Monkman played on their first three albums, doubling on keyboards and guitar and exploring his interest in jamming, overtones, natural harmonies and freer aspects of musicality.
In 1978, Monkman became a member of classical/rock music fusion band Sky alongside guitarists John Williams and Kevin Peek, bass player Herbie Flowers and drummer/percussionist Tristan Fry.
His keyboard work with Sky included extensive classical or classically inspired harpsichord playing (highlighted on the band's electric version of Bach's "Toccata", which reached number 5 in the UK singles chart,[4] and secured Sky a Top of the Pops appearance), piano, and a variety of synthesizer approaches including progressive rock complexity and psychedelic drones.
For their debut album, he wrote the non-hit single "Cannonball" and the 20-minute long second-side composition "Where Opposites Meet" (which was intended to combine and display the band's diverse influences).
On their second album, he performed a version of Jean-Philippe Rameau's "Gavotte & Variations" as an absolutely straight classical solo harpsichord rendition (further cementing the place of classical music in the band's repertoire) and composed a second side-long twenty-minute long-form composition ("FIFO", for which the title and musical structure was inspired by computer data processing, and on which Monkman also played distorted psychedelic guitar alongside the more formal parts performed by Peek and Williams).
During his time with Sky, Monkman had continued to release solo recordings which mingled original composition with film and television soundtracks and library music.
"[7] In the same interview, Monkman mentioned having been approached again by Sky in "the late '80s" to compose "another long piece, in the manner of "Opposites" and "Fifo."
"[7] Post-Sky, Monkman intended to concentrate mostly on television and soundtrack work (although at around the same time, he resumed performances of classical harpsichord music).
This was the first album on which he had sung lead vocals; it also featured Camel's Andy Latimer (guitar) and former Whitesnake drummer Dave Dowle, as well as singers Graham Layden and Julia Rathbone.
After 'LGF,' Zoetrope (Coppola's studio) became interested for a while, but in response to a request for 'examples of my work,' I sent them a copy of 'Dweller on the Threshold' and, unsurprisingly I suppose, heard no more.
"[7] In 1986, Monkman and Way joined forces with their original Curved Air inspiration Terry Riley, to perform the latter's "In C" at Sadlers Wells Theatre, although plans for a follow-up mini-tour of Italy fell through.