Terry Cox was the drummer with British folk-rock pioneers Pentangle, who also played on landmark albums by David Bowie and Elton John.

I would be lying if I said I appreciated the mastery of percussion displayed by Terry Cox with the influential folk group Pentangle at the time of this recording.

In fact I’d be lying if I said I even knew who Pentangle were when I was ten years old. And the first time I heard Terry play was not with them, but that shuffling drum pattern at the start of Space Oddity (and the big “TISH” at the end of each vocal line).

Listening back now, the drums on that track are just amazing. I’ve never noticed that before. But back to Pentangle, because that is where Terry made his reputation, though I did not appreciate folk music as a child; or for a very long time afterwards.

Watching this 1968 film footage of Pentangle today, I finally understand. It’s a shame it required Terry’s death – almost exactly six months after Danny Thompson, the other, equally celebrated, half of their rhythm section.

Nor did I know that he had played on several records in my collection during the period 1969-71 including the self-titled early albums by David Bowie (including Space Oddity) and Elton John (ditto Your Song) and Madman Across The Water.

Cox co-founded Pentangle in 1967 with Thompson, guitarists Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, and vocalist Jacqui McShee – now the last of that quintet left alive.

Along with Fairport Convention, they helped create British folk-rock by introducing elements of jazz, psychedelia and blues; the latter an influence picked up when Cox and Thompson served their apprenticeship in Alexis Korner’s band Blues Incorporated.

Pentangle lasted from 1967-73 in their first iteration, and Cox rejoined them from 1981-87, and also took part in reunions in 2008 and 2011.

In between, during the 1970s, he was a regular sideman for Charles Aznavour – though it was never really fair to call such a virtuoso drummer a sideman – and recorded with The Bee Gees, Scott Walker, Cleo Laine and Long John Baldry, among many others.