Rainbow

The brainchild of ex-Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, Rainbow rapidly rose during the 1970s to rank among heavy metal’s leading acts, propelled by the magnetic presence of frontman Ronnie James Dio. The pair fashioned a sequence of revered recordings that endure as touchstones of the style. Yet after the vocalist exited, the ensemble repeatedly shifted its sonic direction, ultimately bewildering and estranging large segments of its following. Over a ten-year existence the act issued eight albums before Blackmore dissolved the project in 1984 to participate in a complete reunion of his former Deep Purple colleagues. Although Rainbow’s influence has receded across the years that followed, the group’s story remains an essential episode in the evolution of heavy metal and hard rock.

Discontented with Deep Purple’s internal turmoil in the mid-1970s, Blackmore stunned observers in May 1975 by quitting the band he had established and guided for more than seven years so he could begin anew. Joining forces with emerging American singer Ronnie James Dio, he assembled Rainbow around members of the vocalist’s prior outfit Elf, excluding guitarist David Feinstein. The resulting quintet—bassist Craig Gruber, keyboardist Mickey Lee Soule, and drummer Gary Driscoll—delivered its 1975 debut Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, an effort swiftly embraced across Europe that produced the hit single “Man on the Silver Mountain.” Blackmore and Dio nevertheless found the recording’s production unsatisfying and elected to overhaul the lineup, now confident enough to drop Blackmore’s name from the marquee, recruiting bassist Jimmy Bain, keyboardist Tony Carey, and ex-Jeff Beck Group drummer Cozy Powell. This configuration entered Musicland Studios in February 1976 to create the landmark Rising, an album once selected as the greatest heavy metal record ever in a 1981 Kerrang! readers’ poll. The set documented Blackmore’s most expansive neo-classical metal constructions alongside Dio’s deepening preoccupation with fantasy imagery, a thematic template the singer would employ throughout his subsequent career. After the release, Rainbow mounted an extensive world tour that ended with a sold-out European leg yielding the commercially successful live album On Stage in 1977.

When the band resurfaced in 1978 with the equally lauded Long Live Rock ’n’ Roll, now featuring bassist Bob Daisley and keyboardist David Stone, Rainbow stood among Europe’s highest-grossing and most in-demand concert attractions. The already strained rapport between Blackmore and Dio nevertheless worsened as the American vocalist grew restless in the guitarist’s shadow—even within the United States, where the group had committed fully to achieving mainstream success. Compounding the tension, Blackmore, buoyed by the single-chart performance of “Long Live Rock ’n’ Roll,” began contemplating a more commercial hard-rock direction that held no appeal for Dio. An encounter with Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi, recently separated from vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, helped the singer reach his decision, and Dio formally left Rainbow in early 1979 to join Sabbath.

Securing an adequate successor to the charismatic frontman posed a formidable challenge. Blackmore ultimately selected former Marbles singer Graham Bonnet, a choice that triggered yet another wholesale reconfiguration of both Rainbow’s sound and personnel, bringing in ex-Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover and keyboardist Don Airey. The 1979 album Down to Earth abandoned mystical subjects and grandiose metal structures in favor of a leaner, more radio-friendly hard-rock approach. Although it contained two of the band’s most successful singles—“All Night Long” and “Since You’ve Been Gone,” the latter penned by ex-Argent vocalist Russ Ballard—the record underperformed commercially compared with the Dio-era catalog. Bonnet likewise struggled to satisfy Blackmore’s stage expectations; after an inebriated appearance at the first Castle Donington Monsters of Rock Festival in summer 1980, he was abruptly dismissed.

Blackmore next enlisted American vocalist Joe Lynn Turner, whose arrival alongside drummer Bobby Rondinelli marked a decisive reinvention. Determined to discard Rainbow’s earlier, Dio-linked Euro-metal bombast, the refreshed lineup targeted broader American acceptance. Their initial outing, 1981’s Difficult to Cure, restored momentum and delivered the group’s highest-charting single, another Russ Ballard composition titled “I Surrender.” The album’s title track—a ten-minute metallic treatment of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9—remained the sole nod to Rainbow’s earlier highbrow metal identity. The 1982 follow-up Straight Between the Eyes produced no comparable hits, and interest waned as Blackmore’s songwriting grew increasingly cautious. Bent Out of Shape, issued in 1983 with new keyboardist David Rosenthal and drummer Chuck Burgi, fared similarly, prompting Blackmore to accept that the band’s peak had passed and to join the long-anticipated reunion of Deep Purple’s classic Mark II lineup. True to form, he exited dramatically: Rainbow’s final March 1984 concert in Japan featured a full symphony orchestra.

A posthumous live collection, Finyl Vinyl, appeared in 1986. Blackmore briefly revived the Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow name after departing Purple again in 1994, issuing the album Stranger in Us All, yet that incarnation proved fleeting. He subsequently performed with his then-fiancée Candice Night in the medieval folk duo Blackmore’s Night.

After an extended hiatus, Blackmore declared in 2015 that he would stage concerts under the Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow banner. The ensemble performed multiple dates, including a headline slot at Germany’s Monsters of Rock Festival. Although earlier statements ruled out new recordings, Blackmore later confirmed that fresh material had been written; rather than a complete album, it would appear as singles. The band scheduled a U.K. tour in 2017 and issued the live album Live in Birmingham 2016 that same year.