First published in 2002, Roy Davies' Rainbow Rising was the first biography of Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. It chronicled the beginnings, break-ups and numerous line-up changes of Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow up to 1997. The biography was a starting point and was well-received. Over the two decades since its publication, Roy has spent an enormous amount of time continuing his research of this much-loved band, which returned for a series of concerts between 2016-19. Roy's research has been nothing short of phenomenal which has resulted in a massive 230,000 words, which are now split over three volumes, of which this is the first part, making this the most extensive and undisputed final word on Rainbow.