Mr Fox were an early 1970s
electric folk or
folk rock band. They were seen as in the ‘second generation’ of electric folk performers and for a time were compared with
Steeleye Span and
Sandy Denny’s
Fotheringay.K. Dallas, ‘Electric Folk The Second Generation’,
Melody Maker, (9 Jan 1971), http://homepage.ntlworld.com/c.kellett/electric.htm, retrieved 02/02/09. Unlike Steeleye Span they mainly wrote their own material in a traditional style and developed a distinct ‘northern’ variant of the genre. They demonstrate the impact and diversity of the electric folk movement and the members went on to pursue significant careers within the electric folk and traditional music genres after they disbanded in 1972 having recording two highly regarded albums.
History
Origins
By the late 1960s Bob and Carole Pegg were already well-established singers and musicians on the British folk scene based in Yorkshire. In 1969 they moved south and played London folk clubs, where they met
Ashley Hutchings, who had recently left
Fairport Convention and was attempting to form a new group involving members of the Irish band
Sweeney's Men including
Terry Woods. They took part in rehearsals but the embryonic band soon broke up and Hutchings went on to form Steeleye Span with Woods and his wife
Gay.B. Sweers,
Electric Folk: The Changing Face of English Traditional Music (Oxford University Press, 2005), p....
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