When Kate Bush wanted a proper Rock and Roll bass player to drive her powerful and weird music on her experimental album, The Dreaming in 1982 –  she called Jimmy Bain. When John Cale was looking for a bass player for a European tour – he called Jimmy Bain. When Roy Harper duetted with Kate Bush and brought in Dave Gilmour to play guitar on You from The Unknown Soldier (1980) – he called Jimmy Bain to play bass. Bain of course isn’t known as a particularly flexible bass player or a singer or a songwriter but he was in fact all those things.

Born in Scotland, Bain was best known as the bass player in Rainbow on Rainbow Rising (1976) and On Stage (1977) and on seven Dio albums between 1983 and 2002. He also played bass on one song on Black Rose by Thin Lizzy. But Bain also had his own band Wild Horses (I have the records) with ex Thin Lizzy guitarist Brian Robertson on guitar, he sang, played bass and keyboards and co -wrote all the songs on the first album (1980). He played on Phil Lynott’s great solo albums, Solo in Soho (1980) and The Phillip Lynott Album (1982) and co-wrote Lynott’s hit, Dear Miss Lonely Hearts, reaching No.6 in Ireland, No.32 in the UK. He played with Gary Moore on Dirty Fingers (1983).

In the Metal/Hard Rock community he is known for founding Hear ‘n Aid, the Metal/Hard Rock equivalent of We Are The World and Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas?, co-writing, Stars with Dio and Vivian Campbell and donating all proceeds from the project’s album to charity, a million dollars in the first year.

Bain was playing with Last In Line, Dio’s original band. They were on tour with Def Leppard’s Hysteria On The High Seas cruise, covering Dio’s old songs (Vivian Campbell, Def Leppard guitarist also played guitar with Dio) before the band’s impending release of an album of original material titled Heavy Crown in February this year. Sadly Bain will not see it come to fruition, he was 68 years old. RIP Jimmy Bain. Condolences to friends and family.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Bain

http://classicrock.teamrock.com/features/2016-01-24/10-moments-of-genius-featuring-jimmy-bain

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_in_Line