Tim Hart and Maddy Prior, Terry Woods, of the Irish band Sweeney's Men, and his wife Gay. During 1969 the Peggs had been making an LP for record producer Bill Leader, who encouraged them to write and record their own material (these recordings were released in 1971 as He Came From the Mountains). Some of the tracks, including a version of Sydney Carter's Lord of the Dance, used an instrumental line-up of fiddle, melodeon, cello, bass and drums, which was inspired by the old village bands of the Yorkshire Dales. This would become the hallmark of the Mr Fox band. Bill Leader played the tapes for Nat Joseph of Transatlantic Records, who signed the Peggs up, despite his having had a previous contractual disagreement with them in the aftermath of 1965's The Second Wave. For their first album they recruited Alan Eden (drums), Barry Lyons (bass), Andrew Massey (cello) and John Myatt (clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon) and adopted the name Mr Fox, which was also the title of their signature song, based on a bloody English folk tale - a version of the Bluebeard legend - in which a young woman outwits a serial killer. The albums The group's first eponymous album, released in 1970, was unlike the work of Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span, as it diverged from a conventional rock band format. The material consisted of original compositions written by the Peggs, together with a Dave Mason tune, 'Little Woman,' and the songs 'Salisbury Plain' and 'Mr Trill's Song' which had music by Bob Pegg and lyrics by Ashley Hutchings. The use of classically trained musicians and the wide variety of instruments (including electric organ, melodeon, tin whistle, terrapin, fiddle, cello, flute, clarinet, bassoon, in addition to electric bass and drums) produced a hybrid sound which was predominantly acoustic in character. The album was well received by the music press and was made Melody Maker folk album of the year. Massey and Myatt left for economic reasons soon after the first album was released. As a result the second album, The Gipsy (1971), had less complex instrumentation, but was more experimental. A more varied album than the first offering, it was again based around self-penned material, but included two traditional songs 'The House Carpenter' and the final track 'All the Good Times', with new verses by Bob Pegg. The Gridley Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra are credited on 'All