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 such as 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 first took
Renaissance’s reins from former Yardbirds members, Keith Relf and Jim McCarty
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, two sons
William (13) and Oliver (10), and sister
Judy Kendall. Services will be held at
Woking Crematorium at a date to be announced.
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