Chris Rainbow - The Drum Drops (1982)

Christopher James Harley was born on 18 November 1946, and before he embarked on a career as a musician he worked in a variety of occupations, including doing promotional work for the band Dream Police, contributing cartoons to Glasgow underground paper The Word, and studying at the Society for Psychic Research. In 1972 and 1973, he was involved in a band called Hopestreet, recording two singles, 'Iron Sky' and 'Wait Until Tomorrow', and following this he recorded his first music as Christopher Rainbow with the singles 'Give Me What I Cry For' and 'Solid State Brain' in 1974, and 'Mr. Man' and 'Gimme Just A Little Beat Of Your Heart' in 1975. He adopted the stage name Christopher Rainbow to avoid confusion with Steve Harley, who was at the peak of his fame at the time, taking the name from a television reporter that he saw on TV. Under that name he released three solo albums, with the debut 'Home Of The Brave' coming out in 1975, followed by 'Looking Over My Shoulder' in 1977, and 'White Trails' in 1979. In his early days he received wide recognition for his music through the support of Kenny Everett, then on Capital Radio in London, and who featured his music extensively, and in return Rainbow made jingles for Capital, some of which have since surfaced on archive releases. In 1979 he began his long association with The Alan Parsons Project, recording on many of their albums from 'Eve' through to Parsons' 1999 solo album 'The Time Machine', and he also appeared on other associated works of Parsons, such as Panarama's 'Can This Be Paradise' in 1982, and Eric Woolfson and Alan Parsons' 'Freudiana' in 1990. He also aided Jon Anderson with vocal work on his 'Song Of Seven' album in 1980 and on 'Animation' in 1983. In the early 1980's, Rainbow joined Camel, appearing on the albums 'The Single Factor' and 'Stationary Traveller', and performing with them on their 1984 tour, recordings of which were released as the album 'Pressure Points'. 

Throughout his career he contributed vocal work on a large variety of albums, from artists like Blonde On Blonde, Max Middleton, Killdozer, Elaine Page, Culture Club, and Toyah Willcox. He also worked as a producer under his birth name of Chris Harley, in particular with the Scottish Gaelic rock group Runrig, starting with the single 'Loch Lomond' in 1982, and then on their albums, from 'Heartland' in 1985, through to 'In Search Of Angels' in 1999. He 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. Considering his long and hugely varied career in music, Rainbow is a criminally under-rated artist, and it wasn't until his death of Parkinson's Disease on 22 February 2015 that his career was belatedly lauded in the music press. Tributes appeared from Alan Parsons, Runrig, and Andy Latimer of Camel, but I think the respect with which he was held in the music industry was brought home by the fact that on hearing of Rainbow's death, Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys posted on his official website, "I felt really bad to hear about Chris Rainbow passing away, he was too young. I remember in the late 1970's, a friend played 'Dear Brian' for me and I was touched and honored by it. It was a beautiful track. I wish the best for Chris's family and friends. Love & Mercy, Brian." In the early 80's Rainbow recorded many demo's for what could have been a come-back album, but they remained unreleased until an archive release in 2000, which also included early demos for his first album, and one of those Capital Radio jingles. For this album I've just taken the songs that were recorded between 1980 and 1982, some of which were labelled as 'demo for 4th album', and others as being 'demo for 'The Drum Drops'', but as I can find no information at all what this refers to, I'm going to assume it was the title of that fourth album, which you can now hear in all its glory. 

Track listing

01 Run Away 
02 Where Are You
03 Summer! 
04 Television 
05 Give A Little More 
06 Looking In Your Window 
07 Giving It Up 
08 Kaleidoscope

09 Young Love
10 Fly Away 
11 Who Cares