The band has attracted a measure of attention from recent compilation releases and Dando Shaft is today known primarily as one of the major influences on the progressive stream of the 1960s folk revival.
Forming in Coventry, England, in 1968, the original Dando Shaft was a quintet composed of the two guitar/vocalists Kevin Dempsey and Dave Cooper, multi-instrumentalist Martin Jenkins, bassist Roger Bullen, and tabla/percussionist Ted Kay.
[4][5] Comparisons to Pentangle were only enhanced when, after moving to London in 1970, the band grew in October of that year to include Leamington Spa singer Polly Bolton, who had previously sung with June Tabor.
Receiving fewer accolades for this effort than for the previous two albums, and with even less prospect of commercial success, the band began to move in the direction of mainstream rock eventually resulting in the single "Sun Clog Dance".
This shift, however, caused internal dissension and the band soon broke up with Dempsey and Bolton forming a duo for a time in the USA, and Jenkins joining Hedgehog Pie on the Newcastle-upon-Tyne label Rubber Records.