Rainbow Rising
The Centre of the Universe
Discography
Albums
Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow1975
Rising1976
On Stage1977
Long Live Rock N' Roll1978
Down To Earth1980
Live In Germany - 19761996
post-Cozy Powell albums
Difficult To Cure1981
Straight Between The Eyes1982
Bent Out of Shape1983
Stranger In Us All1995


Rainbow was the band formed by Ritchie Blackmore on his departure from Deep Purple, named both for one of his favourite LA hangouts, the Rainbow Bar and Grill, but also for the fact that he was determined not to be playing music of one colour, but all the hues of the Rainbow, a not unsubtle dig at his former bandmates and the musical rut he perceived they were digging themselves into.

He had made it pretty clear that he was not happy with the direction the band was taking, particularly with the funk-rock influences introduced by bassist Glenn Hughes. A further hint of his discontent came when he proposed doing a cover of Quatermass' Black Sheep Of The Family, but the rest of Deep Purple refused. (As it was explained later, they felt they had been writing their own material for far too many years to consider covering a song by someone else.)

He consequently took Elf, the American band which had been playing support to Purple on their 1974 tour into the studio and recorded a rollicking good-time version of the song. He made no secret of the fact that he was recording a solo album, often playing some of his new riffs for the rest of Purple and then refusing to let them be used on the album they were working on at the time, the lacklustre Stormbringer.

Ritchie Blackmore's RainbowBut it was not just a solo album. With the release of Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (1975), Blackmore announced he was leaving Deep Purple and forming a new band, Rainbow. His simple reasoning for his choice of the new band's name was that he wanted to play music that was all the colours of the rainbow, not just purple.

On StageHowever, no sooner had that album been put in the can than the infamous revolving door started to spin, ever faster. In no time at all, all of the ex-members of Elf, baring singer Ronnie James Dio, had left. In their place came drummer Cozy Powell, bassist Jimmy Bain, and keyboard player Tony Carey. This is considered by many to be the classic line-up, and they lasted for two albums, Rainbow Rising (1976), and the live double, On Stage (1977).

Long Live Rock n' RollThe next visitor to the Rainbow ranks was bassist Mark Clarke, but he did not even stay long enough to make it onto vinyl. Next in line was Australian Bob Daisley, and David Stone was the new keyboard player. Long Live Rock N' Roll (1978) was the album they recorded together.

The next departure was the beginning of the end. Not only did the keyboard player and the bass player walk away, but singer and collaborating song-writer Ronnie James Dio left the fold. In his place came the criminally short-haired Graham Bonnet, better known for his hit pop single "Warm Ride". He had the vocal range, but he was just not the right person for the job. Wild stories abound from all eras of Rainbow, but one that has always stuck in my mind is Ritchie attempting to force Bonnet to grow his hair in order to look the part, only to have the singer run away from his minder and off to the barber!

Down To EarthOn bass was none other than Ritchie's old Deep Purple cohort, Roger Glover, and on keyboards was Don Airey. The swords and sorcery mythology was gone along with Dio, and the subsequent album Down To Earth was a dismayingly blatant step towards commercialism. While this gave Rainbow some success in the singles charts, with Since You've Been Gone and All Night Long, it was greeted by long-term fans with distaste, if not outright disgust.

Sure enough, it was the last straw for Cozy Powell. He said later that many of his parts on the album were recorded in one take, as he couldn't bear to have to listen to the songs again. His final concert with Rainbow occurred at the Monsters Of Rock festival at Donnington in 1980, where Rainbow were headliners.

The juggernaut staggered on for a few more years, with Ritchie drawing in various other personnel, including the much vilified Joe Lynn Turner, turning out a few more albums, and then, in 1984, came the extraordinary news - Deep Purple were reforming, with Ritchie as guitarist - and Rainbow were no more.

Live In Germany 1976The posthumous release Live In Germany - 1976 not only captures in concert the Blackmore-Dio-Powell-Bain-Carey line-up most beloved by fans, it also includes the monumental epic Stargazer, the climax of the Rising album, a track unforgiveably omitted from the On Stage album.




  Blackfoot Sue  home • biography : part 1 • part 2 • discography • lyrics • album track listings • equipment • timeline 
  Mick Underwood  |  Raw Glory  |  John Du Cann  |  Cozy Powell  |  Rainbow  |  Steamhammer  |  CCS  |  Index of Musicians 
Copyright ©2003-8  Carol Hynson  |  About me  |