Stairway were an English

new-age music New-age is a genre of music intended to create artistic inspiration, relaxation, and optimism. It is used by listeners for yoga, massage, meditation, and reading as a method of stress management to bring about a state of ecstasy rather tha ...

band, who have released a total of five albums and cassette tapes between 1986 and 1995.

History

After

The Yardbirds The Yardbirds are an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1963. The band started the careers of three of rock's most famous guitarists: Eric Clapton (1963–1965), Jeff Beck (1965–1966) and Jimmy Page (1966–1968), all of whom ...

' mid-1980s reunion project (known as " Box of Frogs"), drummer

Jim McCarty James Stanley McCarty (born 25 July 1943) is an English musician, best known as the drummer for the Yardbirds and Renaissance. Following Chris Dreja's departure from the Yardbirds in 2013, McCarty became the only founding member to still tou ...

reunited with bassist Louis Cennamo (a colleague from McCarty's days with his post-Yardbirds bands,

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

and

Illusion An illusion is a distortion of the senses, which can reveal how the mind normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. Although illusions distort the human perception of reality, they are generally shared by most people. Illusions may ...

), to form "Stairway", a duo which would record largely instrumental and "atmospheric" music. In a departure from their usual roles in bands, for this project McCarty played keyboards and Cennamo (who is credited on Stairway releases as "Loui") played guitar. Stairway were signed with Colin Wilcox of New World Cassettes, a UK-based

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small and medium-sized enterprise, small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels ...

that specialized in "healing music". Their first releases were two cassette tape albums: ''Aquamarine'' (1987) and ''Moonstone'' (1988), a mixture of songs and instrumentals. Additional musicians on these releases included keyboardist Clifford White, and another colleague from Renaissance and Illusion, vocalist

Jane Relf Jane Relf (born 7 March 1947) is a British singer, best known as the original vocalist for the progressive rock band Renaissance (band), Renaissance. She is the younger sister of Keith Relf of the The Yardbirds, Yardbirds. Renaissance In Ja ...

. Although only available as cassette tapes initially, Stairway’s "New World Cassettes" albums were eventually both released in Compact Disc format. These releases were subsequently followed by two albums with the

Psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...

and " Spiritual Healer", Malcolm Stern: ''Chakra Dance'' (1989) and ''Medicine Dance'' (1992), which they promoted through a few live performances, mainly at

St James's Church, Piccadilly St James's Church, Piccadilly, also known as St James's Church, Westminster, and St James-in-the-Fields, is an Anglican church on Piccadilly in the centre of London, England. The church was designed and built by Sir Christopher Wren. The churc ...

(

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

) After a few years between releases, Stairway resurfaced once more as "James McCarty/Louis Cennamo" on Canadian flute player Ron Korb’s Oasis label, releasing the ''Raindreaming'' CD in 1995. There have been no new releases by Stairway since 1995. McCarty has more recently been active with a re-formed version of The Yardbirds, and Cennamo has returned to playing bass and doing sessions, in addition to having begun a writing career. In 2015,

Angel Air Records Angel Air is an English independent record label established in February 1997, specialising in reissues of classic pop and rock albums originally issued in the 1960s and 1970s (and latterly new albums from known artists up to the 21st century ...

released a Stairway "best of" compilation, titled "Pearls Of The Deep".

Discography

* ''Aquamarine'' (1987) ¤ * ''Moonstone'' (1988) ¤ * ''Chakra Dance'' (1989) * ''Medicine Dance'' (1992) * ''Raindreaming'' (1995) ¤ Note: These two releases were initially available as cassette tapes only. A CD that included tracks from both tapes was later released as ''Aquamarine''.

Personnel

* Louis Cennamo – guitar * Jim McCarty – keyboards * Jane Relf – vocals * Clifford White – keyboards * Dave Balen – Percussion and tablas on Medicine Dance

References

External links

Stairway – Discographie
– Stairway's Discography (French)
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– Stairway albums

– An Interview with Jim McCarty

– The Yardbirds offshoots {{Authority control Musical groups established in 1969 The Yardbirds members English progressive rock groups