Elf (band) - History

History

The band was formed in 1967 by Dio and Pantas after their previous band, Ronnie Dio and the Prophets disbanded.

In 1968, the band was involved in an automobile accident which claimed the life of Nick Pantas, whom the band decided not to replace. The accident forced a shuffling of the band member roles as original keyboardist Thaler moved to guitar (after recovering from his injuries) and the group hired Micky Lee Soule to take over keyboard duties. (Upon leaving in 1972, Thaler moved to New York and got a job as a booking agent — Elf was one of the bands he booked.)

Elf's self-titled debut album was produced by Deep Purple members Roger Glover and Ian Paice, who happened to see Elf auditioning in 1972. For the next few years, the band enjoyed mild success as an opening act for Deep Purple.

Dio both sang and played the bass guitar until, in 1973, bass player Craig Gruber was asked to join. The same year saw Feinstein quit the band, to be replaced by Steve Edwards. Feinstein formed a band called The Rods, which met with a moderate amount of success, touring with groups such as Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, as well as Metallica, before finally retiring from the music industry. He would not return to the music scene until 2004, when his band, Feinstein, released the album Third Wish on the Magic Circle Music label.

In 1974, Dio was asked by Glover to sing on his solo album The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast. Dio's voice gained the attention of guitarist Ritchie Blackmore who had just left Deep Purple and was looking for musicians for his first solo album, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. Apart from guitarist Steve Edwards, he decided to use all of the musicians in Elf for this album, and the band Rainbow was thus formed, with Blackmore replacing Edwards. After they finished recording the album, however, Driscoll, Gruber, and Soule were replaced by Cozy Powell, Jimmy Bain and Tony Carey, who played with Dio and Blackmore during the subsequent tour; Elf was no more.

Drummer Gary Driscoll, who was one of only two Elf members in the band consistently from inception to breakup, was murdered in 1987.

In 2009, Ronnie James Dio spoke to Classic Rock magazine about the possibility of an Elf reunion in the future: "I’ve been talking to my cousin ‘Rock’ about getting that band back together, and it’s certainly on the cards. But, as usual, it’s dependent on schedules coinciding." On the possibility of a new Elf studio album, Dio said, "I’d only want to do an Elf tour if we could come up with a new album. That would include reworkings of some of the older songs, which I don’t think we ever did justice in the studio, plus also a few new tracks." On May 16, 2010, singer Ronnie James Dio died from stomach cancer, making an Elf reunion featuring either of the two consistent members (Dio and Driscoll) impossible. However, before his death, he did manage to record a track on Feinstein's solo album entitled "Metal Will Never Die".