Running Hard -The Albums 1974-1976,

4CD clamshell boxed set featuring all of the albums issued by Renaissance between 1974 and 1976. Featuring highly gifted vocalist Annie Haslam, Michael Dunford (acoustic guitars), John Tout (keyboards, vocals), Jon Camp (bass, vocals) and Terry Sullivan (drums, percussion), Turn of the Cards was issued in 1974 and was regarded as an artistic triumph, heralding the band’s commercial breakthrough in the United States. The album featured the band incorporating symphonic orchestral arrangements into their material extensively on classic pieces such as ‘Running Hard’, ‘Things I Don’t Understand’ and ‘Black Flame’ and the celebrated ‘Mother Russia’.

Scheherazade and Other Stories was recorded at Abbey Road studios in May 1975 and is rightly regarded as one of the finest works by Renaissance and featured the epic ‘Song of Scheherazade’ (which dominated the album’s second side on the original LP release) and ‘Trip to the Fair’, ‘Ocean Gypsy’ and ‘The Vultures Fly High’. Upon its release the album reached the US Top 50. Live at Carnegie Hall was issued in 1976. The double album documented a series of sold out concerts at the Carnegie Hall in New York City staged in June 1975, which saw Renaissance joined by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Regarded as one of the finest live albums of the era, the album featured many of the band’s classic tracks as ‘Ocean Gypsy’, ‘Carpet of the Sun’, ‘Mother Russia’, ‘Can You Understand’, ‘Song of Scheherezade’ and ‘Ashes Are Burning’.