Feb 22, 2015 – Chris Rainbow (Camel) was born Christopher James Harley in Glasgow, Scotland on November 18, 1946.
He started out in a band called Hopestreet, in 1972-3. Following this he adopted the stage name “Rainbow” to avoid confusion with Steve Harley and recorded as Christopher Rainbow, then Chris Rainbow and released three solo albums: Home of the Brave in 1975, Looking Over My Shoulder in 1977 and White Trails in 1979 which produced hits including “Give Me What I Cry For” and “Solid State Brain”.
Apart from his solo career, he made 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 in 1990, an APP album in all but name.
Chris recorded and toured with Camel, including singing some lead vocals on studio albums The Single Factor in 1982 and Stationary Traveller in 1984. He worked with Camel keyboardist Ton Scherpenzeel (Kayak) on his 1984 album Heart of the Universe in a duo format, performing five lead vocals.
He sang backing vocals on the album “Song Of Seven” by former Yes frontman Jon Anderson, and toured with Anderson’s New Life Band. Chris also wrote, produced and recorded jingles for Capital Radio 95.8FM 1973 to 1984 for Kenny Everett, Mike Aspel, Tommy Vance, David Symonds and others.
In later years he produced several albums for the Scottish Gaelic rock group Runrig.
Chris died after a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease on Feb 22, 2015 at the age of 68.
