Editing Fred Frith (section)

===Henry Cow===
{{Main|Henry Cow}}
Frith met [[Tim Hodgkinson]], a fellow student, in a blues club at Cambridge University in 1968. "We'd never met before, and he had an alto sax, and I had my violin, and we just improvised this ghastly screaming noise for about half an hour."<ref name="bbc">{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/experimental/interviews/int_frith.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060215162125/http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/experimental/interviews/int_frith.shtml |archive-date=15 February 2006 |title=Fred Frith interview |work=BBC Music |access-date=31 October 2008}}</ref> Something clicked and, recognizing their mutual open-minded approach to music, Frith and Hodgkinson formed a band there and then. They called it [[Henry Cow]] and they remained with the band until its demise in 1978. In the early 1970s Fred's grey Morris Minor sported the band's heraldic logo, much to the amusement of boys at the grammar school in York where his father was headmaster.

Frith composed a number of the band's notable pieces, including "Nirvana for Mice" and "[[Ruins (instrumental)|Ruins]]". While guitar was his principal instrument, he also played violin (drawing on his classical training), bass guitar, piano, and xylophone.

In November 1973, Frith (and other members of Henry Cow) participated in a live-in-the-studio performance of [[Mike Oldfield]]'s ''[[Tubular Bells]]'' for the BBC. It is available on Oldfield's ''[[Elements – The Best of Mike Oldfield (video)|Elements]]'' DVD.