There are 7 artists/bands under the name of Renaissance: 1) 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. ...show more

There are 7 artists/bands under the name of Renaissance: 1) 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. 2) A Mexican rock band ( Mexican Renaissance) 3) A Japanese band. ...show less