In 1978, guitar hero Ritchie Blackmore reached a crossroads. It was time to revamp his band Rainbow – even if that meant losing one of the greatest rock singers ever to draw breath.
After quitting heavy rock pioneers Deep Purple in 1975, Blackmore had enlisted four members of American band Elf for the first line-up of Rainbow, with vocalist Ronnie James Dio his collaborator in chief.
After the 1975 album Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, only Dio was retained as Blackmore turned to more experienced players such as powerhouse drummer Cozy Powell.
The following albums Rising (1976) and Long Live Rock ’N’ Roll (1978) had a grandiose quality enriched by Dio’s sword-and-sorcery lyrics – typified by epic tracks such as Stargazer and Gates Of Babylon.
But as Blackmore sought to reinvent the band with a more modern, radio-friendly sound, Dio had resigned in late 1978.
And with Dio gone, a very different kind of singer joined the band.
Graham Bonnet, born and raised in the seaside resort town of Skegness in Lincolnshire, was no new kid on the block.
In the ’60s pop he’d been one half of pop duo The Marbles and had hits with songs by the Bee Gees. In the mid-’70s he’d been an MOR crooner who made it big in Australia.
There had also been some lean years in which he paid the rent singing TV ad jingles for Ski yoghurt and Ritz crackers.
In 1978, Bonnet turned down a job with glam rock stars Sweet, whose singer Brian Connolly had left the group.
When the invitation to audition for Rainbow arrived a year later, Bonnet was mystified.
As he told Planet Rock magazine: “I didn’t know who Rainbow were. When I heard the name I thought it was a hippy-dippy folk group.”
He was at least aware of Ritchie Blackmore’s past. “I knew what Deep Purple was,” he said, “even though I was never into that kind of music.”
It was a Deep Purple song, Mistreated, that Bonnet sang for his audition at a French chateau where Rainbow were working on a new album. Dressed in a suit, he belted out this heavy blues number with such power that Cozy Powell exclaimed: “You’re the guy!”
Ritchie Blackmore’s response was more measured. The guitarist was famed for smashing up guitars on stage, and feared for his volatile temperament, but as Bonnet recalled, “Ritchie was actually very shy.”
Eventually, Blackmore pulled Bonnet to one side and told him: “You’ve got the job if you want it.”
For a few days, Bonnet remained unconvinced. He didn’t fancy singing material from Rainbow’s early albums.
“I really didn’t like Ronnie’s voice or the music,” he said. “All that dungeons and dragons stuff was a bit airy-fairy.”
But the new Rainbow material was more to Bonnet’s taste – straightforward hard rock. And after some sober advice from his manager – “We can make a lot of money out of this” – Bonnet took the job.
The album he made with Rainbow, Down To Earth, was aptly named.
There was a link to the band’s past in the epic track Eyes Of The World, but the main focus was on short, catchy rock songs such as All Night Long and Since You Been Gone, the latter written and first recorded by former Argent singer and guitarist Russ Ballard.
In July 1979, Down To Earth reached No.6 on the UK chart. Since You Been Gone also hit No.6, while the second single, All Night Long, made number 12.
“It’s funny,” Bonnet said. “I never thought that album would be as big as it was. And some of the guys never wanted to do Since You Been Gone in the first place.
“Cozy was going, ‘This is crap – too poppy!’ I thought it was great, but I had no idea that it would become the signature tune for Rainbow.”
In that era, Bonnet’s image – with slicked-back hair and Hawaiian shirts – was viewed as heresy by longhaired, denim-and-leather-clad headbangers.
During the Down To Earth tour, Blackmore tried to talk the singer into growing his hair and wearing regulation rock ’n’ roll gear. Bonnet was having none of it.
“Ritchie was stuck in that image of the long hair and the leather pants,” he said. “He did throw away some of my clothes on tour – some of my best jackets! But in the end he realised: this is how Graham is. It’s not how he looks, it’s how he sings.”
The final date of that tour was momentous – for Rainbow and for heavy metal music as a whole.
On 16 August 1980, the first Monsters Of Rock festival was staged at Donington Park in Leicestershire, with Rainbow topping a bill that also featured Judas Priest, Scorpions, Saxon and others.
It was the beginning of what would become the biggest metal festival in the world.
It also proved to be the last show that Graham Bonnet and Cozy Powell performed with Rainbow.
At the time, Bonnet had no intention of leaving the band. Powell, however, had already made his decision – even after Bonnet and keyboard player Don Airey had, in Bonnet’s words, “begged him to stay”.
For all the mixed emotions that he experienced during that show, Bonnet remembered it as the pinnacle of his career.
Playing to an audience of 60,000, the band powered through new songs and old, with Bonnet mastering those from the Dio era.
“It was the most incredible night I’ve ever had,” he said. “I’ll remember it for the rest of my life.”
What led Bonnet to leave Rainbow, at the height of the band’s popularity, was a sense of unease created by Cozy Powell’s departure.
In late 1980, when work began on the follow-up to Down To Earth with new drummer Bobby Rondinelli in place, Bonnet felt the ground shifting.
“We started rehearsing,” he said, “and some days Ritchie wouldn’t turn up. Don Airey said, ‘If it carries on like this I’m going to leave.’ I said to Don, ‘If you leave, I will too.’ I thought the band was coming to an end.”
With only one new song recorded – I Surrender, again written by Russ Ballard – Bonnet retreated to his home in Los Angeles to consider his future. This was decided after a call from the band’s management.
“They asked me to come back,” he said, “and they asked if I was okay for them to use another singer on any tracks that I didn’t like. So I said, ‘No, I don’t think that will work.’ And I just quit. It turned out that Don stayed, which I should have done really.”
Rainbow subsequently recruited American singer Joe Lynn Turner to record the 1981 album Difficult To Cure, and with a new version of I Surrender came the band’s biggest hit, No.3 in the UK.
For Bonnet, that hurt. “I felt a little bit envious,” he confessed. “Dammit! Why didn’t I stay?”
But even though Graham Bonnet’s time in Rainbow was short, it’s been good to him in the long run.
As the voice of one of the all-time great rock hits, he’s still able to tour all over the world at the age of 77.
As he told Planet Rock: “I’m very lucky to have sustained a long career. I can’t knock what I’ve got.”
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