Renaissance Newcastle City Hall 20th September 1978
Renaissance originally rose from the ashes of the Yardbirds, formed by Keith Relf and Jim McCarty with Keith’s sister Jane Relf on vocals. The idea was to form a progressive rock band drawing heavily from classical influences. The line-up soon changed completely with Annie Haslam and Michael Dunford joining in the early 1970s; this heralded the most successful period of their career with music which fused folk rock with classical. By the time of this concert at Newcastle City Hall in 1978 the line-up of Renaissance was Annie Haslam – lead vocals, Jon Camp – bass, John Tout – piano, Michael Dunford – guitar, and Terrance Sullivan – drums. 
It was at this time that Renaissance scored a hit single in Britain with “Northern Lights”, which reached No. 10 during the summer of 1978. The single was taken from the album “A Song for All Seasons”. Renaissance are a vastly under-rated and largely forgotten band. Annie Haslam has an excellent voice with a tremendous range, and their albums contain some epic prog rock classics. I found a setlist from 1978 (although not from this gig): Can you hear me?; Carpet of the sun; Things I don’t understand; Northern lights; Mother Russia; Day of the dreamer; Midas man; The vultures fly high; Running hard; Song for all seasons; Prologue; Ashes are burning. Renaissance have reformed on a couple of occasions, based around the core of Annie Haslam and Michael Dunford, who sadly passed a couple of years ago. Annie Haslam continues to lead the band.
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