What Would Renaissance's Illusion have sounded like if the band stayed together?
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...