Peek, bass player Herbie Flowers and drummer/percussionist Tristan Fry. His keyboard work with Sky included extensive classical or classically-inspired harpsichord playing (highlighted on the band's electric version of Bach's "Toccata", which reached number 5 in the national pop single charts and obtained Sky a Top of the Pops appearance), piano, and a variety of synthesizer approaches including progressive rock complexity and psychedelic drones. During his time with the band, Monkman was arguably also their most prolific composer and arranger. For their debut album, he wrote the minor hit single "Cannonball" and the twenty-minute-long second-side composition "Where Opposites Meet" (which was intended to combine and display the band's diverse influences). On their second album, he performed a version of Jean-Philippe Rameau's "Gavotte & Variations" as an absolutely straight classical solo harpsichord rendition (further cementing the band's classical influences) and composed a second side-long twenty-minute long-form composition ("FIFO", for which the title and musical structure was inspired by computer data processing, and on which Monkman also played distorted psychedelic guitar alongside the more formal parts performed by Peek and Williams). During his time with Sky, Monkman had continued to release solo recordings which mingled original composition with film and television soundtracks and library music. His 1978 album Energism included the electronic "Achievements of Man", from which extracts were used as the theme to the BBC programme Think Again. He also composed the piece "Current Affairs", used by Channel 4 as the introduction to Engineering Announcements, provided by the IBA. He would also become known as a synthesizer demonstrator on programs like the BBC's Tomorrow's World. In 1980, Monkman's soundtrack to the British film, The Long Good Friday was so successful that he opted to amicably leave Sky in order to concentrate on television and soundtrack work. At around the same time, he resumed performances of classical harpsichord music. In 1981 Monkman released an art/progressive rock album called Dweller on the Threshold. This was the first album on which he had sung lead vocals; it also featured Camel's Andy Latimer (guitar) and former Whitesnake drummer Dave Dowle, as well as singers Graham Laydon and Julia Rathbone. After a twenty-year break, Monkman would start to release further albums again at the start of the twenty-first century, beginning with 2001's 21st Century Blues. Instruments Francis Monkman played guitar as well as keyboards in Curved Air, switching between them when playing live. According to the sleeve