Rainbow (rock band)

Rainbow (band)" redirects here. For the South Korean

band, see Rainbow (South Korean band).
Rainbow (also known as Ritchie Blackmores Rainbow or Blackmores Rainbow) were a British rock band
led by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore from 1975 to 1984
and 1993 to 1997. They were originally established with
Ronnie James Dio's American rock band Elf, but after
the rst album, Blackmore red the backing members
and continued with Dio until 1979. Three British musicians joined in 1979, singer Graham Bonnet, keyboardist
Don Airey, former Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover,
and this line-up gave the band their commercial breakthrough with the single "Since You Been Gone". Over the
years Rainbow went through many line-up changes with
no two studio albums featuring the same line-up. Other
lead singers Joe Lynn Turner and Doogie White would
follow, and the project consisted of numerous backing
musicians. The band started out combining mystical
lyric themes with neoclassical metal, but went in a more
streamlined commercial style following Dios departure
from the group.[1]
Rainbow were ranked No. 90 on VH1s 100 Greatest
Artists of Hard Rock.[2] The band has sold over 28 million albums worldwide.

1
1.1

History
Formation (1975)

By 1973, Blackmore had steered Deep Purple through a

signicant personnel change, with Ian Gillan and Roger
Glover being replaced by David Coverdale and Glenn
Hughes. However, the new members were keen to add
new musical styles and Blackmore found his request
to record the Steve Hammond-penned Black Sheep
of the Family with Sixteenth Century Greensleeves
turned down by the band.[3] He decided to record the
song with Dio instead, using his band Elf as additional
musicians.[4] He enjoyed the results, and a full album,
billed as Ritchie Blackmores Rainbow was recorded between February and March 1975 at Musicland Studios in
Munich, Germany.[5] The band name was inspired by the
Rainbow Bar and Grill in Hollywood.[6]

Ronnie James Dio in 2006.

lyrics about medieval themes. Dio possessed a versatile

vocal range capable of singing both hard rock and lighter
ballads, and, according to Blackmore, I felt shivers down
my spine.[9] Although Dio never played a musical instrument on any Rainbow album, he is credited with writing
and arranging the music with Blackmore, in addition to
writing all the lyrics himself.[5][10][11] Blackmore and Dio
also found a common ground in their sense of humour.[12]

Following the positive experience of recording with Dio,

Blackmore decided to leave Deep Purple, playing his last
show in Paris in April.[3][13] The album had a positive
Rainbows music was partly inspired by classical music critical reception and was a top 20 UK and top 30 US
since Blackmore started playing cello to help him con- hit. Blackmores departure from Deep Purple was pubstruct interesting chord progressions,[7][8] and Dio wrote licly announced on 21 June.[14]
1

1.2

HISTORY

First world tour and initial success quickly reinstated,[24] but as the world tour progressed
onto Japan, he found himself regularly being the recipient
(197578)

Rainbow performing in Munich in 1977. The electric rainbow

that spanned the stage used so much power, it frequently interfered with the guitars and ampliers.[15]

Blackmore was unhappy about carrying the Elf line-up

along for live performances, and so he red everybody
except Dio shortly after the album was recorded, due to
Driscolls style of drumming and the funky bass playing of Gruber.[16] Blackmore would continue to dictate
personnel for the remainder of the bands lifetime, with
drummer and former bandmate Ricky Munro remarking he was very dicult to get on with because you
never knew when he would turn around and say 'You're
sacked'.[17] Blackmore recruited bassist Jimmy Bain,
American keyboard player Tony Carey and drummer
Cozy Powell, who had previously worked with Je Beck
and had some solo success.[16] Powell also greatly appealed to Blackmore in their mutual fondness for practical
jokes.[18]

of Blackmores pranks and humour.[25] Blackmore subsequently decided that Bain was substandard and red him
in January 1977. The same fate befell Carey shortly after. Blackmore, however, had diculty nding replacements he liked. On keyboards, after auditioning several
high prole artists, including Vanilla Fudge's Mark Stein,
Procol Harum's Matthew Fisher and ex-Curved Air and
Roxy Music man Eddie Jobson, Blackmore nally selected Canadian David Stone, from the little-known band
Symphonic Slam. For a bass player, Blackmore originally chose Mark Clarke, formerly of Jon Hiseman's
Colosseum, Uriah Heep and Tempest, but once in the
studio for the next album, Long Live Rock 'n' Roll, Blackmore disliked Clarkes ngerstyle method of playing so
much that he red Clarke on the spot and played bass
himself on all but four songs: the albums title track,
Gates of Babylon, Kill the King, and Sensitive to
Light. Former Widowmaker bassist, Australian Bob
Daisley was hired to record these tracks, completing the
bands next line-up.
After the release and extensive world tour in 197778,
Blackmore decided that he wanted to take the band in
a new commercial direction away from the sword and
sorcery theme.[26] Dio did not agree with this change and
left Rainbow.

1.3 Commercial success (1978-84)

This line-up also commenced the rst world tour for the
band, with the rst date in Montreal on 10 November
1975. The centrepiece of the bands live performance
was a computer-controlled rainbow including 3000 lightbulbs, which stretched 40 feet across the stage.[19] [18] A
second album, Rising, was recorded in February at Musicland. By the time of the European dates in the summer of 1976, Rainbows reputation as a blistering live
act had been established. The band added Deep Purples Mistreated to their setlist, and song lengths were
stretched to include improvisation.[20] Carey recalls rehearsing the material was fairly straightforward, saying
We didn't work anything out, except the structure, the
ending ... very free-form, really progressive rock.[21]
Graham Bonnet in 2008.
The album art was designed by famed fantasy artist Ken
Kelly, who had drawn Tarzan and Conan the Barbar- Blackmore attempted to replace Dio with Ian Gillan, but
ian.[22][23]
Gillan turned him down. After a series of auditions, forIn August 1976, following a gig at Newcastle City Hall, mer vocalist/guitarist of The Marbles, Graham Bonnet
Blackmore decided to re Carey, believing his play- was recruited instead. Powell stayed, but Daisley and
ing style to be too complicated for the band. Un- Stone were both red, the latter being replaced by keyable to nd a suitable replacement quickly, Carey was boardist Don Airey. At rst the band auditioned bass

1.4

Dissolution and temporary revival (1993-97)

players, but at Cozy Powells suggestion Blackmore hired

then-former Deep Purple member Roger Glover as a producer, bassist and lyricist.[27] The rst album from the
new line-up, Down to Earth, featured the bands rst major singles chart successes, All Night Long and the Russ
Ballard-penned "Since You Been Gone". In 1980, the
band headlined the inaugural 'Monsters of Rock' festival
at Castle Donington in England. However, this was Powells last Rainbow gig, as he had already given his notice
to quit, disliking Blackmores increasingly pop rock direction. Bonnet resigned to pursue a solo project, culminating in the album Line Up, featuring a number of contemporary hard rock alumni, including Jon Lord, former
band mate Cozy Powell and Micky Moody of Whitesnake. The album yielded a UK top ten hit "Night Games".
Bonnets considerable vocal prowess did not go unnoticed, and he has since enjoyed varying degrees of success
with MSG and Alcatrazz, among others,

3
Tracks chart, which tracked AOR airplay. Originally
issued as the B-side to Can't Happen Here, Jealous
Lover subsequently became the title track to an EP issued in the US that featured very similar cover art to Difcult to Cure.
Rainbows next full-length studio album was Straight Between the Eyes. The album was more cohesive than Difcult to Cure, and had more success in the United States.
The band, however, was alienating some of its earlier fans
with its more AOR sound.[1] The single, Stone Cold,
was a ballad that had some chart success (#1 on Billboard
Magazine's Rock Tracks chart) and its video received
heavy airplay on MTV. The successful supporting tour
skipped the UK completely and focused on the American market. A date in San Antonio, Texas on this tour
was lmed, and the resulting Live Between the Eyes
also received repeated showings on MTV.
Bent Out of Shape saw drummer Rondinelli red in favour
of former Balance drummer Chuck Burgi. The album
featured the single "Street of Dreams". According to
Blackmores biography on his ocial web site, the songs
video was banned by MTV for its supposedly controversial hypnotic video clip.[28] However, Dr. Thomas
Radecki of the National Coalition on Television Violence
criticised MTV for airing the video, which would contradict Blackmores claim.[29] The resulting tour saw Rainbow return to the UK, and also to Japan in March 1984
where the band performed Dicult to Cure with a full
orchestra. The concert was also lmed.

1.4 Dissolution and temporary revival

(1993-97)
Rainbows management Thames Talent co-ordinated attempts to successfully reform Deep Purple MK. II. By
April 1984, Rainbow was disbanded. A then-nal Rainbow album, Finyl Vinyl, was pieced together from live
tracks and B-sides of singles, including the instrumental
Weiss Heim (All Night Long B-side), Bad Girl (Since
You Been Gone B-side), and Jealous Lover (Can't Happen Here B-side).
Joe Lynn Turner in 2008.

In 1988, after joining the band Impelliteri, Graham BonFor the next album, Bonnet and Powell were replaced by net covered Since You Been Gone on the groups debut
Americans Joe Lynn Turner and Bobby Rondinelli, re- album, Stand In Line.
spectively. The title track from the album, Dicult to In 1993 Blackmore left Deep Purple permanently due to
Cure, was a version of Beethovens Ninth Symphony. The creative dierences with other members, and reformed
album spawned their most successful UK single, I Sur- Rainbow with all-new members featuring Scottish singer
render (another Ballard song), which reached No.3. It Doogie White. The band released Stranger in Us All in
also contained the guitar piece, Maybe Next Time. Af- 1995, and embarked on a lengthy world tour.
ter the supporting tour, Don Airey quit over musical di- The tour proved very successful, and a show in Germany
rection and was replaced on keyboards by David Rosen- was professionally lmed for the Rockpalast TV show.
thal.
This show, initially heavily bootlegged (and considered
The band attained signicant airplay on Album-oriented by many collectors to be the best Rainbow bootleg of the
rock radio stations in the US with the track "Jealous era), was ocially released by Eagle Records on CD and
Lover", reaching No. 13 on Billboard Magazine's Rock DVD as Black Masquerade in 2013.[30] The live shows

5 DISCOGRAPHY
Joe Lynn Turner and Graham Bonnet played a tribute to
Rainbow show in Helsinki, Finland. The concert consisted of songs from the 1979-1983 era.
On 4 August 2006 at Geijyutsu-Gekijyo Metropolitan Art
Space in Tokyo, Japan, a special symphonic tribute to
Rainbow was performed by the New Japan Philharmonic
featuring Joe Lynn Turner. The concert featured classic Rainbow songs as well as some never played before
fan favourities, such as instrumentals Weiss Heim and
Maybe Next Time.
Rainbow fans would be also interested in the White Noise
DVD (featuring former Rainbow singer Doogie White)
titled In The Hall Of The Mountain King (recorded in
2004 and released in 2005). It is the only release by the
band White Noise. This was a DVD lmed on their support stint with progressive rock band Uriah Heep. The
show consisted of mostly Rainbow songs from their 1995
album Stranger in Us All but featured arrangements of
other songs including Mostly Autumns 'Never the Rainbow'.

In 2009, Joe Lynn Turner, Bobby Rondinelli, Greg Smith

and Tony Carey created the touring tribute band Over
The Rainbow with Jrgen Blackmore (Ritchies son) as
the guitarist. Over The Rainbow performed songs from
every era of the bands history. After the rst tour Tony
Carey had to leave the band due to health concerns. OTR
Doogie White in 2009.
then continued with another former Rainbow member,
Paul Morris, on keyboards, and conducted tours in the
USA, Europe, and Russia, respectively; including a show
featured frequent changes in set lists, and musical impro- at the Sweden Rock Festival.
visations that proved popular with bootleggers and many
shows are still traded over a decade later.
However, Blackmore turned his attention to his long-time
musical passion, Renaissance and medieval music. Rainbow was put on hold once again after playing its nal concert in Esbjerg, Denmark in 1997. Blackmore, together
with his partner Candice Night as vocalist then formed
the Renaissance-inuenced Blackmores Night. Around
the same time as production of Stranger in Us All (1995),
they were already gearing up their debut album Shadow
of the Moon (1997).[31]

2 Band members

1.5

Main article: Rainbow discography

Rainbow songs after 1997

Many Rainbow songs have been performed live by former members of the band since the groups split in 1984
and then in 1997, particularly former frontmen, Ronnie
James Dio, Graham Bonnet and Joe Lynn Turner in recent years. Also, Don Airey often plays 1979-1981 era
songs during his solo shows. Blackmores Night occasionally performs one or two Rainbow songs live, namely
Ariel, Rainbow Eyes and Street of Dreams. The
latter two were also re-recorded by Blackmores Night in
studio.
In 20022004 the Hughes Turner Project played a number of Rainbow songs at their concerts. On 9 August 2007

3 Lineups
4 Timeline
5 Discography

Ritchie Blackmores Rainbow (1975)

Rising (1976)
Long Live Rock 'n' Roll (1978)
Down to Earth (1979)
Dicult to Cure (1981)
Straight Between the Eyes (1982)
Bent Out of Shape (1983)
Stranger in Us All (1995)

References

[28] Ritchie Blackmore Bio. Blackmores Night. 8 May

1998. Retrieved 13 November 2010.

[1] Rivadavia, Eduardo. Rainbow. Allmusic. Retrieved 10

July 2010.
[2] VH1s 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. Rate Your
Music. Retrieved 13 November 2010.
[3] Robinson, Simon (1996). Mk III: The Final Concerts
(Media notes). Deep Purple. Connoisseur Collection.
DPVSOPCD-230.

[29] Deniso, R. Serge (1988). MTV: Some People Just

Don't Get It. Inside MTV. Transaction. p. 284. ISBN
978-0-88738-864-4. Retrieved 13 October 2009. 'Street
of Dreams by Rainbow has a psychiatrist dominating a
man through hypnosis intermixed with male-female violent fantasies including a bound and gagged woman.
[30] http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DBNWAZ6/

[4] Rainbow - 1975-1978. Ronnie James Dio (Ocial Site).

Retrieved 24 June 2009.

[31] Adams, Bret (26 February 2011). Stranger in Us All.

allmusic.

[5] Ritchie Blackmores Rainbow (Media notes). Rainbow.

Polydor Records. 1990. 825-089-2.

Books

[6] Bloom 2007, p. 193.

[7] MORDECHAI KLEIDERMACHER (February 1991).
When Theres Smoke.. THERE'S FIRE!". Guitar World.
[8] Warnock, Matt (28 January 2011). Ritchie Blackmore:
The Autumn Sky Interview. Guitar International Magazine.
[9] Bloom 2007, p. 186.

Bloom, Jerry (2007). Black Knight. Music Sales

Group. ISBN 9780857120533.
Thompson, Dave (2004).
The Deep Purple Story.
9781550226188.

Smoke on the Water:

ECW Press. ISBN

7 Bibliography

[10] Rainbow Rising. CD liner notes: Polydor Records.

[11] Long Live Rock 'N' Roll. CD liner notes: Polydor Records.
[12] Bloom 2007, p. 187.

Martin Popo, Rainbow - English Castle Magic

(Metal Blade, 2005)

[13] Bloom 2007, p. 184.

[14] Thompson 2004, p. 176.
[15] Robinson, Simon (1977). Rainbow Live in Munich 1977
(liner notes). Eagle Rock Entertainment Ltd.
[16] Tony Carey Interview. Music Legends. Retrieved 28
May 2013.

Jerry Bloom, Black Knight - Ritchie Blackmore (Omnibus Press, 2006)

Jerry Bloom, Long Live Rock 'n' Roll Story (Wymer
Publishing, 2009)

8 External links

[17] Bloom 2007, p. 189.

[18] Bloom 2007, p. 190.

The Rainbow Fanclan Legacy

[19] Thompson 2004, pp. 195-196.

Rainbow (rock band) at AllMusic

[20] Thompson 2004, p. 196.

[21] Bloom 2007, p. 194.
[22] Mark Voger (22 October 2006). Criss eager to meet television idol Zacherley. Asbury Park Press. p. 6E.
[23] Manowar truck to make its debut in Austria this weekend. Austria Today. 8 September 2006.
[24] Bloom 2007, p. 201-202.
[25] Bloom 2007, p. 203.
[26] Davies, Roy (2002). Rainbow Rising: The Story of Ritchie
Blackmores Rainbow. Helter Skelter Publishing.
[27] Roger Glover. 1973-2006 History.
September 2009.

Roy Davies, Rainbow Rising - The Story of Ritchie

Blackmores Rainbow (Helter Skelter, 2002)

Retrieved 23

9 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

9.1

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Rainbow (rock band) Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_(rock_band)?oldid=674391995 Contributors: Tarquin, Amillar,

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