W TERRY FOX

  Poet Writer

Vocalist Musician

William Terry Fox is an unsung hero of the world of poetry and music. A contemporary of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, he is a modest genius who's songs and words have stood the test of time.

Known as Terry to his friends, he grew up in the smoke and got into the performing arts through his love of Traditional Jazz, Blues, Folk and Rock.

Terry taught himself the basics of banjo and guitar, but dropped them both in favour of the acoustic piano after hearing a Jimmy Yancy recording of the soulful blues, At The Window. A self -taught blues, boogie and ragtime player, Terry's first serious band in the sixties was the Giles-Fox Hot Four who toured Sweden with Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen.

As a young man growing up and mixing with fellow Blues enthusiasts such as Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Paul Jones and Cyril Davies, he soon joined up with Henri Harrison, Brian 'Smudger' Smith, Keith Canadine and Steve Smith to form the cult R&B band Cops n Robbers with Terry on piano and Vox Continental and and Hammond organs.

Along with the Rolling Stones, The Animals and The Artwoods (later to evolve into Deep Purple) they were given five year contracts with Decca Records.

The Cops n Robbers are noted for launching the career of their old mate from St. Albans and one time band member Donovan Leitch. During their time they also appeared live on TV's Ready Steady Go!, on Five O'Clock Club with Alexis Korner and Duffy Power, and on Manchester's Scene At 6.30.

They backed blues legend John Lee Hooker on his 1965 UK tour and were described by Eric Burdon as the one band in Britain capable of doing justice to the American blues man's unique style.

The Cops n Robbers time at Decca was typical of the decade with the record company dictating what was and was not to be played and sacrificing musical integrity in search of a hit record. However the band released the much sort after album The Cops and Robbers featuring their own songs and other blues numbers.

PYE records released a single in Britain and a hit EP in France, I Could Have Danced All Night (on which Terry plays alto saxophone as well as keyboards) a song not of their choice, but, the better songs on the disc did lead to an invitation to follow in the Beatles footsteps and perform live at the Olympia, Paris on the PJ Proby Show.

On Decca USA sister labels Parrot and Coral they released various singles including, It's All Over Now Baby Blue/I Found Out (Coral), St. James Infirmary/Theres Got To Be A Reason (Parrot) and Just Keep Right On (Coral). These excersions into the American market were the beginnings of the bands cult status, much emulated and copied in the Grarage/Psych boom of the mid sixties. In those days Terry co-wrote his songs with Brian "Smudger" Smith and they came to the notice of other top bands, Oh My Love was released by The Artwoods and You'll Never Do It Baby was released by The Pretty Things, by USA garage band The Lyres in the eighties and by Holly Golightly's band Thee Headcotees in 2008.

In the 1970's, inspired by his aquaintance with Geordie singer Bob Davenport, terry was increasingly drawn to his own ethnic music. A chance meeting with tin whistle player and flutist Charlie 'Chris' Ferguson from Bangor, N. Ireland, led to him studying tin whistle and bodhran under Charlies tutelage. They played together in Irish clubs and folk clubs around the midlands for a couple of years, sharing gigs with Nic Jones, Dick Gaughan, Sean Canon and Dominic Behan, until Charlie moved back to Ireland.

Terry was then hired for Mooncrest with Stoke-in-Trent buddy Malcolm Spooner (later to co-found the band Demon). The two were signed by the Dawn Record Label, under the name of Me and Him realeasing two singles, For The Sake Of The Show/Loving Arc and Waiting There/Now You're down In London. They also wrote a single , Love Donation/Sad Song for Dawn Records band The Others.

In the late 1970's and early 1980's Terry rejuvinated himself and his music, by giving the folk music world the proverbial kick up the arse.  Heymaker redefined the language of folk-rock fusion. The band founded with his wife Lynda Fox on keyboards and percussion, stepson Jack Fox on lead guitar, drummer Mickey Gibson and bass player Phil Johnson.However Heymaker's sound was characterised by Terry's individual electric fiddle style and his brilliantly quirky songs, such as his lyric/poem to masterbation, Rhythmic Habits, and his song of love and lust Be My Violin. Heymaker quickly developed into a cult band, in demand on the beer festival, biker circuits and around Europe in particular Germany influencing The Levellers among many others.

The 1986 Etruria Garden Festival became the birthplace of Terry's acoustic folk band Boneshaker. The band was formed originally to back the bones player Rob Coppard who achieved short-lived fame by appearing on the Ester Ranzen Show. With Terrydelivering vocals and playing acoustic fiddle, tin whistle and bodhran, the band established itself as a worthy acoustic counterpart to Heymaker.

Other members of Boneshaker were, Geoff Walton (acoustic guitar-bouzouki-bodrhan), Jack Fox (bass guitar-bodrhan), Adam Fenn (mandolin-low whistle-tin whistle-fiddle-bodhran), along with Adrian "Croz" Crosbie (melodian-fiddle), Phil Johnson (bass guitar) and Neil Hulse (acoustic guitar).

During the 1986 Boneshaker established themselves as a top class acoustic folk band, they did a huge amount of national and local radio slots Including (Folk on 2), as well as a dozen TV slots. Along with Heymaker, the band became a major force on the folk scene headlining club gigs, rallys and festivals. They were also popular with real ale drinkers and the Staffordshire CAMRA organisation, who's guru Barry Underwood and  ents man Dave Washbrook booked them to headline many large beer festival gatherings over the years.

Terry and Croz took some time out from Bonshaker to record an album with the extroadinary and idiosyncratic Jim Eldon, an ex-merchant seaman turned folk fiddler and singer from Hull. The album was released under the name of Jim Eldon and The Sharpshooters, with Croz on cello and Terry on second fiddle the three folkies recorded a handful of English folk dance tunes interspersed with some of Jim"s songs.

In1995 Terry and Adam Fenn were invited by the British Government and Council to the City of Gdańsk Poland, for the month long British Weeks Festival, performing English Broadsides to Polish audiences under the name Set The Milkmaids Free. They performed on Polish TV and live on the cult radio station Radio ARnet in a broadcast supporting Solidarities election campaign. Their bootlegged performances are still much saught after in the music worlds black market.

By now Boneshaker had become a platform for Terry's talents, offering him a free rein to perform his much loved traditional Anglo/Celtic songs and dance tunes. This enviroment with these wonderful musicians became the breeding place for more of Terry's self penned songs and stories of Staffordshire, Cheshire, political protest and poingnant observations. He remains one of far too few artists able to add new traditional/contemporary style folk songs, to the wealth of this great historic tradition, with songs that will be remembered 100 years from now. The band meet these days for Fairport Convention style get togethers as Terry's life becomes ever more consumed in words and music. This period also led to the forging of a partnership with virtuoso mandolin player Adam Fenn that endures to this day.

Terry had during this period been writing poems as well as songs, although it would be fair to describe  many of his songs as song-poems. This work however remained hidden from the public as Terry refused to have them published.

Along with his band work Terry has also performed many solo gigs stretching back to the 1993 Universities Music Festival at which he topped the bill. In 2001 he played in France once again doing a solo spot at the cult association venue, the Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal Cafe (SSBONC), in Le Havre, Terry was heard to remark that the French were so impressed by his sixties Cops n Robbers gig that it took them 37 years to invite him back.

Terry's songs, poems and writing grew more diverse with time,  writing the biography of  Battling Jack, the story of Jackie Turpin of the famous Turpin boxing family and publishing several books of poems. He also did a two year spell as Cheshires Poet Laureate 2008/2009. In 2009 Terry came full circle with the formation of StringFing. Back on his old workhorse Gibson acoustic guitar and supported by Adam Fenn on mandolin and low whistle and the outstanding classical cellist Emily Tellwright, he has found a new rich groove for his words and music.

Terry says that StringFing is like coming home, they are capable of playing any of the songs Terry has ever written and any new songs he writes-blues, rock or folk. He says "this is a new day man. I have found my place with Adam and Emily. I'm just getting started".