Henry Cow was an English avant-garde rock group, founded at Cambridge University in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith
and Tim Hodgkinson. An inherent anti-commercial bias kept them at arm’s length from the mainstream music business,
enabling them to experiment at will. They remained in existence for 10 years, breaking up in 1978, and produced a body of
music that was challenging, provocative and influential for years to come. Collaborations with the similarly-minded band Slapp
Happy led to an eventual merging of the two bands. Many of the members continued on as Art Bears. Henry Cow was among
the founding members of the movement dubbed Rock in Opposition (RIO).
