BAND of the W E E K

Rainbow

Right after the split-up of Elf, four members of Elf and ex-Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore formed band called Rainbow.

The name supposedly came from the Rainbow bar located in Los Angeles, where Elf and Ritchie Blackmore used to spend their free time.



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

Rainbow is an English rock band. The band moved from the East Coast to California.

Ritchie Blackmore fired the rest of the Elf  who remained except Ronnie James Dio in September 1975. After several changes in the band during a relatively short time, the band started touring in November 1975.


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

The most common story is that Ritchie wanted to change Rainbow's musical direction to more commercial, than what it used to be and as the other band members, especially Dio, did not want to do that, he split up the band. Other stories tell about monetary problems, some ex Rainbow members claim that Blackmore didn't give them their money, or gave too small proportion of the money.

Rainbow's debut album, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, was released in 1975 and featured the minor hit "Man on the Silver Mountain".  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. "Live Between the Eyes" also received repeated showings on MTV.


Band members-Final lineup
Doogie White – lead vocals (1994–1997) Former- Ronnie James Dio – lead vocals (1975–1978)
Ritchie Blackmore – guitar (1975–1984, 1994–1997)
Greg Smith – bass, backing vocals (1994–1997)
John Micelli – drums (1997)
Paul Morris – keyboards (1994–1997)

Rainbow discography

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (1975)
Rising (1976)
On Stage (1977)
Long Live Rock 'n' Roll (1978)
Down to Earth (1979)
Difficult to Cure (1981)
Straight Between the Eyes (1982)
Bent Out Of Shape (1983)
Finyl Vinyl (1986)
Stranger in Us All (1995