When Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple on 17. November 1993, little were known about his future plans. The first we learnt on the newsgroup, was this report from Damien DeSimone. Damien was at a Ray Gillen tribute show in New York, featuring Glenn Hughes with Trapeze, and found out the following:
Ritchie Blackmore's guitar tech was at the show the other night, too, and I spoke with him. He said Ritchie is currently doing sporadic recording for a solo album; nothing too serious at this point, though.He is living on Long Island (I thought he was still living in Greenwich, CT). He plays soccer at a park on Long Island at 3:00 on Sundays, though I forget where exactly. Also, he made a surprise appearance at a club on Long Island last week, and he'll be doing more of that over the next few weeks.
(Damien DeSimone, February 1994)
Damien later heard from the same guitar tech (who's a friend of a friend of his) that Ritchie had signed a world wide deal for a solo album with RCA.
Around the Summer of 1994, the Metal press printed notes about Ritchie finding a new vocalist. His name is Douglas (a.k.a. Doug a.k.a. Dougie) White, and he was earlier in the band Pink Pop, which is unknown to me. According to rumours, he nearly ended up replacing Bruce Dickinson in Iron Maiden earlier on.
Then the project changed from being referred to as a Ritchie Blackmore solo album to be referred to as first Rainbow Moon, then Rainbow Flow, and lastly it seems like he's settled for Rainbow Moon again.
A lineup has also materialized, this time thanks to Levent Erbuke in France.
John O'Reilly and Greg Smith has both been playing live with none other than Joe Lynn Turner during 1993/94; Turner was playing clubs regularily in the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut area for a while (he lives in that area). Greg Smith played on Alice Cooper's last album, and also on a release by a band called Red Dawn, together with ex-Rainbow keyboardist David Rosenthal. John O'Reilly played on a project called CPR in 1992; CPR meaning Randy Coven, Al Pitrelli and John O'Reilly. Reportedly a jam-out album. All of these guys are unknown to me, thanks again to Damien for the info.
The Italian DPAS have also mentioned an unnamed keyboard player, which Ritchie supposedly was writing material with. No details or verification on this one.
Ritchie Blackmore is no longer managed by Thames Talent Ltd., who still manages Deep Purple. No release date or title or anything is known for the new album. No one knows what style it is either, but the choice of musicians could perhaps indicate something a la latterday commercial Rainbow...? Well, we'll just have to wait and see, won't we?