| Christopher Rainbow (real name Christopher Harley) is a Scottish
singer/songwriter much influenced by the Beach Boys, who (almost) flourished
in the mid-1970s. He first came to my notice with a single called
Solid State Brain, that was a radio hit, but didn't make the charts.
Other radio hits followed, including Give Me What I Cry For, and Mister Man.
There were three albums: Home of the Brave, Looking Over My Shoulder and White Trails. All were excellent, in my opinion. He specialised in multi-tracked vocals, rich harmonies (especially very long, circular fade-outs a la Beach Boys 'Till I Die), and self played keyboard-produced backgrounds, although a number of good jazz musicians played on his albums. After these three albums, his EMI contact languished. The recordings he made with the Alan Parsons Project, particularly the layered vocals on the instrumental tracks, are very much in his own style, and suggest to me that he had quite a bit of involvement in their production. But he also recorded with Jon Anderson (ex Yes) and with Culture Club. There was a final weak single called Body Music, drawn from the accompaniment for a rather tacky glamour video of the same name, which deservedly sank without trace. All the albums have been long-deleted, I'm afraid. I'm not even sure they made it onto CD at all. The late Kenny Everett was a great fan, and used to play his music on his Capital Radio and Radio I shows on Saturday and Sunday lunchtimes. Everett was also responsible for getting Rainbow to sing some of the best jingles Capital ever produced - notably "Cash on Delivery", and "It's a Beautiful Summer", a modified version of which appeared on one of his albums. |
Courtesy of the Chris Rainbow Website
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