Rainbow (also known as
Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow or
Blackmore's Rainbow) are a British
rock band led by guitarist
Ritchie Blackmore from 1975 to 1984 and 1993 to 1997. A limited number of European appearances have been announced by Blackmore for the summer of 2016. They were originally established with
Ronnie James Dio's American rock band
Elf, but after the first album, Blackmore fired the backing members and continued with Dio until 1979. Three British musicians joined in 1979, singer
Graham Bonnet, keyboardist
Don Airey, former Deep Purple bassist
Roger Glover, and this line-up gave the band their commercial breakthrough with the single "
Since You Been Gone". Over the years Rainbow went through many line-up changes with no two studio albums featuring the same line-up. Other lead singers
Joe Lynn Turner and
Doogie White would follow, and the project consisted of numerous backing musicians. The band's early work primarily featured mystical lyrics with a
neoclassical metal style, but went in a more streamlined, commercial direction following Dio's departure from the group.