A British progressive rock band - The first incarnation of Renaissance came out of the ashes of The Yardbirds in early 1968 when drummer Jim
McCarty and guitarist/vocalist Keith Relf formed an acoustic based band. They added keyboardist John Hawken, bassist Louis Cennamo and
vocalist Jane Relf (Keith’s sister). This band released two albums Renaissance (1969) and Illusion (1971) before breaking up. Some
of the members reformed as Illusion.
McCarty then reformed the band with singer Binky Cullom, bassist Jon Camp, keyboardist John Tout, drummer Terence Sullivan, and
g ...read more
A British progressive rock band - The first incarnation of Renaissance came out of the ashes of The Yardbirds in early 1968 when drummer Jim
McCarty and guitarist/vocalist Keith Relf formed an acoustic based band. They added keyboardist John Hawken, bassist Louis Cennamo and
vocalist Jane Relf (Keith’s sister). This band released two albums Renaissance (1969) and Illusion (1971) before breaking up. Some
of the members reformed as Illusion.
McCarty then reformed the band with singer Binky Cullom, bassist Jon Camp, keyboardist John Tout, drummer Terence Sullivan, and
guitarist/composer Mike Dunford. Cullom was promptly replaced by Annie Haslam, then McCarty himself left soon after, but this group went on
to become the “classic” lineup of Renaissance. They recorded a string of successful albums starting with the LP Prologue (1972).
Throughout numerous personnel changes in the 70s, Haslam, Dunford and Camp remained the core of the band.
Their particular brand of mixing classical and classically-inspired music with melodic rock is arguably one of the most successful attempts at
this sort of fusion. In the '80s, the band saw their popularity wane with a turn to shorter song forms dominated by synthesizers. After breaking
up in the mid-'80s, various combinations have reformed for concerts and recordings. « hide
