Michael Guerin - Rain (Part Two)

Guerin behind the throne.

Rain.

Firstly let it be known that Helmut Getto was the leader of RAIN. With me being 17 and still in high school and Helmut being 25 with a family and responsibilities, I always felt like I hit the lottery when I got the nod to play with such an icon. I always loved music. My uncle Jimmy Mallen was a tremendous jazz guitarist and my cousin Dave Heath was a great drummer in the Vaqueros who had a local hit with ECHO on Audition Records in the early 60's. I was around eleven when Dave took me under his wing and gave me drum lessons. Before long I was forming bands and actually playing out at 13. The bands kept changing but always included Don Christiano on lead guitar and Ed Ward on vocals. We were heavily into blues with a taste of hard rock.Some of the early bands were The Breaking Point, Headlight and Captain America.

HEADLIGHT circa 1969.

I was quite content with things musically until one fateful day in 1969 when walking through Midtown Plaza in Rochester I came across two guys from Rainbow "a band that I really idolized". They were Brad Morse vocalist and Bob Limner bassist. We got to talking and they said they just lost their drummer. I said I was a drummer and was invited to audition with them down in Helmut's basement on Avenue D. My folks were very hesitant of this but agreed to give me and my kit a ride. I was nervous as hell. I think we did a couple blues progressions and it went really well apparently because I got the job. We started playing out two to three times a week and became very tight both musically and personally. The commaraderie was thick. We had each other's backs on and off stage and it became a wonderful family. We also rehearsed a few times a week.

The Breaking Point.

One pretty much constant gig was playing the Alley on Ridge Road. We would either open up there or come in at midnight after playing elsewhere and play til 4 in the morning. Helmut often sang 4o'clock in the morning late at night and play the best blues riffs I've ever heard. We kept getting more popular and our following was huge. We were a powerful band that put on a fabulous show. Ted Paris and I were a tight and strong rhythm section. Brad was a singer with so much attitude and persona that you had to love him and of course the jewel in the crown was Helmut. Ripping stuff out of his Gibson and stacks of amps that was supernatural. I vividly remember Christmas night 1970. We weren't thinking about it being recorded, we just went out there and played our asses off. We were all pleasantly surprised the tapes came out so well. Sitting in PCI studios with Mick Gazuski late at night mixing the music was magical. The release of RAIN LIVE CHRISTMAS NIGHT was a success.

Various Rain gig flyers.

Helmut spelled out what was to come in his comments. Fast forward to a few years back both Ted and I were always trying to get more of our music put out. We spoke and met with many people, but Dave Anderson from Saxon recording and Jargon records stepped in and made it happen. We didn't want the PCI tapes used because we thought they weren't good enough. We were actually experimenting with possibilities and never thought they'd be released. We have about two hours of music recorded in the fall of 1971 that was a live broadcast on WCMF radio that is in my opinion a better representative of what the band was capable of. Dave was in the driver's seat and decided to use the tapes for the RAIN 1971 album. We hope to get around to putting the WCMF broadcast eventually. Bottom line on everything is that it was a band that for a short magical time lived and breathed and rocked Rochester, NY to the foundations.