Rainbow

Rainbow is a British hard rock and heavy metal band formed in 1975 by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore after his time in Deep Purple. The original line-up includes Ronnie James Dio on vocals, Craig Gruber on bass, Gary Driscoll on drums and Micky Lee Soule on keyboards. The band name comes from the Rainbow Bar and Grill in Los Angeles, a place associated with rock musicians and fans.

Early albums and line-up changes

Rainbow’s debut album, Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, appears in 1975 and includes the minor hit Man on the Silver Mountain. Blackmore then replaces all of the group except Dio, bringing in Cozy Powell on drums, Jimmy Bain on bass and Tony Carey on keyboards. That line-up records Rising, released in 1976, which becomes a major success in the United States and reaches number 48 on the Billboard 200.

For Long Live Rock ’n’ Roll in 1978, Blackmore keeps Powell and Dio but changes the rest of the band. He plays bass on most of the album himself, apart from Gates of Babylon, Kill the King and Sensitive to Light. After the release and tour, Dio leaves the group.

Commercial period in the late 1970s and early 1980s

Blackmore continues Rainbow with former Marbles singer Graham Bonnet, while Powell remains and is joined by Roger Glover on bass and Don Airey on keyboards. The resulting album, Down to Earth in 1979, produces the band’s first successful singles, All Night Long and Since You Been Gone. In 1980 Rainbow headlines the first Monsters of Rock festival at Castle Donington in England, which is Powell’s final performance with the band.

The next album, Difficult to Cure in 1981, marks another change of personnel, with Joe Lynn Turner replacing Bonnet and Bobby Rondinelli replacing Powell. The title track is a version of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and the album also includes Maybe Next Time. The supporting tour is the first time Rainbow headlines in the United States.

Straight Between the Eyes follows, with David Rosenthal added on keyboards. The album is more cohesive than Difficult to Cure and has greater success in the U.S. The single Stone Cold, a power ballad, achieves chart success. The band’s touring at this stage focuses on the U.S. market and does not include the U.K.

Bent Out of Shape appears in 1983, with Chuck Burgi replacing Rondinelli on drums. It includes Street of Dreams, whose video is banned by MTV because of its hypnotic imagery. The supporting tour returns Rainbow to the U.K. and also reaches Japan, where the band performs with a full orchestra.

Breaks, final 20th-century activity and later line-up

By 1984, Blackmore and Glover have reformed the Deep Purple Mark II line-up, and Rainbow disbands. A final album, Finyl Vinyl, is assembled from live recordings and B-sides and includes Weiss Heim, which becomes more widely available through that release.

After Blackmore leaves Deep Purple again in 1993, he revives Rainbow in 1994 under the name Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow. This version features Doogie White on vocals, Paul Morris on keyboards, Greg Smith on bass and John O’Reilly on drums. The group releases Stranger in Us All in 1995 and tours extensively from 1995 to 1997. During the tour, O’Reilly is replaced first by Chuck Burgi and then by John Micelli for the U.S. leg and the final show in Esbjerg, Denmark. A performance in Germany is professionally filmed by Rockpalast but remains unreleased officially.

The band’s live shows are marked by frequent set-list changes and improvisation. Rainbow plays its final concert in Denmark in 1999. Blackmore then turns to renaissance and mediaeval music and forms Blackmore’s Night with Candice Night as vocalist.

The Los Angeles Rainbow

Another band using the name Rainbow is a Los Angeles psychedelic rock group active in 1968. Its best-known LP is After the Storm, which includes a cover of Willie Dixon’s I Just Want to Make Love to You with saxophone. Its line-up consists of Darrell Devlin on drums, Bob Gay on bass, W. David Mohr on keyboards and Harry Vavela on guitars.