Rainbow
Rainbow originally started out with band members from Ronnie James Dio’s American rock band, Elf, but Blackmore fired everyone except Dio. He was notorious for hiring and firing musicians and, after several line-up changes, in 1979 he employed three British musicians: Graham Bonnet on vocals, Don Airey on keyboard, and former Deep Purple bass guitarist, Roger Glover. It was with this line-up that he produced Since You Been Gone.
Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow is still touring in 2019 (Blackmore has changed the line-up several times since 1979) and in an interview in 2017, he announced that they have been in the studio recording new material.
Rainbow was ranked 90 in VH1’s 100 Greatest Artist of All Time and sold over 28 million records world-wide. The inspiration for the band’s name was the Rainbow Bar and Grill in Hollywood.
