Hello all!
Another brilliant musician passed out a couple of days ago. Michael Dunford from Renaissance.
Here I'm posting some things about him that I found on the Internet and copied them here for you to read...
R.I.P
Michael
Dunford, musical composer and guitarist of the progressive rock band Renaissance
passed away on Tuesday, November 20, 2012. He had just returned home from the
first leg of the band’s North American tour and suffered a massive
Instantaneous Cerebral Hemorrhage while dining at his home in Surrey, England
Monday night. He was rushed to hospital where doctors declared his condition
irreversible and terminal. He passed away at 11:06 pm GMT, surrounded by his family
without having regained consciousness.
The fairly
reclusive and soft-spoken composer, a mainstay in the world of progressive
rock, was born, raised and educated in Surrey. His first job was selling
clothing in a local shop followed by a stint as an airside driver at Heathrow
Airport which enabled him to form a “skiffle” group which lead to his first
rock band called Nashville Teens in the early 1960s. Nashville Teens
reached #6 on U.K. singles charts with their version of Tobacco Road. On
leaving them, he formed several other bands including The Pentad and The
Plebes. One night he went to see the original band Renaissance
perform locally and ended up joining them in the early 1970s. The original band
members were Jim McCarty, Louis Cennamo, John Hawken, Keith Relf and Jane Relf.
Dunford and
vocalist Annie Haslam took over Renaissance’s reins in 1971 and soon had
established the group as a world class recording and touring act, selling out
venues like New York’s Carnegie Hall and The Royal Albert Hall in London. They
would go on to release over a dozen albums before eventually parting ways in
the mid-1980s. However, they would continue to write new material together and
in 2001 reunited the band to record a new studio album, tour the following
year, and release a live album. After another sabbatical, the refreshed line-up
was introduced to the world and captured for posterity on Turn of the Cards
and Scheherazade and Other Stories Live 2011.
Earlier this
fall, Dunford and the band completed recording their first new studio album in
twelve years. Grandine il Vento was recorded at Studio X in Ridgewood
NJ, USA. All the music on the new album except for one track was composed and
arranged by Dunford and features him on acoustic guitars and backing vocals.
Michael
Dunford is survived by his wife Clare, sons William (13) and Oliver (10), and
sister Judy Kendall. Services will be held at Woking Crematorium at a date to
be announced.
