The late 1970s were a challenging time for prog in the UK, but Renaissance tackled the punk tsunami that was engulfing the country by releasing what's since become their most successful work. A Song For All Seasons spawned their only UK Top 10 single, and, for many fans, marked the end of their classic era. Moving away from 1975's full-blown concept album, Scheherazade And Other Stories, and the folk vibe of their original line-up, the band's eighth studio album was packed with symphonic drama and driven by Annie Haslam's stunning vocals.
Forty-five years after its release, Haslam remains the only active member from that line-up, and yet her journey into progressive music began by accident.
"I wanted to be a dress designer," she explains on a call from her home in Pennsylvania, USA. "I was an apprentice at a Savile Row tailor and the recession came and they had to let me go. Then I went to this other place. They gave me a book to do some drawings in and come up with ideas, they had me there for a week and I did loads of designs. And then they took that book into their office for two hours and fired me. It broke my heart. I called my mum and dad. They said, 'Right, you're coming with us to Canada to see your brother.' It was then that I started singing, because my brother Michael was a singer, and he was managed by Brian Epstein."
Encouraged by her then-boyfriend, Haslam started entering talent competitions "in the East End of London where the Kray brothers used to hang out. I kept winning." This led her to seek out a professional singing coach. Eventually, she landed a job at The Showboat in the Strand, a cabaret dinner theatre, playing in a band called The Gentle People.
This story is from the Issue 141 edition of Prog.
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This story is from the Issue 141 edition of Prog.
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