Mick Abrahams left Jethro Tull, due to a falling-out with Ian Anderson, after their debut album, This Was, was released, and he formed Blodwyn Pig with Jack Lancaster (saxophone and flute), Andy Pyle (bass guitar), and Ron Berg (drums). Ex-Yes and future Flash guitarist Peter Banks became one of several guitarists to succeed Abrahams after he left to form his own band for a time.
With Abrahams and Lancaster in the lead, Blodwyn Pig recorded two albums, Ahead Rings Out in 1969 and Getting To This in 1970. Both reached the Top Ten of the UK Albums Char] and charted in the United States; Ahead Rings Out displayed a jazzier turn on the heavy blues–rock that formed the band's core rooted in the British 1960s rhythm and blues scene from which sprang groups like The Yardbirds, Free and eventually Led Zeppelin. Saxophonist–singer Lancaster (who often played two horns at once, like his idol Rahsaan Roland Kirk) was at least as prominent in the mix as Abrahams.