Mr. Fox
Encyclopedia
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
. 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.
, 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
. The Peggs were approached by record producer Bill Leader
. He secured them a contract with Transatlantic Records. For their first album they recruited Alun Eden (drums), Barry Lyons (bass), Andrew Massey (cello) and John Myatt (woodwinds) and adopted the name Mr Fox, the title of one of their songs and a nod towards one of the recurring figures of folk lore.
tune, ‘Little Woman,’ and the songs ‘Salisbury Plain’ and 'Mr Thrill's Song' with lyrics by Hutchings. The use of classically trained musicians and the wide variety of instruments used (including organ, melodeon, tin whistle, terrapin, fiddle, cello, flute, clarinet) made for very complex arrangements and sounds. It was well received by the music press and was made Melody Maker
album of the year.
Massey and Myatt left soon after the first album and the second, Gypsy (1971), as a result, had less complex instrumentation, but more experimentation. A more varied album than the first offering, it was also based around self-penned material, but included two traditional songs 'The House Carpenter' and the finale 'All the Good Times' on which the Gridley Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra guested.
, and were replaced by guitarist Nick Strutt and Ritchie Bull on bass. When Carole left later that year the band dissolved.
Carole (as Carolanne Pegg) recorded an eponymous solo album in 1973, and briefly joined the band Magus before moving on to become a respected ethnomusicologist. Recordings of songs by Sydney Carter
made by the Peggs before the band were formed were released as And Now it is So Early in 1973. Bob Pegg recorded two albums with Nick Strutt: Bob Pegg and Nick Strutt (1973) and The Shipbuilder (1974). He then made a solo album Ancient Maps (1975), before moving on to become an author, oral historian and entering theatre education. The band's two albums were released as a double album set on vinyl in 1975 and on CD in 2004.
. Carole Pegg had an unusual fiddle style, quite unlike Fairport’s Dave Swarbrick
or Steeleye Span’s Peter Knight
, based partly on what she had learnt from older Yorkshire fiddle players. They also utilized more complex, perhaps more staid, classical arrangements for their songs, leading one critic to note that their songs sounded, ‘as if they had been penned by Bartok’. The distinctive feature of their music was the dominance of self-penned songs drawing on the atmosphere and folklore of the Yorkshire Dales
, often, like 'The Hanged Man' (the story of a lost fell walker coming to grief), sounding like modern day Child Ballads
. One thing they lacked was an outstanding singer like Maddy Prior
or Sandy Denny, with Carole Pegg’s vocals usually being perceived as eerie or atmospheric in their best moments, so much so that they have been described as ‘psychedelic’.
Bob and Carole Pegg
Carolanne Pegg
Bob Pegg and Nick Strutt
Bob Pegg
Electric folk
Electric folk is the name given to the form of folk rock pioneered in England from the late 1960s, and most significant in the 1970s, which then was taken up and developed in the surrounding Celtic cultures of Brittany, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man, to produce Celtic rock and its...
or folk rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
band. They were seen as in the ‘second generation’ of electric folk performers and for a time were compared with Steeleye Span
Steeleye Span
Steeleye Span are an English folk-rock band, formed in 1969 and remaining active today. Along with Fairport Convention they are amongst the best known acts of the British folk revival, and were among the most commercially successful, thanks to their hit singles "Gaudete" and "All Around My Hat"....
and Sandy Denny
Sandy Denny
Sandy Denny , born Alexandra Elene Maclean Denny, was an English singer and songwriter, perhaps best known as the lead singer for the folk rock band Fairport Convention...
’s Fotheringay
Fotheringay
Fotheringay was a short-lived British folk rock group, formed in 1970 by singer Sandy Denny on her departure from Fairport Convention. The band drew its name from her 1968 composition "Fotheringay" about Fotheringhay Castle, in which Mary, Queen of Scots had been imprisoned...
. 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.
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 HutchingsAshley Hutchings
Ashley Stephen Hutchings is an English bassist, vocalist, songwriter, arranger, band leader, writer and record producer. He was a founder member of three of the most noteworthy English folk-rock bands in the history of the genre; Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and The Albion Band...
, who had recently left Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...
and was attempting to form a new group involving members of the Irish band Sweeney's Men
Sweeney's Men
Sweeney's Men was an Irish traditional band. They emerged from the late 1960s Irish roots revival, along with groups such as The Dubliners and the Clancy Brothers. The founding line-up in May 1966 was 'Galway Joe' Dolan, Johnny Moynihan and Andy Irvine....
including Terry Woods
Terry Woods
Terence 'Terry' Woods , is an Irish folk musician, specialising in playing the mandolin and cittern. He is known for his membership in such folk and folk-rock groups as The Pogues, Steeleye Span, Sweeney's Men, The Bucks and, briefly, Dr. Strangely Strange. Prior to being a founder member of...
. 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
Gay Woods
Gay Woods is an Irish singer. She was one of the original members of Steeleye Span.-Early years:Gabriel Corcoran was born in Dublin, a neighbour of her future husband Terry Woods . Gay's elder brothers shared Terry's love of hillbilly music and blues. Gay and Terry performed together in 1963 at...
. The Peggs were approached by record producer Bill Leader
Bill Leader
Bill Leader is an English recording engineer and record producer. He is particularly associated with the British folk music revival of the 1960s and 1970s, producing records by Davey Graham, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Frank Harte and others....
. He secured them a contract with Transatlantic Records. For their first album they recruited Alun Eden (drums), Barry Lyons (bass), Andrew Massey (cello) and John Myatt (woodwinds) and adopted the name Mr Fox, the title of one of their songs and a nod towards one of the recurring figures of folk lore.
The albums
The group’s first eponymous album released in 1970, was in some ways very similar to the work of Steeleye Span, but, consisted largely of original compositions, mainly by the Peggs, with a Dave MasonDave Mason
David Thomas "Dave" Mason is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist from Worcester, who first found fame with the rock band Traffic...
tune, ‘Little Woman,’ and the songs ‘Salisbury Plain’ and 'Mr Thrill's Song' with lyrics by Hutchings. The use of classically trained musicians and the wide variety of instruments used (including organ, melodeon, tin whistle, terrapin, fiddle, cello, flute, clarinet) made for very complex arrangements and sounds. It was well received by the music press and was made Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
album of the year.
Massey and Myatt left soon after the first album and the second, Gypsy (1971), as a result, had less complex instrumentation, but more experimentation. A more varied album than the first offering, it was also based around self-penned material, but included two traditional songs 'The House Carpenter' and the finale 'All the Good Times' on which the Gridley Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra guested.
Break-up and after
The band had a reputation as an unpredictable live act, sometimes startlingly good and sometimes lack lustre. At the Loughborough Folk Festival in 1971 they were on the same bill as Steeleye Span and, while the latter put in a memorable performance, Mr Fox were on bad form and the band was heavily criticised in the press, an event often seen as a turning point in the band's fortunes. Recordings made by the couple before the group was formed were released as He Came from the Mountain (1971), but by this point the Pegg's marriage was already under strain. In 1972 Eden and Lyons quit to join TreesTrees (folk band)
Trees was an English folk rock band that existed between 1969 and 1972. Although the group met with little commercial success in their time, the reputation of the band has grown over the years. Like other folk contemporaries, Trees' music was influenced by Fairport Convention, but with a heavier...
, and were replaced by guitarist Nick Strutt and Ritchie Bull on bass. When Carole left later that year the band dissolved.
Carole (as Carolanne Pegg) recorded an eponymous solo album in 1973, and briefly joined the band Magus before moving on to become a respected ethnomusicologist. Recordings of songs by Sydney Carter
Sydney Carter
Sydney Bertram Carter was an English poet, songwriter, folk musician, born in Camden Town, London. He is best known for the song "Lord of the Dance" , set to the tune of the American Shaker song "Simple Gifts", and the song "The Crow on the Cradle", adapted from an old folk song...
made by the Peggs before the band were formed were released as And Now it is So Early in 1973. Bob Pegg recorded two albums with Nick Strutt: Bob Pegg and Nick Strutt (1973) and The Shipbuilder (1974). He then made a solo album Ancient Maps (1975), before moving on to become an author, oral historian and entering theatre education. The band's two albums were released as a double album set on vinyl in 1975 and on CD in 2004.
Style and significance
Despite the comparisons with Steeleye Span, Mr Fox had a very distinctive style from contemporaneous electric folk bands. They did not rely on electric guitars, but did use drums. They also used a very wide range of instruments, prefiguring some of the developments that would be undertaken by The Albion Band and Home ServiceHome Service
Home Service are a British folk rock group, formed in late 1980 from a nucleus of musicians who had been playing in Ashley Hutchings' Albion Band. Their career is generally agreed to have peaked with the album Alright Jack, which is usually considered one of the finest products of the electric folk...
. Carole Pegg had an unusual fiddle style, quite unlike Fairport’s Dave Swarbrick
Dave Swarbrick
Dave Swarbrick is an English folk musician and singer-songwriter. He has been described by Ashley Hutchings as 'the most influential [British] fiddle player bar none' and his style has been copied or developed by almost every British, and many World folk violin players that have followed him...
or Steeleye Span’s Peter Knight
Peter Knight
Peter Knight is a folk musician, member of the electric folk group Steeleye Span.Peter Knight was born in London on 27 May 1947. As a child he learned the violin and mandolin before going to the Royal Academy of Music from 1960 to 1964. The recordings of the Irish fiddler Michael Coleman inspired...
, based partly on what she had learnt from older Yorkshire fiddle players. They also utilized more complex, perhaps more staid, classical arrangements for their songs, leading one critic to note that their songs sounded, ‘as if they had been penned by Bartok’. The distinctive feature of their music was the dominance of self-penned songs drawing on the atmosphere and folklore of the Yorkshire Dales
Yorkshire Dales
The Yorkshire Dales is the name given to an upland area in Northern England.The area lies within the historic county boundaries of Yorkshire, though it spans the ceremonial counties of North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and Cumbria...
, often, like 'The Hanged Man' (the story of a lost fell walker coming to grief), sounding like modern day Child Ballads
Child Ballads
The Child Ballads are a collection of 305 ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, collected by Francis James Child in the late nineteenth century...
. One thing they lacked was an outstanding singer like Maddy Prior
Maddy Prior
Maddy Prior is an English folk singer, best known as the lead vocalist of Steeleye Span.-Early life:...
or Sandy Denny, with Carole Pegg’s vocals usually being perceived as eerie or atmospheric in their best moments, so much so that they have been described as ‘psychedelic’.
Members
- Richie Bull (banjo)
- Alan Eden (drums)
- Barry Lyons (electric bass, dulcimer)
- Andrew Massey (cello)
- John Myatt (woodwinds)
- Bob Pegg (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards)
- Carole Pegg (accordion, fiddle, vocals)
- Nick Strutt (multiple instruments)
Discography
Albums- Mr Fox (Transatlantic, 1970)
- The Gipsy (Transatlantic, 1971)
- The Complete Mr Fox (Transatlantic,1975)
- Join Us in our Game (Castle Music, 2004)
Bob and Carole Pegg
- He Came from the Mountain (Trailer, 1971)
- With Sydney Carter And Now It Is So Early: The Songs of Sydney Carter (Galliard, 1973)
Carolanne Pegg
- Carolanne Pegg (Transatlantic, 1973)
Bob Pegg and Nick Strutt
- Bob Pegg and Nick Strutt (Transatlantic, 1973)
- The Shipbuilder (Transatlantic, 1974)
Bob Pegg
- Ancient Maps (Transatlantic, 1975)
- The Last Wolf (Rhiannon, 1996)
- Keeper of the Fire: the Anthology (Sanctuary, 2006)
External links
- http://www.bobpegg.com/
- http://www.firekeeper.co.uk/
- http://www.innerasianmusic.com/carolepegg.htm