Renaissance (band)
Encyclopedia
Renaissance are an English
progressive rock
band, most notable for their 1978 UK top 10 hit "Northern Lights" and progressive rock classics like "Carpet of the Sun", "Mother Russia
" and "Ashes Are Burning".
In January 1969, former Yardbirds
members Keith Relf
and Jim McCarty
organised a new group devoted to experimentation between rock
, folk
, and classical forms. This quintet—Relf on guitar and vocals, McCarty on drums, plus bassist
Louis Cennamo
, pianist
John Hawken
, and Relf's sister Jane
as an additional vocalist—released a pair of albums on Elektra
(US) and Island
(UK-ILPS 9112), the first one, titled simply Renaissance, being produced by fellow ex-Yardbird Paul Samwell-Smith
.
The band had begun performing in May 1969, before recording had begun for the debut LP, mostly in the UK, but with occasional forays abroad, including festivals in Belgium (Amougies, October 1969) and France (Operation 666 at the Olympia in January 1970, and Le Bourget
in March 1970, both in Paris). In February 1970, they embarked on a North American tour, but that month-long trek proved a mitigated success, as because of their Yardbirds credentials they found themselves paired with bands such as The Kinks
, and their new classically oriented direction did not always go down well with audiences.
Beginning in the late spring of 1970, as touring began to grind on them, the original band gradually dissolved. Relf and McCarty decided to quit performing, and Cennamo joined Colosseum
. Hawken organised a new line-up to fulfil contractual obligations and complete the band's second album, Illusion, which was left unfinished.
– guitarist Michael Dunford
, bassist Neil Korner and singer Terry Crowe, plus drummer Terry Slade. This line-up recorded one track, "Mr Pine", a Dunford composition, and played a few gigs during the summer of 1970. Meanwhile a final recording session brought together the original line-up minus Hawken, with Don Shin sitting in on keyboards, and produced the album's closing track "Past Orbits Of Dust". The now completed Illusion was released in Germany in 1971, although not released in the UK until 1976 (Island HELP 27). The album marked the beginning of Renaissance's long-standing collaboration with poet Betty Thatcher-Newsinger
as lyricist when she co-wrote two songs with Relf and McCarty.
The last two remaining original members left in the autumn of 1970 : Jane Relf
was replaced by American folk singer Anne-Marie "Binky" Cullom, then John Hawken left to join Spooky Tooth
and pianist John Tout replaced him. There is an extant video (released on the DVD "Kings & Queens" in 2010) of that line-up performing five songs on a German TV program (Muzik-Kanal). The plan at the time was that Keith Relf and Jim McCarty would remain involved as non-performing members – Relf as a producer and McCarty as a songwriter. Both were present when singer Annie Haslam successfully auditioned in January 1971 to replace the departing Cullom (who would later marry drummer Terry Slade and is currently a massage therapist in the UK). But while McCarty would go on to write songs for the new band, Relf's involvement would be short-lived. Dunford soon emerged as a prolific composer, and also continued the writing partnership with Thatcher, who would go on to write most of the lyrics for the band's 1970s albums.
Sometime in 1971, new manager Miles Copeland decided to re-organise the band, focussing on what he felt were Renaissance's strong points – Annie Haslam's voice and John Tout's piano. Until then Haslam had shared vocals with Terry Crowe, who was in effect the band's chief vocalist. Crowe and Korner went, the former unreplaced, the latter replaced by a succession of bass players, including John Wetton
(later of King Crimson
and Asia
), Frank Farrell
(later in Supertramp
) and Danny McCulloch
(formerly of The Animals
and a former bandmate of Dunford and Crowe in The Plebs), until the position settled with the inclusion of Jon Camp. It was also decided that Dunford would now concentrate on composing, and a new guitar player, Mick Parsons, was brought in for live work. In 1972, shortly before recording sessions for the new band's debut LP, drummer Terence Sullivan joined, after Slade's initial replacement was deemed unsuitable following a European tour. Tragically guitarist Parsons died in a car accident and was replaced at short notice by Rob Hendry. The resulting line-up entered the studio having played only a dozen gigs together. Prologue was released later in 1972 on EMI-Sovereign Records (UK), with music composed by Dunford (except for two songs by McCarty), with all lyrics by Thatcher. Rock radio stations (particularly in the US northeast and Cleveland) gave the song Spare Some Love significant airplay for a few months after the albums release, and fans of Yes
and Emerson, Lake & Palmer
in particular, took notice of the band. Francis Monkman
, of the group Curved Air
(another group managed by Miles Copeland), guested on synthesiser on the final track "Rajah Khan".
Hendry was replaced for the Prologue tour by one Peter Finberg, who in turn left the group shortly before the sessions for the next album. Michael Dunford then returned as (acoustic) guitarist, completing what most fans regard as the classic five-piece line-up, which would remain together through six studio albums. Ashes are Burning was released in 1973. Andy Powell
, of the group Wishbone Ash
, was brought in for a blistering electric guitar solo on the final track "Ashes are Burning", which became the band's anthem piece, extended to almost twenty minutes with a long bass solo and other instrumental workouts. (John Tout returned Powell's favour by playing organ on Wishbone's classic album "Argus".) The album became the band's first to chart in the US, where it reached #171 on the Billboard 200
. The band played their first US concerts during that period, enjoying success on the East coast in particular, which soon resulted in a special orchestral concert at New York's Academy of Music in May 1974. Soon Renaissance would choose to concentrate on the US market, as the UK press virtually ignored them, seeing the original band as the only legitimate Renaissance.
The band left Sovereign Records, and joined Miles Copeland's new prog rock stable and label BTM (for British Talent Management). The label's first release was Turn of the Cards in 1974. With a larger budget, the album went from folk-flavoured to a more dark, lush, orchestral rock sound. One of the album's songs, "Things I Don't Understand", which clocked in at 9:30, was Jim McCarty's last co-writing credit with the group (although it was actually in the band's live repertoire for years). A lengthy tribute to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
, called "Mother Russia", closed out the album, with lyrics inspired by his autobiographical novel, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
". The LP was first issued in the United States on Sire Records
in August 1974, where it reached #94, some months before an official UK release. Although the band's fan base was relatively small, its following was heavily concentrated in the large cities of the northeast US. The album was eventually released in the UK in March 1975.
It was soon followed by Scheherazade and Other Stories
, released on both sides of the Atlantic in September 1975. The album, whose second side was taken up with the epic tone-poem "Song of Scheherazade" based on stories from "One Thousand and One Nights", peaked at #48 in the United States.
A double live album, Live at Carnegie Hall
, followed in 1976. Despite criticisms that much of the album was little more than a note for note reproduction of highlights from their previous four studio albums the album reached #55 in the US. Revealingly, in introducing the song "Ashes Are Burning" Haslam refers to it as the title track from the group's second album, rather than their fourth, suggesting that the Haslam-led lineup by this point considered themselves a distinct band from Keith Relf's incarnation of the group.
Its follow-up, Novella
, also saw a modest chart success in the US, peaking at #46 in 1977, although its UK release was delayed by yet another label change.
In the 1970s, Renaissance defined their work with folk rock
and classical fusions. Their songs include quotations from and allusions to such composers as Alain
, Bach
, Chopin
, Debussy
, Giazotto
, Jarre
, Rachmaninoff
, Rimsky-Korsakov
, Prokofiev
and Shostakovich
. Indeed, "Northern Lights" contains a number of formal structural features that are not completely developed, but are still obvious: an introduction, first and second subjects, albeit with the traditional key relationships not always present. There is a form of contracted development and a hint at a recapitulation including two episodes. There are formal devices such as extensive use of tonic pedal points and careful use of inverted chords and other harmonic devices. Renaissance records, especially Ashes Are Burning, were frequently played on American progressive rock radio stations such as WNEW-FM, WHFS-FM, WMMR-FM
, KSHE 95 and WVBR
.
Although commercial success was limited during this period, Renaissance scored a hit single
in Britain with "Northern Lights", which reached #10 there during the summer of 1978. The single was taken from the album A Song for All Seasons (a #58 album in the US), and received significant airplay on not only AOR
stations, but also on radio stations adapting to a new format known as "soft rock", now known as adult contemporary rock through the spring and summer of 1978. The band performed on a modestly successful tour of the US east of the Mississippi and drew significant crowds in State College, PA, and Cleveland OH during the late spring and early summer of 1979 promoting both A Song for all Seasons and a mix of old and new tracks.
Renaissance floundered following 1979's Azure d'Or, as many fans couldn't relate to a largely synthesizer
-oriented sound. As a result the band's fan base began to lose interest and the album only reached #125. Michael Dunford and Jon Camp assumed most of the band's songwriting.
Sire issued a two-part compilation, Tales of 1001 Nights, focussing on the 1972–79 period, in 1988. In the 1990s most of their catalog appeared on CD from reissue record labels such as Repertoire Records
(Germany). In 2006 Repertoire did remasters of Ashes are Burning, Turn of the Cards and Scheherezade, however they are criticized for having a heavily compressed sound.
In the mid 1990s both Haslam (who had released a self-titled solo album in 1989) and Dunford (who had been working on a proposed musical based on the Scheherazade storyline) formed their own bands using the name Renaissance and released albums with different line-ups.
Renaissance partially reformed in 1998 around a nucleus of Haslam, Dunford and Sullivan, plus Tout and several new musicians, most notably Roy Wood
and Mickey Simmonds, to record the CD Tuscany. In 1999, Haslam, Dunford and Simmonds played a one-off trio concert at London's Astoria supporting Caravan
. In 2001, following the delayed release of Tuscany, a full band tour was organised, consisting of one London concert (again at the Astoria) and several dates in Japan. It was documented on the live release In the Land of the Rising Sun: Live in Concert. (Tout, although in the audience at the Astoria, did not perform on this tour). Annie Haslam, who had become the band's spokesperson, said that several factors made further touring and recording impractical. The band's short third incarnation was soon over.
Terry Sullivan has since recorded an album called South of Winter with a studio group he named Renaissant. It is evocative of Renaissance's music, with lyrics by Betty Thatcher-Newsinger
and keyboard contributions by John Tout.
On 20 September 2008, John Tout made his first public appearance in the US in over 25 years, with Annie Haslam and the Jann Klose
band, at the Sellersville Theatre 1984 in Sellersville, Pennsylvania
.
Sometime before the summer of 2009 John Tout suffered from a heart attack.
In late August 2009, Annie Haslam announced that she and Michael Dunford were commemorating the 40th anniversary of Renaissance with a reformed band, called Renaissance 2009 (including no other members of the "classic" line-up, but with musicians from the 2001 incarnation of the band), and a concert tour.
A tour in Eastern North America and Japan was undertaken in 2010, together with a three song EP release and a new official website. Further shows occurred during the fall of 2011 with Haslam, but no other former band-mates.
and keyboards by John Tout. Terry's wife Christine did most of the vocals, with Terry himself taking lead on two songs.
Multi-artist television program with Renaissance performing "Can You Understand" and "Black Flame." Syndicated (USA), 1974. 11 minutes, original running time unknown.
Multi-artist television program with Renaissance performing "Carpet of the Sun" and "Midas Man." NBC (USA), 1976. 5 minutes, original running time unknown.
First in a series of programs consisting of artists performing live, with the performance broadcast simultaneously on TV and FM radio, hosted by DJ Alan Black. Songs performed were: "Carpet of the Sun", "Mother Russia", "Can You Hear Me", "Ocean Gypsy", "Running Hard", "Touching Once" and "Prologue". Originally broadcast on 8 January 1977. BBC (UK), 1977. Approximately 50–55 minutes.
Television talk show features Renaissance performing "Northern Lights" on 4 May 1978.
Interview by J.J. Jackson with Annie Haslam and Jon Camp. MTV (USA), April, 1983. 10 minutes.
after Renaissance's second album. Illusion released two albums for Island Records before splitting, while a third made up of unreleased demos appeared years later. The original four reformed again for the production of Through the Fire which was released under the bandname of Renaissance Illusion. (There are two second albums entitled Illusion: the second album of the original Renaissance (1971); and the eponymous second album of their reunion band, Illusion (1978).)
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
band, most notable for their 1978 UK top 10 hit "Northern Lights" and progressive rock classics like "Carpet of the Sun", "Mother Russia
Mother Russia (Renaissance song)
Mother Russia is the closing song on Renaissance's 1974 album Turn of the Cards. It also appears on the 1976 live album Live at Carnegie Hall, the compilation Tales of 1001 Nights, Vol...
" and "Ashes Are Burning".
Original incarnation (1969–70)
- Jane RelfJane RelfJane Relf is the younger sister of Keith Relf of the Yardbirds. After the Yardbirds disbanded, Keith formed Renaissance and Jane joined on vocals. After Keith's death the surviving members of Renaissance reformed as Illusion, under which name they recorded two albums with Jane's vocals to the fore...
– vocals - Keith RelfKeith RelfKeith William Relf , was a musician best known as the lead singer and harmonica player of The Yardbirds. After the Yardbirds broke up Relf formed the acoustic duo Together, with fellow Yardbird Jim McCarty, followed by Renaissance, which also featured his sister, singer Jane Relf, then hard rock...
– vocals, guitar, harmonica - John HawkenJohn HawkenJohn Hawken John Hawken John Hawken (born John Christopher Hawken, 9 May 1940, at Christchurch General Hospital, Bournemouth, Hampshire (now Dorset) is a British keyboard player. He studied classical piano between the ages of four and eighteen at which point he succumbed to the lure of rock and roll...
– keyboards - Louis CennamoLouis CennamoLouis David Cennamo was bass guitarist with an early line up of The Herd, the original line-up of Renaissance and later Colosseum, Steamhammer, Armageddon and Illusion . He also worked with Jim McCarty in Stairway. The song "Bullet", on the first Renaissance album, includes an extended...
– bass - Jim McCartyJim McCartyJim McCarty is an English musician, best known as the drummer for The Yardbirds and Renaissance.-Early life:...
– drums, vocals
In January 1969, former Yardbirds
The Yardbirds
- Current :* Chris Dreja - rhythm guitar, backing vocals * Jim McCarty - drums, backing vocals * Ben King - lead guitar * David Smale - bass, backing vocals...
members Keith Relf
Keith Relf
Keith William Relf , was a musician best known as the lead singer and harmonica player of The Yardbirds. After the Yardbirds broke up Relf formed the acoustic duo Together, with fellow Yardbird Jim McCarty, followed by Renaissance, which also featured his sister, singer Jane Relf, then hard rock...
and Jim McCarty
Jim McCarty
Jim McCarty is an English musician, best known as the drummer for The Yardbirds and Renaissance.-Early life:...
organised a new group devoted to experimentation between rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, folk
Traditional music
Traditional music is the term increasingly used for folk music that is not contemporary folk music. More on this is at the terminology section of the World music article...
, and classical forms. This quintet—Relf on guitar and vocals, McCarty on drums, plus bassist
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
Louis Cennamo
Louis Cennamo
Louis David Cennamo was bass guitarist with an early line up of The Herd, the original line-up of Renaissance and later Colosseum, Steamhammer, Armageddon and Illusion . He also worked with Jim McCarty in Stairway. The song "Bullet", on the first Renaissance album, includes an extended...
, pianist
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
John Hawken
John Hawken
John Hawken John Hawken John Hawken (born John Christopher Hawken, 9 May 1940, at Christchurch General Hospital, Bournemouth, Hampshire (now Dorset) is a British keyboard player. He studied classical piano between the ages of four and eighteen at which point he succumbed to the lure of rock and roll...
, and Relf's sister Jane
Jane Relf
Jane Relf is the younger sister of Keith Relf of the Yardbirds. After the Yardbirds disbanded, Keith formed Renaissance and Jane joined on vocals. After Keith's death the surviving members of Renaissance reformed as Illusion, under which name they recorded two albums with Jane's vocals to the fore...
as an additional vocalist—released a pair of albums on Elektra
Elektra Records
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....
(US) and Island
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
(UK-ILPS 9112), the first one, titled simply Renaissance, being produced by fellow ex-Yardbird Paul Samwell-Smith
Paul Samwell-Smith
Paul Samwell-Smith is best known as a founding member and bassist of the 1960s English band, The Yardbirds, a group that spawned such noteworthy musicians as Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, and Jimmy Page...
.
The band had begun performing in May 1969, before recording had begun for the debut LP, mostly in the UK, but with occasional forays abroad, including festivals in Belgium (Amougies, October 1969) and France (Operation 666 at the Olympia in January 1970, and Le Bourget
Le Bourget
Le Bourget is a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.A very small part of Le Bourget airport lies on the territory of the commune of Le Bourget, which nonetheless gave its name to the airport. Most of the airport lies on the territory of the...
in March 1970, both in Paris). In February 1970, they embarked on a North American tour, but that month-long trek proved a mitigated success, as because of their Yardbirds credentials they found themselves paired with bands such as The Kinks
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a...
, and their new classically oriented direction did not always go down well with audiences.
Beginning in the late spring of 1970, as touring began to grind on them, the original band gradually dissolved. Relf and McCarty decided to quit performing, and Cennamo joined Colosseum
Colosseum (band)
Colosseum is a pioneering British progressive jazz-rock band, mixing progressive rock and jazz-based improvisation.-History 1968 - 1971:The band was formed in September 1968 by drummer Jon Hiseman, tenor sax player Dick Heckstall-Smith and bass player Tony Reeves, who had previously worked together...
. Hawken organised a new line-up to fulfil contractual obligations and complete the band's second album, Illusion, which was left unfinished.
Transition (1970–71)
Apart from Jane Relf, the new band consisted mostly of former members of Hawken's previous band, The Nashville TeensThe Nashville Teens
The Nashville Teens are a British pop band formed in Weybridge, Surrey in Summer 1962.-History:Arthur Sharp began his career in music as the manager of Aerco Records in Woking, Surrey...
– guitarist Michael Dunford
Michael Dunford
Michael Dunford is a football administrator, most recently employed as Chief Executive Officer of Premier League club Birmingham City. He succeeded Karren Brady to the post, which he resigned in April 2010, only six months after his appointment....
, bassist Neil Korner and singer Terry Crowe, plus drummer Terry Slade. This line-up recorded one track, "Mr Pine", a Dunford composition, and played a few gigs during the summer of 1970. Meanwhile a final recording session brought together the original line-up minus Hawken, with Don Shin sitting in on keyboards, and produced the album's closing track "Past Orbits Of Dust". The now completed Illusion was released in Germany in 1971, although not released in the UK until 1976 (Island HELP 27). The album marked the beginning of Renaissance's long-standing collaboration with poet Betty Thatcher-Newsinger
Betty Thatcher
Betty Thatcher was an English lyricist, who wrote most of the lyrics for the UK progressive rock band Renaissance.-Early life:...
as lyricist when she co-wrote two songs with Relf and McCarty.
The last two remaining original members left in the autumn of 1970 : Jane Relf
Jane Relf
Jane Relf is the younger sister of Keith Relf of the Yardbirds. After the Yardbirds disbanded, Keith formed Renaissance and Jane joined on vocals. After Keith's death the surviving members of Renaissance reformed as Illusion, under which name they recorded two albums with Jane's vocals to the fore...
was replaced by American folk singer Anne-Marie "Binky" Cullom, then John Hawken left to join Spooky Tooth
Spooky Tooth
Spooky Tooth are an English rock band principally active, with intermittent breakups, between 1967 to 1974. In recent years, the band has been reconstituted at various points, and continues to perform occasionally.-Career:...
and pianist John Tout replaced him. There is an extant video (released on the DVD "Kings & Queens" in 2010) of that line-up performing five songs on a German TV program (Muzik-Kanal). The plan at the time was that Keith Relf and Jim McCarty would remain involved as non-performing members – Relf as a producer and McCarty as a songwriter. Both were present when singer Annie Haslam successfully auditioned in January 1971 to replace the departing Cullom (who would later marry drummer Terry Slade and is currently a massage therapist in the UK). But while McCarty would go on to write songs for the new band, Relf's involvement would be short-lived. Dunford soon emerged as a prolific composer, and also continued the writing partnership with Thatcher, who would go on to write most of the lyrics for the band's 1970s albums.
Second Incarnation (1971–80)
- Annie HaslamAnnie HaslamAnnie Haslam is an English progressive rock vocalist and songwriter.Originally a fashion student, she began studying under opera singer Sybil Knight in 1970 and developed her five-octave vocal range...
(vocals) - Michael DunfordMichael DunfordMichael Dunford is a football administrator, most recently employed as Chief Executive Officer of Premier League club Birmingham City. He succeeded Karren Brady to the post, which he resigned in April 2010, only six months after his appointment....
(guitar) - John Tout (keyboards)
- Jon Camp (bass, vocals)
- Terence Sullivan (drums, percussion)
Sometime in 1971, new manager Miles Copeland decided to re-organise the band, focussing on what he felt were Renaissance's strong points – Annie Haslam's voice and John Tout's piano. Until then Haslam had shared vocals with Terry Crowe, who was in effect the band's chief vocalist. Crowe and Korner went, the former unreplaced, the latter replaced by a succession of bass players, including John Wetton
John Wetton
John Kenneth Wetton is an English bassist, guitarist, keyboardist, singer and songwriter. He was born in Willington, Derbyshire, and grew up in Bournemouth. He has been a professional musician since the late 1960s...
(later of King Crimson
King Crimson
King Crimson are a rock band founded in London, England in 1969. Often categorised as a foundational progressive rock group, the band have incorporated diverse influences and instrumentation during their history...
and Asia
Asia (band)
Asia are an English rock group formed in 1981. The band was labelled a supergroup as it included former members of several veteran progressive rock bands, namely John Wetton , Geoff Downes , Steve Howe and Carl Palmer Asia are an English rock group formed in 1981. The band was labelled a...
), Frank Farrell
Frank Farrell (musician)
Frank Farrell was a British rock bassist, vocalist and songwriter born in Birmingham, England. Over a professional career that spanned thirty years he is best known as the bassist of British rock band Supertramp and for his musical association with Leo Sayer...
(later in Supertramp
Supertramp
Supertramp are a British rock band formed in 1969 under the name Daddy before renaming to Supertramp in early 1970. Though their music was initially categorised as progressive rock, they have since incorporated a combination of traditional rock and art rock into their music...
) and Danny McCulloch
Danny McCulloch
Daniel Joseph 'Danny' McCulloch is an English musician, best known for having been the bassist of the 1960s psychedelic rock group Eric Burdon & The Animals....
(formerly of The Animals
The Animals
The Animals were an English music group of the 1960s formed in Newcastle upon Tyne during the early part of the decade, and later relocated to London...
and a former bandmate of Dunford and Crowe in The Plebs), until the position settled with the inclusion of Jon Camp. It was also decided that Dunford would now concentrate on composing, and a new guitar player, Mick Parsons, was brought in for live work. In 1972, shortly before recording sessions for the new band's debut LP, drummer Terence Sullivan joined, after Slade's initial replacement was deemed unsuitable following a European tour. Tragically guitarist Parsons died in a car accident and was replaced at short notice by Rob Hendry. The resulting line-up entered the studio having played only a dozen gigs together. Prologue was released later in 1972 on EMI-Sovereign Records (UK), with music composed by Dunford (except for two songs by McCarty), with all lyrics by Thatcher. Rock radio stations (particularly in the US northeast and Cleveland) gave the song Spare Some Love significant airplay for a few months after the albums release, and fans of Yes
Yes (band)
Yes are an English rock band who achieved worldwide success with their progressive, art, and symphonic style of rock music. Regarded as one of the pioneers of the progressive genre, Yes are known for their lengthy songs, mystical lyrics, elaborate album art, and live stage sets...
and Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Emerson, Lake & Palmer, also known as ELP, are an English progressive rock supergroup. They found success in the 1970s and sold over forty million albums and headlined large stadium concerts. The band consists of Keith Emerson , Greg Lake and Carl Palmer...
in particular, took notice of the band. Francis Monkman
Francis Monkman
Francis Monkman is an English rock, classical and film score composer, and a founding member of the progressive rock band Curved Air.-Career:...
, of the group Curved Air
Curved Air
Curved Air are a pioneering British progressive rock group formed in 1970 by musicians from mixed artistic backgrounds, including classic, folk, and electronic sound. The resulting sound of the band was a mixture of progressive rock, folk rock, and fusion with classical elements...
(another group managed by Miles Copeland), guested on synthesiser on the final track "Rajah Khan".
Hendry was replaced for the Prologue tour by one Peter Finberg, who in turn left the group shortly before the sessions for the next album. Michael Dunford then returned as (acoustic) guitarist, completing what most fans regard as the classic five-piece line-up, which would remain together through six studio albums. Ashes are Burning was released in 1973. Andy Powell
Andy Powell
Andy Powell is an English guitarist and songwriter, and best known as a founding member of Wishbone Ash.-Early life and career:...
, of the group Wishbone Ash
Wishbone Ash
Wishbone Ash are a British rock band who achieved success in the early and mid-1970s. Their popular records included Wishbone Ash , Argus , There's the Rub , and New England...
, was brought in for a blistering electric guitar solo on the final track "Ashes are Burning", which became the band's anthem piece, extended to almost twenty minutes with a long bass solo and other instrumental workouts. (John Tout returned Powell's favour by playing organ on Wishbone's classic album "Argus".) The album became the band's first to chart in the US, where it reached #171 on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
. The band played their first US concerts during that period, enjoying success on the East coast in particular, which soon resulted in a special orchestral concert at New York's Academy of Music in May 1974. Soon Renaissance would choose to concentrate on the US market, as the UK press virtually ignored them, seeing the original band as the only legitimate Renaissance.
The band left Sovereign Records, and joined Miles Copeland's new prog rock stable and label BTM (for British Talent Management). The label's first release was Turn of the Cards in 1974. With a larger budget, the album went from folk-flavoured to a more dark, lush, orchestral rock sound. One of the album's songs, "Things I Don't Understand", which clocked in at 9:30, was Jim McCarty's last co-writing credit with the group (although it was actually in the band's live repertoire for years). A lengthy tribute to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was aRussian and Soviet novelist, dramatist, and historian. Through his often-suppressed writings, he helped to raise global awareness of the Gulag, the Soviet Union's forced labor camp system – particularly in The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of...
, called "Mother Russia", closed out the album, with lyrics inspired by his autobiographical novel, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is a novel written by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, first published in November 1962 in the Soviet literary magazine Novy Mir . The story is set in a Soviet labor camp in the 1950s, and describes a single day of an ordinary prisoner, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov...
". The LP was first issued in the United States on Sire Records
Sire Records
Sire Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer, each investing ten thousand dollars into the new company. Its early releases as a...
in August 1974, where it reached #94, some months before an official UK release. Although the band's fan base was relatively small, its following was heavily concentrated in the large cities of the northeast US. The album was eventually released in the UK in March 1975.
It was soon followed by Scheherazade and Other Stories
Scheherazade and Other Stories
Scheherazade and Other Stories is a 1975 album by progressive rock band Renaissance. It has often been considered their overall best album....
, released on both sides of the Atlantic in September 1975. The album, whose second side was taken up with the epic tone-poem "Song of Scheherazade" based on stories from "One Thousand and One Nights", peaked at #48 in the United States.
A double live album, Live at Carnegie Hall
Live at Carnegie Hall (Renaissance album)
Live at Carnegie Hall was a 1976 live double album by progressive rock band Renaissance. It presented songs from all of the band's Annie Haslam-era studio albums thus far, including the forthcoming Scheherazade and Other Stories.-Side A:#"Prologue" - 8:10 [Time on vinyl album 7:35 ] Live at...
, followed in 1976. Despite criticisms that much of the album was little more than a note for note reproduction of highlights from their previous four studio albums the album reached #55 in the US. Revealingly, in introducing the song "Ashes Are Burning" Haslam refers to it as the title track from the group's second album, rather than their fourth, suggesting that the Haslam-led lineup by this point considered themselves a distinct band from Keith Relf's incarnation of the group.
Its follow-up, Novella
Novella (Renaissance album)
Novella was a 1977 album by progressive rock band Renaissance.- Information about the album :Due to the bankruptcy of the band's UK label BTM, this album was released in the USA some months before its UK release, leading to a number of UK fans importing copies...
, also saw a modest chart success in the US, peaking at #46 in 1977, although its UK release was delayed by yet another label change.
In the 1970s, Renaissance defined their work with folk rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
and classical fusions. Their songs include quotations from and allusions to such composers as Alain
Jehan Alain
Jehan Ariste Alain was a French organist and composer.-Biography:Alain was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the western suburbs of Paris, into a family of musicians. His father, Albert Alain was an enthusiastic organist, composer and organ-builder who had studied with Alexandre Guilmant and Louis...
, Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
, Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
, Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
, Giazotto
Remo Giazotto
Remo Giazotto was an Italian musicologist, music critic, and composer, mostly known through his systematic catalogue of the works of Tomaso Albinoni...
, Jarre
Maurice Jarre
Maurice-Alexis Jarre was a French composer and conductor.Although he composed several concert works, he is best known for his film scores, and is particularly known for his collaborations with film director David Lean. Jarre composed the scores to all of Lean's films since Lawrence of Arabia...
, Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
, Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five.The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful or The Mighty Coterie, refers to a circle of composers who met in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the years 1856–1870: Mily Balakirev , César...
, Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
and Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
. Indeed, "Northern Lights" contains a number of formal structural features that are not completely developed, but are still obvious: an introduction, first and second subjects, albeit with the traditional key relationships not always present. There is a form of contracted development and a hint at a recapitulation including two episodes. There are formal devices such as extensive use of tonic pedal points and careful use of inverted chords and other harmonic devices. Renaissance records, especially Ashes Are Burning, were frequently played on American progressive rock radio stations such as WNEW-FM, WHFS-FM, WMMR-FM
WMMR
WMMR is an active rock radio station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, broadcasting at 93.3 MHz FM. The station is owned by Greater Media....
, KSHE 95 and WVBR
WVBR
WVBR-FM is a college radio station that broadcasts to Ithaca, New York, and surrounding areas. It operates at 3 kilowatts from a transmitter on Hungerford Hill, in Ithaca. A translator on 105.5 FM provides a cleaner signal to certain areas of Ithaca...
.
Although commercial success was limited during this period, Renaissance scored a hit single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
in Britain with "Northern Lights", which reached #10 there during the summer of 1978. The single was taken from the album A Song for All Seasons (a #58 album in the US), and received significant airplay on not only AOR
Album-oriented rock
Album-oriented rock is an American FM radio format focusing on album tracks by rock artists.-Music played:Most radio formats are based on a select, tight rotation of hit singles...
stations, but also on radio stations adapting to a new format known as "soft rock", now known as adult contemporary rock through the spring and summer of 1978. The band performed on a modestly successful tour of the US east of the Mississippi and drew significant crowds in State College, PA, and Cleveland OH during the late spring and early summer of 1979 promoting both A Song for all Seasons and a mix of old and new tracks.
Renaissance floundered following 1979's Azure d'Or, as many fans couldn't relate to a largely synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
-oriented sound. As a result the band's fan base began to lose interest and the album only reached #125. Michael Dunford and Jon Camp assumed most of the band's songwriting.
Later days
After the Azure d'Or tour, John Tout left the group for personal reasons, quickly followed by Terry Sullivan. Subsequent albums Camera Camera (1981) and Time Line (1983) brought Renaissance more into the contemporary synth pop genre, but neither garnered enough commercial interest to make a viable future for the band (Camera Camera was the band's final album to chart in the US where it reached #196 in late 1981). In 1985 Camp left, and Haslam and Dunford led an acoustic version of the band and performing occassional shows (the last being in Georgetown, DC until splitting up in August, 1987.Sire issued a two-part compilation, Tales of 1001 Nights, focussing on the 1972–79 period, in 1988. In the 1990s most of their catalog appeared on CD from reissue record labels such as Repertoire Records
Repertoire Records
Repertoire Records is a German record label from Hamburg, Germany, specialising in reissues of classic pop and rock albums originally issued in the 60s and 70s. The chairman is Thomas Neelsen....
(Germany). In 2006 Repertoire did remasters of Ashes are Burning, Turn of the Cards and Scheherezade, however they are criticized for having a heavily compressed sound.
In the mid 1990s both Haslam (who had released a self-titled solo album in 1989) and Dunford (who had been working on a proposed musical based on the Scheherazade storyline) formed their own bands using the name Renaissance and released albums with different line-ups.
Renaissance partially reformed in 1998 around a nucleus of Haslam, Dunford and Sullivan, plus Tout and several new musicians, most notably Roy Wood
Roy Wood
Roy Adrian Wood is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He was particularly successful in the 1960s and 1970s as member and co-founder of the bands The Move, Electric Light Orchestra, and Wizzard. As a songwriter, he contributed a number of hits to the repertoire of these bands.-Career:Wood...
and Mickey Simmonds, to record the CD Tuscany. In 1999, Haslam, Dunford and Simmonds played a one-off trio concert at London's Astoria supporting Caravan
Caravan (band)
Caravan are an English band from the Canterbury area, founded by former Wilde Flowers members David Sinclair, Richard Sinclair, Pye Hastings and Richard Coughlan. Caravan rose to success over a period of several years from 1968 onwards into the 1970s as part of the Canterbury scene, blending...
. In 2001, following the delayed release of Tuscany, a full band tour was organised, consisting of one London concert (again at the Astoria) and several dates in Japan. It was documented on the live release In the Land of the Rising Sun: Live in Concert. (Tout, although in the audience at the Astoria, did not perform on this tour). Annie Haslam, who had become the band's spokesperson, said that several factors made further touring and recording impractical. The band's short third incarnation was soon over.
Terry Sullivan has since recorded an album called South of Winter with a studio group he named Renaissant. It is evocative of Renaissance's music, with lyrics by Betty Thatcher-Newsinger
Betty Thatcher
Betty Thatcher was an English lyricist, who wrote most of the lyrics for the UK progressive rock band Renaissance.-Early life:...
and keyboard contributions by John Tout.
On 20 September 2008, John Tout made his first public appearance in the US in over 25 years, with Annie Haslam and the Jann Klose
Jann Klose
Jann Klose is a German-born pop singer-songwriter. Raised in Kenya, South Africa, Germany and northeast Ohio, he has released three albums and two EPs as a solo artist. His songs have been heard on the Grammy-nominated "Healthy Food For Thought" compilation as well as MTV Cribs and the movie "Dead...
band, at the Sellersville Theatre 1984 in Sellersville, Pennsylvania
Sellersville, Pennsylvania
Sellersville is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 4,249 at the 2010 census. Sellersville is part of Pennridge School District.-Geography:Sellersville is located at ....
.
Sometime before the summer of 2009 John Tout suffered from a heart attack.
In late August 2009, Annie Haslam announced that she and Michael Dunford were commemorating the 40th anniversary of Renaissance with a reformed band, called Renaissance 2009 (including no other members of the "classic" line-up, but with musicians from the 2001 incarnation of the band), and a concert tour.
A tour in Eastern North America and Japan was undertaken in 2010, together with a three song EP release and a new official website. Further shows occurred during the fall of 2011 with Haslam, but no other former band-mates.
Personnel
(Note: The following list includes temporary replacements & sidemen.)| Year | Female Lead vocals | Male Lead vocals | Guitar | Keyboards | Bass | Drums Percussion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1969–1970 | Jane Relf Jane Relf Jane Relf is the younger sister of Keith Relf of the Yardbirds. After the Yardbirds disbanded, Keith formed Renaissance and Jane joined on vocals. After Keith's death the surviving members of Renaissance reformed as Illusion, under which name they recorded two albums with Jane's vocals to the fore... |
Keith Relf Keith Relf Keith William Relf , was a musician best known as the lead singer and harmonica player of The Yardbirds. After the Yardbirds broke up Relf formed the acoustic duo Together, with fellow Yardbird Jim McCarty, followed by Renaissance, which also featured his sister, singer Jane Relf, then hard rock... |
Keith Relf Keith Relf Keith William Relf , was a musician best known as the lead singer and harmonica player of The Yardbirds. After the Yardbirds broke up Relf formed the acoustic duo Together, with fellow Yardbird Jim McCarty, followed by Renaissance, which also featured his sister, singer Jane Relf, then hard rock... |
John Hawken John Hawken John Hawken John Hawken John Hawken (born John Christopher Hawken, 9 May 1940, at Christchurch General Hospital, Bournemouth, Hampshire (now Dorset) is a British keyboard player. He studied classical piano between the ages of four and eighteen at which point he succumbed to the lure of rock and roll... |
Louis Cennamo Louis Cennamo Louis David Cennamo was bass guitarist with an early line up of The Herd, the original line-up of Renaissance and later Colosseum, Steamhammer, Armageddon and Illusion . He also worked with Jim McCarty in Stairway. The song "Bullet", on the first Renaissance album, includes an extended... |
Jim McCarty Jim McCarty Jim McCarty is an English musician, best known as the drummer for The Yardbirds and Renaissance.-Early life:... |
| Summer 1970 | Terry Crowe | Michael Dunford Michael Dunford Michael Dunford is a football administrator, most recently employed as Chief Executive Officer of Premier League club Birmingham City. He succeeded Karren Brady to the post, which he resigned in April 2010, only six months after his appointment.... |
Neil Korner | Terry Slade | ||
| Autumn 1970 | Binky Cullom | John Tout | ||||
| January 1971 | Annie Haslam Annie Haslam Annie Haslam is an English progressive rock vocalist and songwriter.Originally a fashion student, she began studying under opera singer Sybil Knight in 1970 and developed her five-octave vocal range... |
|||||
| 1971 | Danny McCulloch Danny McCulloch Daniel Joseph 'Danny' McCulloch is an English musician, best known for having been the bassist of the 1960s psychedelic rock group Eric Burdon & The Animals.... |
|||||
| 1971 | Frank Farrell Frank Farrell (musician) Frank Farrell was a British rock bassist, vocalist and songwriter born in Birmingham, England. Over a professional career that spanned thirty years he is best known as the bassist of British rock band Supertramp and for his musical association with Leo Sayer... |
|||||
| June 1971 | John Wetton John Wetton John Kenneth Wetton is an English bassist, guitarist, keyboardist, singer and songwriter. He was born in Willington, Derbyshire, and grew up in Bournemouth. He has been a professional musician since the late 1960s... |
|||||
| 1972 | Jon Camp | Mick Parsons Mick Parsons Mick Parsons is an American poet, novelist, short story writer, essayist, and journalist. He is the author of six books. Three of them are Dead Machine E/Ditions: In The Great World ,Conversations with Carlo , and The Greyhound Quarto... |
Jon Camp | Terence Sullivan | ||
| 1972 | Rob Hendry | |||||
| 1973 | Peter Finberg | |||||
| 1973–1979 classic line-up |
Michael Dunford Michael Dunford Michael Dunford is a football administrator, most recently employed as Chief Executive Officer of Premier League club Birmingham City. He succeeded Karren Brady to the post, which he resigned in April 2010, only six months after his appointment.... |
|||||
| 1981 | Peter Gosling | Peter Baron | ||||
| 1983 | Mick Taylor | Gavin Harrison Gavin Harrison Gavin Harrison is a British drummer and percussionist. He is best known for playing with the British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree which he joined in 2002. As of 2008, he also plays with the band King Crimson.... |
||||
| 1984 | Raphael Rudd | Greg Carter | ||||
| 1985 | — | Mark Lampariello | Charles Descarfino | |||
| 1998 | John Tout | Roy Wood Roy Wood Roy Adrian Wood is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He was particularly successful in the 1960s and 1970s as member and co-founder of the bands The Move, Electric Light Orchestra, and Wizzard. As a songwriter, he contributed a number of hits to the repertoire of these bands.-Career:Wood... |
Terence Sullivan | |||
| 1998 | Mickey Simmonds Mickey Simmonds Mickey Simmonds is an English session keyboardist, arranger and composer. He is best known for his work with progressive rock acts, Mike Oldfield, Renaissance, Camel and Fish... |
Alex Caird | ||||
| 2001 | Mickey Simmonds Mickey Simmonds Mickey Simmonds is an English session keyboardist, arranger and composer. He is best known for his work with progressive rock acts, Mike Oldfield, Renaissance, Camel and Fish... & Rave Tesar |
David Keyes David Keyes David Keyes is the Executive Director of Advancing Human Rights and co-founder of CyberDissidents.org. He served as coordinator for democracy programs under Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky and assisted a former UN ambassador... |
||||
| 2009–date | Rave Tesar & Tom Brislin Tom Brislin Tom Brislin is an American keyboardist, vocalist, songwriter, and producer from New Jersey. He is the founding member of the rock band Spiraling, and plays or has played keyboards with several well-known acts... |
Frank Pagano |
Albums
| Year | Title | Chart-Positions | Comments | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
US Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
|||
| 1969 | Renaissance Renaissance (Renaissance album) -Personnel:*Keith Relf - vocals, guitar, harmonica*Jim McCarty - percussion, vocals*John Hawken - piano, harpsichord*Louis Cennamo - bass*Jane Relf - vocals, percussion-"Island" single:... |
60 | - | |
| 1971 | Illusion Illusion (Renaissance album) Illusion was a 1971 album by progressive rock band Renaissance. It was originally released only in Germany and did not receive a wider release until 1973. It was first released in the U.K... |
- | - | 1976 (UK) |
| 1972 | Prologue Prologue (Renaissance album) Prologue was a 1972 album by progressive rock band Renaissance.-Information about the album:In 1972, Renaissance's then-new management disbanded the lineup at the time , retaining only Haslam and Tout to build a new band around. The new members added at this point were Camp, Sullivan, and... |
- | - | |
| 1973 | Ashes Are Burning Ashes Are Burning Ashes Are Burning is an album by progressive rock band Renaissance, released in 1973 . It was the first of several Renaissance albums to feature an orchestra playing along with the band on some songs.-Information about the album:... |
- | 171 | |
| 1974 | Turn of the Cards Turn of the Cards Turn of the Cards is a 1974 album by progressive rock band Renaissance.-Information about the album:* "Things I Don't Understand" was founder member Jim McCarty's last contribution to the band; it had already been performed live for several years when it was finally recorded.* "Running Hard" quotes... |
- | 94 | 1975 (UK) |
| 1975 | Scheherazade and Other Stories Scheherazade and Other Stories Scheherazade and Other Stories is a 1975 album by progressive rock band Renaissance. It has often been considered their overall best album.... |
- | 48 | |
| 1976 | Live at Carnegie Hall Live at Carnegie Hall (Renaissance album) Live at Carnegie Hall was a 1976 live double album by progressive rock band Renaissance. It presented songs from all of the band's Annie Haslam-era studio albums thus far, including the forthcoming Scheherazade and Other Stories.-Side A:#"Prologue" - 8:10 [Time on vinyl album 7:35 ] Live at... |
- | 55 | |
| 1977 | Novella Novella (Renaissance album) Novella was a 1977 album by progressive rock band Renaissance.- Information about the album :Due to the bankruptcy of the band's UK label BTM, this album was released in the USA some months before its UK release, leading to a number of UK fans importing copies... |
- | 46 | 1977 (January in US, August in UK, as the band moved to the Warner Bros Music Group) |
| 1978 | A Song for All Seasons A Song for All Seasons A Song For All Seasons was a 1978 album by progressive rock band Renaissance. It marked the return of electric guitars to the band's music after several years of absence.-Information about the album:... |
35 | 58 | UK:Silver |
| 1979 | Azure d'Or Azure d'Or -Personnel:*Annie Haslam - lead & backing vocals*Jon Camp - bass, guitars, backing vocals, lead vocal on "Only Angels Have Wings"*Michael Dunford - guitars*John Tout - keyboards*Terence Sullivan - drums, percussion, backing vocals on "Golden Key"... |
73 | 125 | |
| 1981 | Camera Camera Camera Camera (Renaissance album) Camera Camera was a 1981 album by progressive rock band Renaissance.-Information about the album:After losing two of their five members and being dropped from their label, Renaissance signed on to I.R.S. Records. The departed members were replaced by keyboardist/singer Peter Gosling and drummer... |
- | 196 | |
| 1983 | Time-Line Time-Line Time-Line was a 1983 album by progressive rock band Renaissance and the last album released by Renaissance before they disbanded in 1987.... |
- | 207 | |
| 2001 | Tuscany Tuscany (Renaissance album) -Personnel:*Annie Haslam - lead & backing vocals*Michael Dunford - guitars*John Tout - keyboards*Terence Sullivan - drums, percussion*Roy Wood*Mickey Simmonds - keyboards... |
- | - | |
| 2002 | In the Land of the Rising Sun: Live in Japan 2001 In the Land of the Rising Sun: Live in Japan 2001 In the Land of the Rising Sun: Live in Japan 2001 is a live album by the English progressive rock band Renaissance. It was released in 2002 by Giant Electric Pea... |
- | - | |
| 2010 | The Mystic And The Muse | - | - | Three-track EP of new songs |
Compilations & archival releases
- In the Beginning (compilation double-album of Prologue and Ashes are Burning), 1978
- Tales of 1001 Nights (compilation in two volumes), 1990
- Da Capo (Repertoire Germany compilation), 1995 [2 CDs] [Limited Edition in tall digipak with a much more concise, detailed booklet]
- Live at the Royal Albert Hall : King Biscuit Flower Hour, 1997 (live performance recorded 1977; two volumes)
- Songs from Renaissance Days, 1997 (compilation of out-takes, including one B-side and two Haslam solo tracks, 1979–88)
- The BBC Sessions 1975–1978, 1999 [2 CDs]
- Day Of The Dreamer, 2000 (live performance recorded 1978)
- Unplugged Live at the Academy of Music, 2000 (live performance recorded 1985)
- Live + Direct, 2002 (edited 1970 live recording plus demos/misc from 1968–76)
- Dreams & Omens, 2008 (live performance recorded 1978)
- Live in Chicago, 2010 (live performance recorded 1983)
UK
- "Island" b/w "The Sea", 1969
- "Back Home Once Again" b/w "The Captive Heart", 1977
- "Northern Lights" b/w "Opening Out", 1978 - UKUK Singles ChartThe UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
#10 - "The Winter Tree" b/w "Island of Avalon", 1979
- "Jekyll and Hyde" b/w "Forever Changing", 1979
- "Faeries (Living at the Bottom of the Garden)" b/w "Remember", 1981
- "Bonjour Swansong" b/w "Ukraine Ways", 1981
- "Richard the IX" b/w "Flight", 1983
US
- "Prologue" b/w "Spare Some Love", 1972
- "Carpet of the Sun" b/w "Bound For Infinity", 1973
- "Mother RussiaMother Russia (Renaissance song)Mother Russia is the closing song on Renaissance's 1974 album Turn of the Cards. It also appears on the 1976 live album Live at Carnegie Hall, the compilation Tales of 1001 Nights, Vol...
" (3'07 edit) b/w "I Think of You", 1974 - "Carpet of the Sun" (live) b/w "Kiev" (live), 1976
- "Midas Man" b/w "The Captive Heart", 1977
- "Northern Lights" b/w "Opening Out", 1978
- "Jekyll and Hyde" b/w "Forever Changing", 1979
- "Bonjour Swansong" b/w "Remember", 1981
Michael Dunford's Renaissance
These albums were essentially collaborations between Dunford and singer Stephanie Adlington.- The Other Woman, 1994 (originally issued as by "Renaissance")
- Ocean Gypsy, 1997 (mostly new versions of past Renaissance songs)
- Trip To The Fair, 1998 (compilation of tracks from the previous two releases)
Annie Haslam's Renaissance
This album was essentially an Annie Haslam solo release (one of several).- Blessing in Disguise, 1994
Renaissant
This album was essentially a Terry Sullivan solo release, with lyrics by Betty Thatcher-NewsingerBetty Thatcher
Betty Thatcher was an English lyricist, who wrote most of the lyrics for the UK progressive rock band Renaissance.-Early life:...
and keyboards by John Tout. Terry's wife Christine did most of the vocals, with Terry himself taking lead on two songs.
- South of Winter, 2005
Major television appearances
- Don Kirshner's Rock Concert
Multi-artist television program with Renaissance performing "Can You Understand" and "Black Flame." Syndicated (USA), 1974. 11 minutes, original running time unknown.
- The Midnight Special
Multi-artist television program with Renaissance performing "Carpet of the Sun" and "Midas Man." NBC (USA), 1976. 5 minutes, original running time unknown.
- Sight and Sound in Concert
First in a series of programs consisting of artists performing live, with the performance broadcast simultaneously on TV and FM radio, hosted by DJ Alan Black. Songs performed were: "Carpet of the Sun", "Mother Russia", "Can You Hear Me", "Ocean Gypsy", "Running Hard", "Touching Once" and "Prologue". Originally broadcast on 8 January 1977. BBC (UK), 1977. Approximately 50–55 minutes.
- The Mike Douglas Show
Television talk show features Renaissance performing "Northern Lights" on 4 May 1978.
- MTV Interview
Interview by J.J. Jackson with Annie Haslam and Jon Camp. MTV (USA), April, 1983. 10 minutes.
Illusion
Shortly prior to his death, Keith Relf wanted to try to reform the original Renaissance. Since the name Renaissance was now firmly in the hands of the Haslam lineup, he chose the tentative band name "Now". Jim McCarty was not involved at this point. After Relf's death, all of the surviving four formed a new band (along with two new musicians) and named it IllusionIllusion (UK band)
Illusion were a British band formed in 1977. They released two albums, Out of the Mist and Illusion on Island Records. Their music was classically-inspired, sophisticated, and polished...
after Renaissance's second album. Illusion released two albums for Island Records before splitting, while a third made up of unreleased demos appeared years later. The original four reformed again for the production of Through the Fire which was released under the bandname of Renaissance Illusion. (There are two second albums entitled Illusion: the second album of the original Renaissance (1971); and the eponymous second album of their reunion band, Illusion (1978).)
- Out Of The Mist, 1977
- Illusion, 1978
- Enchanted Caress: Previously Unreleased Material, 1990
- Illusion: The Island Years, 2003
Covers of Renaissance songs
This list does not include Renaissance songs performed by individual former members of the band.- "Ashes Are Burning", on the Faith & DiseaseFaith & DiseaseFaith & Disease is a Seattle based Ethereal Wave music project formed in the early 1990s and still active. Core members are Eric Cooley and Dara Rosenwasser . The band was signed to Ivy Records and more recently Projekt Records. They have 6 full length albums and dozens of compilation appearances...
albums Fortune His Sleep 1995 and Livesongs: Third Body, 1996 - "Ocean Gypsy", on the Blackmore's NightBlackmore's NightBlackmore's Night is an English-American traditional folk rock duo led by Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night .-Early:...
album Shadow of the MoonShadow of the MoonShadow of the Moon, released in 1997 on Edel Music, is the first album by musical group Blackmore's Night. It stayed on the German charts for 17 weeks.-Track listing:#"Shadow of the Moon" – 5:06...
, 1997
External links
- Official band website
- Northern Lights (fan site)
- Renaissance Fanfare (fan site)
- Annie Haslam's official site
- John Hawken's Renaissance page
- John Hawken's Illusion page
- Terry Sullivan's official site
- www.progarchives.com (Mp3)
- Repertoire Records
- Wounded Bird Records
- Renaissance Fall 2011 Concert Review