Chris Rainbow born 18 November 1946

Christopher James Harley, known by the stage name Chris Rainbow (18 November 1946 – 22 February 2015), was a Scottish pop-rock singer and musician, and an influential figure in 70s British and Scottish radio. 

Born in Glasgow, Rainbow worked through a variety of occupations including doing promotional work for Dream Police, contributing cartoons to Glasgow underground paper The Word and studying at the Society for Psychic Research. Rainbow had a stutter which wasn't apparent when he sang. His first experience in a band occurred just two years before he went solo, in his hometown of Glasgow in a group known as Hope Street. 

He and his bandmates had been given a contract to record and publish with a London company; but in 1973, Polydor's Nicky Graham heard a demo of a trio of Rainbow's self-penned numbers and he secured his own four-year contract thanks to Norman Jones, a friend of the singer's who submitted the tape. Following this in 1974 he adopted the stage name “Rainbow” to avoid confusion with Steve Harley who was a popular singer with Cockney Rebel at the time. 

In addition to his recording deal with Polydor, Rainbow signed a deal to publish with Warner Bros. U.K. Jones, who changed his name to Van Den Berg, took on the task of managing his friend's career, and Rainbow went on to put out two albums with Polydor, Looking Over My Shoulder and Home of the Brave. Five singles followed: "Living in the World Today," "All Night," "Mr. Man," "Give Me What I Cry For," and "Solid State Brain." When Jones relocated to California in 1977, Rainbow hired David Knights, formerly of Procol Harum. Knights remained Rainbow's manager through 1986. During this time, Rainbow also wrote advertising jingles for BBC Radio 1 and Capitol Radio. 

                                   

In 1978, his contract with Polydor ended and within a week he joined the stable at EMI. The company released his White Trails album and the singles "Body Music" and "Ring Ring." Just after brief foray into disco funk with Max Middleton on a one off single under the worrying banner of "Maximum Penetration”, Chris was one many artists who was dropped by EMI in their turn of the decade clear out. 

Alan Parsons Project

In 1979, Rainbow also began his decade long association with The Alan Parsons Project, recording on many of their albums from Eve through Alan Parsons' 1999 solo album, The Time Machine. He also appeared on other Alan Parsons's associated works, such as Panarama's Can This Be Paradise in 1982 (with Ian Bairnson and German keyboard player Hermann Weindorf), and Eric Woolfson and Alan Parsons's Freudiana in 1990. Rainbow toured with Jon Anderson in 1980 and did vocal work on Song of Seven in 1980 and Animation in 1983. 

In the early 1980s, Rainbow joined Camel, appearing on the albums The Single Factor and Stationary Traveller, and performing with them on their 1982 and 1984 tours, recordings of which were released as the album Pressure Points. Rainbow would do vocal work on Heart Of The Universe, a solo album by Ton Scherpenzeel who was the keyboardist of Camel in 1984. 

From 1986 through 1998, Rainbow produced records in Scotland. He also performed session work during this time for such artists as Parsons, Elaine Paige, Culture Club, Eric Woolfson, Lenny Zakatek, and Tomoyasu Hotei. He also spent almost two decades working as producer for Runrig, a group that performed Scottish-Gaelic rock. The River Detectives, another group from Scotland, also worked closely with Rainbow. 

Rainbow built and ran the Vital Spark Music Studio on the Isle of Skye where several artists including Donnie Munro, Blair Douglas, and KT Tunstall recorded albums.  Rainbow started recording again as a solo performer in 2000, with the album In a Perfect World under his real name of Chris Harley, planned to hit store shelves during the summer of 2001. However, the album was never released. Chris Rainbow died on the Isle of Skye 22 February 2015 after battling Parkinson's disease; he was 68 years old. 

(Edited from AllMusic, & Wikipedia)