayed
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and I thought I said I thought you were gonna leave I mean anyway he didn't
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and uh I got a phone call from uh our manager
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the band manager who said well are you coming back for him
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I said no I want to do something else and I thought
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Don was going to leave it
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Don's still with the band yeah yes he's with the band
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he said well i said well i don't uh
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i don't know what to do he said well we found another singer
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and if you come in and sing the songs you'd like
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and let this other singer sing the songs you don't like whatever
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that means and uh we'll go that way i said no
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that that doesn't work two singers in rainbow no i can't see
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that you know and uh
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so i left the band i wasn't fired although people like to think I was
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because I had another haircut or something
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or come out of the bathroom
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sorry about the hair yeah so
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that was it for me I found a guy in LA a guy called Andy Truman who had a good
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reputation he managed Jethro Tull, The Bass Leader Rollers
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a bunch of different people you know all different genre
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and one of my friends introduced me to him
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and he took over management and
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so he said well Brian what you should do is get yourself a band together
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and that's how Alcatraz was formed in my garage
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and that took a while too but that's what I wanted to do was form my own band
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that was similar to Rainbow have the same kind of lined up keyboards,
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guitar, bass that kind of a line and that's what happened then, yeah.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “REAL Reason I Left Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow: Graham Bonnet”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: don, band, song, anyway, cozy. This video has 63 sentences and 727 words to shadow. The speech runs for 4:07. The speaker talks at a natural 176 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| bind verb | /ˈbaɪ̯nd/ | To tie; to confine by any ligature. |
| surrender verb | /səˈɹɛndə(ɹ)/ | To give up into the power, control, or possession of another. |
| drummer noun | /ˈdɹʌmɚ/ | One who plays the drums. |
| bass noun | /beɪs/ | A low spectrum of sound tones. |
| harmony noun | /ˈhɑ̟ɹ.mə.ni/ | Agreement or accord. |
| rehearsal noun | /ɹɪˈhɝsl̩/ | The practising of something which is to be performed before an audience, usually to test or improve the interaction between several participating people, or to… |
| guitar noun | /ɡɪˈtɑɹ/ | A stringed musical instrument, of European origin, usually with a fretted fingerboard and six strings, played with the fingers or a plectrum (guitar pick). |
| reputation noun | /ˌɹɛpjʊˈteɪʃən/ | What somebody or something is known for. |
| introduce verb | /ˌɪntɹəˈdus/ | To cause (someone) to be acquainted (with someone else). |
| tune noun | /tjuːn/ | A melody. |
| garage noun | /ɡəˈɹɑʒ/ | A building (or section of a building) used to store a car or cars, tools and other miscellaneous items. |
| productive adjective | /pɹəˈdʌk.tɪv/ | Capable of producing something, especially in abundance; fertile. |
| genre noun | /ˈ(d)ʒɑnɹə/ | A kind; a stylistic category or sort, especially of literature or other artworks. |
| keyboard noun | /ˈki.bɔɹd/ | A set of keys laid out in a gridlike pattern, used for typing on a typewriter, computer, etc. |
| haircut noun | /ˈhɛə(ɹ)kʌt/ | The act of cutting of the hair, often done professionally by a barber, hair stylist, or beautician. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| line up verb | /laɪnˈʌp/ | To align; to put in alignment; to put in correct adjustment for smooth running. |
| make up verb | /ˌmeɪk ˈʌp/ | To constitute, to compose. |
| take over verb | To assume control of something, such as a business or enterprise, and sometimes by force. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | wasn't fired · was formed |
| Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past | were rehearsing · wasn't coming · was passing |
| Future with “going to” be going to + verb — a plan or something you can see coming | gonna do · gonna go · gonna leave |
| Future with “will” will + verb — a decision, promise or prediction | will go · we'll start · I'll go |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 33 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, gonna. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: reputation /ˌɹɛpjʊˈteɪʃən/, garage /ɡəˈɹɑʒ/, genre /ˈ(d)ʒɑnɹə/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like bind, surrender, drummer.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.