Chris Rainbow

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Chris Rainbow (born Christopher James Harley, November 18, 1946 in Glasgow) is a Scottish rock singer/musician who is best known for his frequent vocal contributions to The Alan Parsons Project, starting on their 1979 Eve album through to their 1987 album Gaudi, and Eric Woolfson's Freudiana(1990) (an APP album in all but name).

He adopted the name "Rainbow" to avoid confusion with Steve Harley, saying, "Steve Harley was at his peak and I didn’t want any confusion. The name Rainbow was found one evening as me and some friends were watching TV and the reporter’s name flashed on the screen as ‘Christopher Rainbow’, so that was that." [1]

Before joining the Project, Rainbow was involved in a band called Hope Street for a year. Following this, he released 3 solo albums Home of the Brave in 1975, Looking Over My Shoulder in 1977, and White Trails in 1979, characterised by evocative songwriting and lush vocal harmonies, often reminiscent of Brian Wilson. Tracks from the latter two albums are collected on The Best of Chris Rainbow, 1972-1980, which has appeared in single and double CD sets and includes radio spots, and rare and unreleased material. At this time Rainbow received much wider recognition for his music through the support of Kenny Everett, then on Capital Radio in London, who featured his music extensively. Some of the jingles that Rainbow made for Capital at this time were later released on an album of out-takes, demos and unreleased material.

Rainbow recorded and toured with Camel, including singing some lead vocals on studio albums The Single Factor (1982) and Stationary Traveller (1984). He worked with Camel keyboardist Ton Scherpenzeel on his 1984 album Heart of the Universe in a duo format, performing five lead vocals.

More recently, Rainbow produced several albums for Scottish Gaelic rock group Runrig.

[edit] Discography (Solo work only)

1975: Home of the Brave

1978: Looking over My Shoulder

1979: White Trails

1985: Body Music (video)

2001: The Chris Rainbow Anthology, 1974-1981

[edit] External links

Chris Rainbow runs the Vital Spark Music Studio on the Isle of Skye. Go to: www.vitalsparkmusic.co.uk Rainbow is currently writing again and hopes to release new album in 2008.

Biography at The Avenue Online