Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow history with final vocalist Doogie White

Rainbow were 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 (later to join Black Sabbath), keyboardist Mickey Lee Soule, bassist Craig Gruber, and drummer Gary Driscoll. Over the years Rainbow went through many lineup changes culminating in their last incarnation with Doogie White on vocals.

Band 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 on Stormbringer. Blackmore had originally intended to record Steve Hammond's "Black Sheep of the Family", a song recorded by the band Quatermass, as a solo single to express that his ideas were being suppressed in Deep Purple. During the final US tours, Deep Purple's support band had been Elf, and Ritchie had been impressed by Elf's singer, 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 Rainbow Bar and Grill in Hollywood that 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 due to Gary Driscoll's R&B style of drumming and funky bass playing of Craig Gruber. Micky Lee Soule quit due to Blackmore's decisions and an opportunity to play in the Ian Gillan Band Ritchie Blackmore then recruited Cozy Powell (then Jeff Beck's drummer), 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 fired Jimmy Bain in January 1977. The same fate befell Carey shortly after. However, Blackmore had difficulty finding replacements he liked. On keyboards, he finally selected 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 four songs: "Long Live Rock N' Roll", "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

Commercial success

Ritchie Blackmore attempted to replace Dio with Ian Gillan, but Gillan turned him down. After a series of auditions, former vocalist/guitarist of The Marbles, Graham Bonnet was recruited instead. 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 (later in Deep Purple) and former (now current) Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover. The latter appointment was somewhat surprising, 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. 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. He would go on to play for Michael Schenker, Whitesnake (founded by Blackmore's former Deep Purple bandmate David Coverdale) and Black Sabbath. Bonnet was also fired the night Powell quit.

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 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 "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 "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.

The Bent out of Shape album saw drummer Rondinelli replaced by 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

The Deep Purple management made an offer to Ritchie Blackmore to rejoin DP and by April 1984, Blackmore and Glover had joined the reformed 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.

The follow-up Deep Purple album, House of Blue Light, was not as well received as previous albums. It was evident again that Ritchie Blackmore and Ian Gillan were not able to work together. Gillan left, and Blackmore recruited ex-Rainbow singer Joe Lynn Turner. This line-up produced a very typical Rainbow-sounding album, Slaves and Masters, which instantly raised negative criticism among Deep Purple fans. Under pressure from both management and other Deep Purple musicians, Ian Gillan was asked to re-join for the third time. One further Deep Purple Mark II album, The Battle Rages On, was released and was well received. Yet Ritchie Blackmore was enormously dissatisfied, and left Deep Purple in 1993 to form a new Rainbow with all-new members.

In 1994 Ritchie Blackmore began holding auditions for the new incarnation in upstate New York. He was given a tape by his now wife, Candice, featuring the vocals of Doogie White and he asked Doogie to fly to the USA to audition for the band. The audition was a huge success and Blackmore was impressed by Doogie White's range and capability which allowed him to play live songs from the entire Rainbow era as well as selected Deep Purple numbers. By the end of the year, the new band would consist of Doogie White (ex-La Paz, Midnight Blue and Praying Mantis) on vocals, Paul Morris (ex-Doro Pesch) on keyboards, Greg Smith (Alice Cooper, Blue Oyster Cult, Joe Lynn Turner) on bass, and John O'Reilly (Ritchie Havens, Blue Oyster Cult, Joe Lynn Turner) on drums.

Interviewed for Guitarist Magazine in January 1996 Ritchie Blackmore had this to say:

"The original singer, once we started playing dates I noticed that he couldn't improvise. He had a great voice, similar to Bryan Adams, but when we'd do a blues of something he couldn't improvise at all. At first I thought he was just having an off day, but after about a week of rehearsals he's saying to me, What do you think of the drummer? What do you think of the bass player? And I'm thinking, Actually I don't know about you! It turned out he was just a copy vocalist. Great guy, great voice, but I couldn't take him. I was in the house with my girlfriend and she said, Who's on this tape? and she put it on. And I'm going, Who is this? Sounds good. Took the tape off and it said, Doogie White, call London... So I called him up and said, Look, we really like your stuff, are you interested? And he said Yes. I asked him where the tape came from and he said, Oh, I just gave it to your road manager one night in London. And we have this box full of such tapes; why she pulled that one out, I don't know."

The band released the highly acclaimed Stranger in Us All in 1995 on BMG International which demonstrated a return to their heavier rock roots, and within the first week of its availability would sell over 100,000 copies in Japan. This remarkable sales feat would be assisted by Burrn! magazine heralding Ritchie with no less than seven reader's poll awards. Including "Best Guitarist," "Best Songwriter," "Best Live Show," and "Best Song of the Year" for "Black Masquerade."

Rainbow then embarked on a lengthy world tour starting in Helsinki, Finland where Chuck Burghi rejoined the band on drums. The tour proved very successful and a show in Germany was professionally filmed by Rockpalast. The tape has never officially been released but has been heavily bootlegged (and considered by many collectors to be the best Rainbow bootleg of the era); much of it is now available on youtube and demonstrates just how versatile and powerful Doogie White's voice is. The live shows featured frequent changes in set lists, and musical improvisations that proved popular with bootleggers and many shows are still traded on the Internet over a decade later. Many who heard these concerts state that Ritchie Blackmore was playing at his most relaxed and innovative for years. The set list of these shows prove just what a range of styles Doogie White is capable of when he was asked to sing virtually completely different styles back-to-back and the order of the set changed almost every night.

The band toured again in 1996 and this time visited Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. After that successful solo tour of South America, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow would perform in front of hundreds of thousands during a European festival tour in support of such bands as ZZ Top. In 1997 they embarked on a tour of the USA and began early work on a second studio album.

Again, from Guitarist Magazine, Ritchie Blackmore on Deep Purple and Rainbow:

Interviewer: Finally, when Deep Purple's original line-up got back together recently it looked like we might be in for some more of the best of British rock. But sadly the fragile egos of those involved meant it all fell apart. Is it really that difficult to work with people who are so set in their ways?

Ritchie Blackmore : "It is for me," states the guitarist unequivocally. "I'm set in my ways and they're very set in their ways. But I'm 50 now and I want to do rock'n'roll for maybe another couple of years - I say that every couple of years! - and I wanted to have a last bash at being with some guys that I want to be around; some fresh guys that don't have egos. Okay, so with the new Rainbow I'm taking a chance. I could so easily have just sat back in the old armchair, but I felt it was for an honest reason that I left Purple. I wanted to play better music. Some people might think, Oh, I don't know about that... But why else would I leave? What's the point of me leaving? I could easily just have just sat there and said; Yes, I'm the guitarist in Deep Purple; I'm very comfortable thank you very much..."

However, out of the blue and apparently fed up with rock perhaps for good, Blackmore turned his attention to Renaissance and medieval music, a lifelong interest of his. Rainbow was put on hold once again, after playing its final concert in Esbjerg, Denmark in 1997. There have been many rumours since then that Ritchie will reform Rainbow one last time but to date this has not happened.

Line-ups of Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow

(1975) Ronnie James Dio - vocals
Ritchie Blackmore - guitar
Micky Lee Soule - keyboards
Craig Gruber - bass
Gary Driscoll - drums

Rainbow
(1975-1977) Ronnie James Dio - vocals
Ritchie Blackmore - guitar
Tony Carey - keyboards
Jimmy Bain - bass
Cozy Powell - drums

Rainbow
(1977) Ronnie James Dio - vocals
Ritchie Blackmore - guitar
Tony Carey - keyboards
Mark Clarke - bass
Cozy Powell - drums

Rainbow
(1977-1978) Ronnie James Dio - vocals
Ritchie Blackmore - guitar
David Stone - keyboards
Bob Daisley - bass
Cozy Powell - drums

Rainbow
(late 1978) Ritchie Blackmore - guitar
David Stone - keyboards
Jack Green - bass
Cozy Powell - drums

Rainbow
(1979-1980) Graham Bonnet - vocals
Ritchie Blackmore - guitar
Don Airey - keyboards
Roger Glover - bass
Cozy Powell - drums

Rainbow
(1980-1981) Joe Lynn Turner - vocals
Ritchie Blackmore - guitar
Don Airey - keyboards
Roger Glover - bass
Bobby Rondinelli - drums

Rainbow
(1981-1983) Joe Lynn Turner - vocals
Ritchie Blackmore - guitar
David Rosenthal - keyboards
Roger Glover - bass
Bobby Rondinelli - drums

Rainbow
(1983-1984) Joe Lynn Turner - vocals
Ritchie Blackmore - guitar
David Rosenthal - keyboards
Roger Glover - bass
Chuck Burgi - drums

Rainbow
(1984-1993) Band split

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow
(1994-1995) Doogie White - vocals
Ritchie Blackmore - guitar
Paul Morris - keyboards
Greg Smith - Bass
John O'Reilly - drums

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow
(1995-1996, late 1997) Doogie White - vocals
Ritchie Blackmore - guitar
Paul Morris - keyboards
Greg Smith - Bass
Chuck Burgi - drums

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow
(1997) Doogie White - vocals
Ritchie Blackmore - guitar
Paul Morris - keyboards
Greg Smith - Bass
John Micelli - drums

Discography (studio albums)
1975 Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow
1976 Rising
1978 Long Live Rock 'n' Roll
1979 Down to Earth
1981 Difficult to Cure
1982 Straight Between the Eyes
1983 Bent out of Shape
1995 Stranger in Us All