Renaissance Historian

For those who are just getting into Renaissance, the lineup changes in the early years of the band are pretty confusing. Not just because of the amount of lineup changes in a short period of time, but also because there's simply not a lot of information out there on the subject. The process by which the original lineup of the band transformed into the well known "classic lineup" is something of a mystery for new listeners. I began listening to Renaissance totally blind, not knowing anything about the band. So imagine my surprise when after listening to the first two albums, and getting to know the original lineup, I discover this video: Yup, that was definitely a Renaissance song, but... Turns out this is just the most well known of many transitional lineups of the band. And this wasn't the only video either, there is a whole playlist of this Renaissance playing on Belgian TV  here . Personally my favourites are the pretty (but too ...

This year will mark the 50th anniversary of the release of progressive rock band Renaissance's second (and in my view most underrated) album 'Illusion'. The very troubled story behind this album's recording and release is almost more interesting than the music  itself. Most notably the lineup of the band began to fall apart during it's recording, and by the time it was released, all five of the original members of the band had left. In this blog post, I will speculate how the album would have turned out if the band had stayed together throughout the whole recording. A brief history of the original Renaissance However before we get to the album speculation, let's go over the complicated history of the original band itself. Most people who know of the band Renaissance probably know them by what's referred to as the "classic lineup" of the band, consisting of Annie Haslam, Jon Camp, John Tout, Michael Dunford and Terry Sullivan. This version of the ba...