When the group formed in their native Bournemouth area, the Giles brothers sought a singing keyboard player through a newspaper advertisement. Robert Fripp, a guitarist, responded and was hired even though he was not skilled on keyboards and could not sing. Between late 1967 and late 1968, the group lived in Brondesbury Road,
London. Throughout their time at the house, they made many demo recordings. The early demos soon led to a
recording contract with UK
Decca's newly formed
Deram Records division. In April 1968, the group recorded an album
The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp and two singles, all of which sold poorly. In autumn 1968 the group added
Ian McDonald on
saxophone,
flute and
clarinet, and former
Fairport Convention vocalist Judy Dyble. Ian McDonald's
clarinet overdubs were added to the single version of "Thursday Morning". Deram then rejected their next studio sessions, including "She Is Loaded" and "Under the Sky". These later recordings have since been released as bonus tracks on a CD reissue of the album. Dyble did not appear on any of the Deram recordings. On 9 September 1968,
BBC Radio aired an episode of "My Kind of Folk" (produced by Frances Line) where Giles, Giles and Fripp backed singer songwriter
Al Stewart. Having recently joined the band,
Ian McDonald played organ on this session. The songs played were: "You Should Have Listened to Al", "Manuscript", "Old Compton Street Blues", "Room of Roots", and "In Brooklyn". A recording of this session (21 minutes total) exists. The group continued to record at home; Dyble was only with the group for a short time but did perform with the group on a few songs, including "Make It Today" and demo versions of "Under The Sky" and "
I Talk to the Wind". One of the melodies from "Passages of Time" was later reused for "Peace – An End" on the second King Crimson album,
In the Wake of Poseidon. A collection of the home recordings was released in 2001 as
The Brondesbury Tapes. The demos were made on a high-quality two-track
Revox recorder, which was modified to allow for
overdubs. Though the finished recordings are
mono some have excellent sound which is close to studio quality for the period. In late 1968, Peter Giles left the group. Michael Giles, Robert Fripp, and Ian McDonald went on to form the first line-up of
King Crimson, rounded out by bassist/vocalist
Greg Lake and lyricist
Peter Sinfield. Peter Giles would go on to appear on the second Crimson album,
In the Wake of Poseidon in 1970, and more recently joined with
21st Century Schizoid Band. Dyble would go on to form the duo
Trader Horne. In 1971, Michael Giles and Ian McDonald released an album together as
McDonald and Giles, on which Peter Giles also played bass. ==Members==