Renaissance was a 1970s progressive rock band. They were characterized by Annie Haslam's soaring vocals, classical-style piano, and a (near) lack of electric guitar.
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This new lineup, the best-known of the band's history, consisted of Annie Haslam (vocals), Michael Dunford (acoustic guitar), John Tout (piano), Jon Camp (bass) and Terry Sullivan (drums). Along with Rob Hendry (electric guitar), this quintet released Prologue in 1972. The music was written primarily by Dunford and McCarty, with lyrics by poet Betty Thatcher. Hendry departed as the group turned away from the electric guitar in their music.
In the 1970s, Renaissance had a commercially successful career, their sound similar in many ways to folk rock with classical overtones that was fractured by too many veerings into sheer pretentiousness and the group's inability to seem as though they were doing anything much beyond robotic concert reproductions of their studio recordings. Not even Haslam's shimmering voice and gracious, almost loving stage style, could obscure that flaw. As enjoyable as it is for summing up the first four years of their career, 1976's Live at Carnegie Hall could have been their original recordings with an overdubbed orchestra and canned applause, except for a surprising version of "Ashes Are Burning" that actually found the quintet loosening up and unfurling a patient round of improvisation. Still, by the time of this album, any connection between this Renaissance and the one which rose from the ashes of the Yardbirds was in name only.
Renaissance scored a number 1 hit single in 1978 with Northern Lights, taken from the album A Song for All Seasons, but the band floundered following 1979's Azure D'or as fans were unhappy with the band's turn towards synthesizers. Camp had assumed more of the band's songwriting chores, and Tout and Sullivan left. Haslam, Dunford and Camp released a pair of albums in the 1980s and then broke up. Their albums were not available on CD for some time, though a pair of compilations were issued in 1990. During the 1990s, though, much of their catalog has been released.
In the late 1990s, both Haslam and Dunford formed their own bands using the name Renaissance, and have released albums with different line-ups.
History
Former Yardbirds Paul Samwell-Smith, Keith Relf and Jim McCarty organised a new group devoted to experimentation between rock, folk, and classical forms - Renaissance. This quintet (bassist Louis Cenammo, pianist John Hawken, and Relf's sister Jane as an additional vocalist) released a pair of albums on Elektra, but dissolved almost as quickly as it assembled, leaving McCarty to reform the band into a very different lineup, though McCarty also soon departed.Discography
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