Namesakes #45: Rainbow

Sam and I are away on our annual Boy's Getaway this week. In fact, we should be enjoying our All You Can Eat Breakfast as this post goes live, prior to a two hour drive up to That Edinburgh for a whistle-stop tour of the obvious touristy bits, minus any charity shops... because, what would be the point?

Luckily, George offered to step in with a Namesakes post for you all to argue about in my absence... thank you, George. The stage is all yours...

RAINBOW #1

Sitting amongst the many many albums that never get played is one I bought on its release in 1978. Not played for over 40 years, but I do seem to remember the last track on side 2 being  a slow dirge-like song that is a most un-heavy metal 7 minute bore-fest called Rainbow Eyes. The album is Long Live Rock ´n´ Roll, by Rainbow. With Ronnie James Dio on vocal. I could say “when they were good” but I won’t. For some reason the bottom left of the cover has a small, 1cm, square cut out of it, which could have been me although I’ve no idea why I did it (I did the same thing with Moonflower). Here’s the best song on the album, one that I very much enjoyed then and still do now! It’s a live version, and apart from admiring the effortless guitar-playing of Mr Blackmore, I was also very much taken with that top he was sporting. Although it would look ridiculous on me...

(If you liked that, and why wouldn’t you, the Sons Of Apollo do a belting version.)

Are there any other Rainbows? Well, yes of course. Are they as good as the Ronnie James Dio “Rainbow”? Judge for yourselves...

RAINBOW #2

First of two Nordic Rainbows, the Danish one, who shot to fame in 1978, made one belting album, then quit. Well, they played many concerts in Denmark, made one album, then called it a day. One website said they were a partyband that played their own music plus covers of Toto, Earth Wind & Fire and many more.  They had to change their name because Mr Blackmore felt threatened that his Rainbow would lose out in popularity stakes to Denmark’s finest.

RAINBOW #3

Good call, Ritchie. Next, Norway’s Rainbow, from Sarpsborg. They’ve been releasing albums sporadically since 1977 yet Wikipedia has the gall to omit them from the “musical  artists and bands” section of their Sarpsborg page! One of their songs is Bye Bye Baby Goodbye... but you can sob with relief into your hankies because (a) it’s not THAT song, and (b) I’m not posting it here. Instead, you have this soft rock-pop tune for your listening ears...

That has more of a Toto influence than the Danish band. And what better to follow something from Denmark and Norway than this from Sweden...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI45Q_Rp11A

It still makes me laugh.

RAINBOW #4

Now for an allegedly Hi NRG Rainbow, from Canada, written by Allan Coelho (Allan Rabbit to those familiar with Portuguese, and not be confused with former Portuguese PM Pedro Manuel Mamede Passos Coelho, or Peter Rabbit). One single from them. That was it.

RAINBOW #5

This 1960s psychedelic pop band released one album in 1969 before calling it a day.

Not bad, but it’s no Gates Of Babylon.

RAINBOW #6

At least one reader will be delighted to learn that’s there’s a reggae Rainbow, from Rockfort, East Kingston (Jamaica, not outer London).

RAINBOW #7

Finally, and I know CC will like this, a jazz Rainbow (featuring Will Boulware), from their one album, Crystal Green...

A plethora of Rainbows, seven in total (and how pleasing is that, one for every colour).

I'm especially grateful to George for writing this post, because Rainbow was on my long-list for this feature, so he's saved me the agony!