Background information Origin England Genre(s) Hard rock, Heavy metal Years active 1975 — 1984
1993 — 1997 Label(s) Polydor Former members Ritchie Blackmore
John O'Reilly
Doogie White
Greg Smith
Paul Morris
Ronnie James Dio
Craig Gruber
Gary Driscoll (deceased)
Micky Lee Soule
Jimmy Bain
Joe Lynn Turner
Roger Glover
Don Airey
Bob Daisley
Bobby Rondinelli
Tony Carey
Cozy Powell (deceased)
David Stone
Graham Bonnet
David Rosenthal
John Miceli
Chuck Burgi

Rainbow were a hard rock and heavy metal band formed by former Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore in 1975. In addition to Blackmore, the band originally consisted of former Elf members lead singer Ronnie James Dio, keyboardist Mickey Lee Soule, bassist Craig Gruber, and drummer Gary Driscoll. Over the years Rainbow went through many lineup changes.

Contents 1 History 1.1 The Dio Years 1.2 Commercial Success 1.3 Hiatus and regroup 2 Line-Ups 3 Discography 4 References

History

The Dio Years

In 1974 Blackmore became infuriated at the funk/soul elements being introduced to Deep Purple by David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes as well as with the rejection from his bandmates of his suggestion to record a cover for inclusion in Stormbringer, and originally intended to record "Black Sheep of the Family", a song written and recorded by the band Quatermass, as a solo single to express his ideas that were being suppressed in Deep Purple. During recent US tours Deep Purple's support band had been Elf, and Ritchie had been impressed by Elf's singer, one Ronnie James Dio. Blackmore and Dio found they had such a creative rapport that a full album's worth of music was soon composed and they recorded it with Elf as a session band. Emboldened by the experience, Blackmore decided to leave Deep Purple and form his own band around Elf, effectively taking it over minus their guitarist and renaming it Rainbow. The name of the band was inspired by the Hollywood Bar and Grill called the Rainbow which catered to rock stars, groupies and rock enthusiasts.

Rainbow's debut album, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, was released in 1975 and featured the minor hit "Man on the Silver Mountain".

Rainbow's music was different from Deep Purple's. The music was more directly inspired by classical music and Dio wrote lyrics about medieval themes. Dio possessed a versatile vocal range capable of singing both hard rock and lighter ballads. 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.

Blackmore fired everybody except Dio shortly after the album was recorded and recruited drummer Cozy Powell (formerly of the Jeff Beck Group), bassist Jimmy Bain and American keyboard player Tony Carey. This lineup went on to record the next album Rising. This line-up also commenced the first world tour for the band, with the first US dates in late 1975. By the time of the European dates in the summer of 1976, Rainbow's reputation as a blistering live act was already established.

Blackmore subsequently decided that Bain was substandard and fired him in January 1977, and the same fate befell Carey shortly after. However, Blackmore had difficulty finding replacements he liked. On keyboards he finally went for Canadian David Stone, from the little-known band Symphonic Slam. For a bass player, Blackmore originally chose Mark Clarke from the band Tempest, but once in the studio for the next album, Long Live Rock 'n' Roll, Blackmore disliked his playing so much that he fired Clarke on the spot and played bass himself on all but three songs on this album ("Gates of Babylon", "Kill the King", and "Sensitive To Light"). For these tracks he finally settled on Australian Bob Daisley. After the release and extensive world tour in 1977–78, Blackmore decided that he wanted to take the band in a new commercial direction away from the "sword and sorcery" theme. Dio did not agree with this change and left Rainbow. He would go to replace Ozzy Osbourne as the lead singer in Black Sabbath (coincidentally, Daisley and future Rainbow members Cozy Powell and Bobby Rondinelli also played with Black Sabbath at various times, Powell and Rondinelli as full members). Dio would later form his own self-titled band.

Commercial Success

Blackmore attempted to replace Dio with Ian Gillan, but Gillan turned him down, so after a series of auditions ex-Marbles vocalist Graham Bonnet was recruited instead. Ironically, Gillan would replace Dio later in his career, in Black Sabbath. Powell stayed but Daisley and Stone were both fired, replaced by keyboardist Don Airey and former Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover. The latter appointment was somewhat ironic as Blackmore had instigated the sacking of Glover from Deep Purple in 1973. The first album from the new lineup, Down to Earth, featured the band's first singles chart successes, "All Night Long" and the Russ Ballard penned "Since You Been Gone". On stage Bonnet possessed a powerful voice, but struggled with the band's quieter numbers and lacked Dio's range. In 1980, the band headlined the inaugural 'Monsters of Rock' festival at Castle Donington in England. However, this was Powell's last Rainbow gig as he had already given his notice to quit, disliking Blackmore's increasingly pop metal direction. He would go on to play for Michael Schenker, Whitesnake (which ironically was founded by David Coverdale) and Black Sabbath. Bonnet subsequently became disgruntled at the domination of Blackmore and Glover and also left to go solo.

For the next album Bonnet and Powell were replaced by Americans Joe Lynn Turner, and Bobby Rondinelli respectively. The title track from the album, Difficult to Cure, was a version of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The album also contained the guitar piece, "Maybe Next Time". After the supporting tour Don Airey then quit over musical direction and was replaced on keyboards by David Rosenthal.

The band attained significant airplay on Album-oriented rock radio stations in the US with the track "Jealous Lover", reaching #13 on Billboard Magazine's Rock Tracks chart, which tracked AOR airplay. Originally issued as the B-side to "I Surrender", "Jealous Lover" subsequently became the title track to an EP issued in the US that featured very similar cover art to "Difficult to Cure".

Rainbow's next full length studio album was Straight Between the Eyes. The album was more cohesive than Difficult 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. The single, "Stone Cold", was a ballad that had some chart success (#1 on Billboard Magazine's Rock Tracks chart) and the video of which 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 filmed and the resulting "Live Between the Eyes" also received repeated showings on MTV.

Bent Out of Shape saw drummer Rondinelli fired in favour of Chuck Burgi. The album featured the single "Street Of Dreams". The song's video was banned by MTV for its supposedly controversial hypnotic video clip. The resulting tour saw Rainbow return to the UK and also to Japan in March 1984 where the band performed 'Difficult to Cure' with a full orchestra. (The concert was also filmed.)

Hiatus and regroup

By April 1984, Blackmore and Glover had reformed the Deep Purple "Mark II" line-up and Rainbow was disbanded. A final Rainbow album, Finyl Vinyl, was pieced together from live tracks and B-sides of singles. The album contained the instrumental Weiss Heim, widely available for the first time.

Blackmore left Deep Purple in 1993 and formed a new Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. The band released Stranger in Us All in 1995 and embarked on a lengthy world tour.

The tour proved very successful and a show in Germany was professionally filmed by 'Rockpalast'. It has never officially been released, but has been heavily bootlegged (and considered by many collectors to be the best Rainbow bootleg of the era). The live shows featured frequent changes in set lists and musical improvisations that proved popular with bootleggers and many shows are still traded over a decade later.

However, fed up with stadium rock, Blackmore turned his attention to Renaissance and medieval music, a lifelong interest of his. Rainbow was put on hold once again and played its final concert in Esbjerg, Denmark in 1997. Blackmore, together with his partner Candice Night as vocalist, then formed the renaissance-influenced Blackmore's Night who, as of 2007, are still recording albums, and performing small intimate tours completely in contrast to Rainbow's mammoth stadium shows.

In Late 1997, Cozy Powell approached Ritchie Blackmore to see if he would be interested in reforming the Rising line-up of Rainbow. Due to everyone's prior commitments, this proposed re-union was not meant to last more than one tour, and by the time of Cozy's tragic death in April 1998, both Ronnie James Dio and Ritchie Blackmore had almost given the project the green light. However Cozy's death also brought about the demise of the long awaited re-union. In the decade since, many other rumours have been announced, from various web sources, of a future Dio/Blackmore Rainbow project, but both men have always been quick in dispelling these rumours as having no basis in fact.

Line-Ups

Rainbow band members

(1975)	Ronnie James Dio - vocals Ritchie Blackmore - guitar Micky Lee Soule - keyboards Craig Gruber - bass Gary Driscoll - drums
(1976-1978)	Ronnie James Dio - vocals Ritchie Blackmore - guitar Tony Carey - keyboards Jimmy Bain - bass Cozy Powell - drums
(1978)	Ronnie James Dio - vocals Ritchie Blackmore - guitar David Stone - keyboards Bob Daisley - bass Cozy Powell - drums
(1979-1980)	Graham Bonnet - vocals Ritchie Blackmore - guitar Don Airey - keyboards Roger Glover - bass Cozy Powell - drums
(1980-1981)	Joe Lynn Turner - vocals Ritchie Blackmore - guitar Don Airey - keyboards Roger Glover - bass Bobby Rondinelli - drums
(1982)	Joe Lynn Turner - vocals Ritchie Blackmore - guitar David Rosenthal - keyboards Roger Glover - bass Bobby Rondinelli - drums
(1983-1984)	Joe Lynn Turner - vocals Ritchie Blackmore - guitar David Rosenthal - keyboards Roger Glover - bass Chuck Burgi - drums
(1984-1993)	Band split
(1993-1996)	Doogie White - vocals Ritchie Blackmore - guitar Paul Morris - keyboards Greg Smith - Bass John O'Reilly - drums
(1996-1997)	Doogie White - vocals Ritchie Blackmore - guitar Paul Morris - keyboards Greg Smith - Bass John Miceli - drums

Discography

LPs:

• Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (1975) #11 UK, #30 US/ US: Platinum
• Rising (1976) #11 UK, #48 US/ US: Platinum
• Long Live Rock 'N' Roll (1978) #7 UK, #17 US/ US: Platinum
• Down to Earth (1979) #6 UK, #66 US/ US: Platinum
• Difficult to Cure (1981) #3 UK, #50 US/ US: Platinum
• Jealous Lover EP (1981) #147 US
• Straight Between the Eyes (1982) #5 UK, #30 US/ US: Platinum
• Bent Out of Shape (1983) #11 UK, #34 US/ US: Gold
• Stranger in Us All (1995)

Live:

• On Stage (1977) #7 UK, #65 US
• Finyl Vinyl (1986) #31 UK, #87 US
• Live in Germany (1994)
• Live in Europe (1996)
• Live in Munich 1977 (2006)
• Rainbow Live At Cologne SportHalle (2006)
• Rainbow Live At Dusseldorf Philipshalle (2006)
• Live In Germany 1976 (30th Anniversary Edition Box) - Release Only in Japan 6CD boxset (2006)

Greatest Hits:

• The Best of Rainbow (1981) #14 UK
• The Very Best of Rainbow (1997)
• 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Rainbow (2000)
• Pot of Gold (2002)
• All Night Long: An Introduction (2002)
• Catch the Rainbow: The Anthology (2003)

Singles:

• Man On The Silver Mountain (1975)
• Catch The Rainbow (1975)
• Starstruck (1976)
• Stargazer (1976)
• Kill The King (1978)
• Long Live Rock 'N' Roll (1978)
• Gates Of Babylon (1979)
• Since You Been Gone (1979)
• All Night Long (1980)
• I Surrender (1981)
• Can't Happen Here / Jealous Lover (1981)
• Stone Cold (1982)
• Power (1982)
• Can't Let You Go (1983)
• Street Of Dreams (1983)
• Hunting Humans (Insatiable) (1995)
• Ariel (1995)

References

• Roy Davies, Rainbow Rising -The Story of Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow(Helter Skelter, 2002)
• Martin Popoff, Rainbow- English Castle Magic (Metal Blade 2005)
• Jerry Bloom, Black Knight- Ritchie Blackmore (Omnibus Press 2006)

1. Blackmore's Night - Ritchie Blackmore Bio

v • d • e Rainbow
Ritchie Blackmore
Vocals: Ronnie James Dio | Graham Bonnet | Joe Lynn Turner | Doogie White
Bass: Craig Gruber | Jimmy Bain | Bob Daisley | Roger Glover | Greg Smith
Drums: Gary Driscoll | Cozy Powell | Bobby Rondinelli | Chuck Burgi | John O'Reilly | John Miceli
Keyboards: Micky Lee Soule | Tony Carey | David Stone | Don Airey | David Rosenthal | Paul Morris
Discography
Albums : Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow | Rising | Long Live Rock 'n' Roll | Down to Earth | Difficult to Cure | Straight Between the Eyes | Bent Out of Shape | Stranger in Us All
Live albums: On Stage | Finyl Vinyl | Live in Germany/Live in Europe | Live in Munich 1977 | Rainbow Live at Cologne SportsHalle
Videos and DVDs: Live Between the Eyes/ The Final Cut | Live in Munich 1977
Compilation Albums: The Best of Rainbow | The Very Best of Rainbow | 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Rainbow | Pot of Gold | Catch the Rainbow: The Anthology | Winning Combinations: Deep Purple and Rainbow
Related articles
Deep Purple | Blackmore's Night | Black Sabbath | Dio | Alcatrazz | Yngwie J. Malmsteen