iSound

February 1975-November 1978: Rainbow -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part 1: February 1975-July 1975 Members Ronnie James Dio vocals Ritchie Blackmore guitars Craig Gruber bass Gary Driscoll drums Mickey Lee Soule piano, mellotron, clavinet, organ History 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. This band is also known as Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, as it appears under that name on their first album, but that name was used only to get people to notice the band. Generally, everyone except Blackmore himself felt bad about the name, so on the later albums the band was called simply Rainbow. The band moved from the East Coast of USA to California, USA. The band went to the Musicland Studios, in...