Jimmy Bain

1997 Scheduled Featured Guest – 7th annual LA Music Awards  “Dio”

James Stewart ‘Jimmy’ Bain (born 19 December 1947) is a Scottish bassist most famous for playing in the bands Rainbow and Dio with Ronnie James Dio. He has worked with Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott, co-writing on his solo albums.

Bain was born in Newtonmore, Highland, in Scotland. Jimmy Bain played in several provincial amateur bands as a young teen. Bain’s parents and younger brothers relocated to Vancouver, Canada. By this point Bain was playing professionally in Street Noise. However he did join his family for a brief stay in Canada. Before returning to Scotland getting his band Harlot and then hitting the London music scene, Bain joined Harlot in early 1974, after turning down a job with The Babys.
Bain was asked to join Rainbow after Ritchie Blackmore had watched him performing at The Marquee in London. Jimmy would record the studio album Rising and play on the following world tour. While on this world tour, he played on Rainbow’s first live album, On Stage. In January 1977, Bain was sacked from the band.

Jimmy then toured Europe with John Cale

Wild Horses
In the summer of 1978, Bain formed a band called Wild Horses. Jimmy was the lead vocalist, songwriter, as well as bassist for the band, which also included ex-Thin Lizzy guitarist Brian Robertson, drummer Clive Edwards (Pat Travers, Uli Jon Roth’s Electric Sun) and guitarist Neil Carter (who would go on to UFO and Gary Moore). Wild Horses released two albums on EMI in Europe, Wild Horses (1980) and Stand Your Ground (1981), the latter featuring John Lockton (ex-The Next Band) in place of Carter, before Robertson and Edwards both left in June of ’81. Robertson would briefly turn up in Motörhead the following year while Edwards joined former Whitesnake guitarist Bernie Marsden’s S.O.S..

Bain regrouped Wild Horses as a five-piece with ex-Lautrec members Reuben Archer (vocals) and Laurence Archer (guitar), and The Next Band’s Frank Noon (drums), but they disbanded shortly after. Jimmy then worked with the former Family main-man Roger Chapman, Roy Harper, Gary Moore, and Kate Bush (on 1982’s The Dreaming).

Jimmy co-wrote with his close friend Phil Lynott for the Lizzy man’s two solo albums. Not only a bassist but a very capable keyboard player, he toured the material playing keyboards with Phil’s band. Their song, “Old Town” was re-recorded by The Corrs, the Irish family group in 2001/2002, and became a big hit world wide.

Bain was also secretly brought in by the German hard rockers Scorpions to provide bass on their 1984 album Love at First Sting. The leader of the band, the rhythm guitarist Rudolf Schenker, wanted him to join the Scorpions as full-time bassist, but their management wanted to keep the line-up German, so Buchholz was brought back and Bain’s bass tapes were deleted.

Dio
In 1983 Jimmy linked up again with ex-Rainbow vocalist Ronnie James Dio for the band Dio. A central figure within Dio the band, Jimmy co-wrote some of the most successful heavy metal songs of the eighties, such as “Rainbow in the Dark”, and “Holy Diver”. These two were on their first album Holy Diver (1983). Jimmy co-wrote several other songs for the following albums, The Last in Line (1984), Sacred Heart (1985), Intermission (1986), Dream Evil (1987) and Killing the Dragon (2002).

In the mid-1980s, when the entertainment community became active in drawing attention to world charities, Jimmy Bain founded Hear ‘n Aid, a foundation in which he could involve the Rock community to help eliminate world hunger. He also co-wrote the song, “Stars,” with Vivian Campbell and Ronnie James Dio, which became the Heavy Rock world’s answer to, “We Are The World”. “Stars”, provided a major contribution to the famine relief charity appeal. Bain donates all of his shares of the proceeds to one of his favourite charities, Children of the Night.

In autumn 1989. Jimmy formed a band with vocalist Mandy Lion called World War III. After their 1990 eponymous debut album, the band floundered. Jimmy’s solo project The Key utilised a far more melodic and commercial approach. Guitarist on the project was Tracy G, borrowed from Dio’s then band who was also the guitarist for World War III.

Ronnie James Dio’s concept project Magica (2000) saw the return of Jimmy Bain to the Dio story. Bain played on the albums Magica and Killing the Dragon.

In 2005, Bain again joined forces with former Black Sabbath and Dio drummer, Vinny Appice, for two projects, The Hollywood All Starz and 3 Legged Dogg. While the Hollywood All Starz performed live concerts featuring greatest hits sets of the individual members, (Carlos Cavazo of Quiet Riot was another notable member of the band), 3 Legged Dogg produced a well received album of original material. In an interview with journalist, David Lee Wilson, Bain lamented Appice’s ultimate choice to leave both these groups so that he could tour with Ronnie James Dio in the Black Sabbath offshoot, Heaven and Hell.

Present Day
Bain has toured with Hollywood Allstarz, a supergroup featuring a variety of 80s metal stars. The group has included former members of Giuffria, Quiet Riot, and Lynch Mob.

The band ‘Last in line’ was put together in 2013 comprising Jimmy, Viv Campbell, Vinny Appice, Claude Schnell and Andrew Freeman. The line-up, excluding singer Freeman, were the original song writers and performers on the early classic “DIO” albums, and so intend to play gigs under the band name ‘Last in line’ performing these songs.

Discography
With Rainbow
Rising (1976)
On Stage (1977)
Live in Germany (1990, recorded September 1976)
With Mike Montgomery
Solo (1976)
With David Kubinec
Some Things Never Change (1978)
With Thin Lizzy
Black Rose: A Rock Legend (1979)
With Phil Lynott
Solo in Soho (1980)
The Philip Lynott Album (1982)
With Wild Horses
Wild Horses (1980)
Stand Your Ground (1981)
With Gary Moore
Dirty Fingers (1983)
With Dio
Holy Diver (1983)
The Last in Line (1984)
Sacred Heart (1985)
Intermission (1986)
Dream Evil (1987)
Magica (2000)
Killing the Dragon (2002)
With World War III
World War III (1991)
With 3 Legged Dogg
Frozen Summer (2006)