Keith Relf 


 
 
 
 
 

contact the webmaster:

e-mail: keithrelf.com





keithrelf.com features


Keith Relf Music & Info links (hosted on Lycos)

Keith Relf Interview '75
 
Keith Relf Videos Page 
 
Keith Relf Armageddon articles

Keith Relf and Louis Cennamo Radio Interview 1975

(1975 Armageddon radio interview) 

  

 

keithrelf.com 

There simply is no way to overstate the importance of Keith Relf's contributions to modern rock & roll. 

As a founding member and frontman of the ground-breaking blues/psychedelic band The Yardbirds - his distinctive vocals and powerful harmonica playing introduced the world to a new take on the Howlin' Wolf-Muddy Waters Chicago blues that the band loved so much. In the wake of The Beatles - they emerged from the same early 1960's "swinging London" blues boom as The Rolling Stones, The Animals, The Kinks and The Who - but The Yardbirds plowed through the scene with high-octane guitarists like Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page onboard for the ride. They were really "a band", though - and did not just exist to back those great players up: while those guitarists came and went, the band never faltered from their upward trajectory. 

After The Yardbirds folded in July 1968, Relf and Yardbirds' drummer Jim McCarty launched Renaissance (whose debut was produced by former Yardbirds' bassist Paul Samwell-Smith). This band was a classical/folk/rock experimental hybrid that helped to propel modern rock music many years forward, perhaps they even foreshadowed what we now call a vein of "progressive rock" (more piano and bass driven - and Relf was actually the band's guitarist). Renaissance would continue to exist and prosper, with different members, long after the Relf and McCarty left in 1970 - to explore other musical situations.

Relf then undertook various projects throughout the early 1970's...producing bands like Saturnalia and Hunter Muskett - as well as producing & playing bass for Medicine Head, then producing & providing background vocals for Steamhammer - whose guitarist Martin Pugh and bassist Louis Cennamo would eventually join Relf and American drumming ace Bobby Caldwell in Relf's final band...Armageddon.

He was 33 when he died as a result of a shock he took, in the basement of his London home - while playing his improperly earthed (i.e., grounded) guitar. At the time, it is said that Relf was in the process of putting back together the original Renaissance line-up - which would eventually be called Illusion.

This site is under active development...we have much more to discuss about this gifted artist, please stay tuned for future content.

all photos, written material, sound files, any & all other content on keithrelf.com is used by permission and protected by copyrights 
 

copying, duplication, distribution or any other unauthorized use
of all material on keithrelf.com, that may or may not be referenced in this statement, are expressly prohibited 

2004 - 2019©keithrelf.com

Keith Relf links, various related info