Scotch Mist were originally formed from an acoustic trio called "Uncle Tom Cobbley" who ran a folk club in Hall Green (see Three Magpies Folk Club). The original Scotch Mist members were brothers Ken Jones (guitar/banjo/melodeon) and Keith Jones (violin/mandolin) on vocals alongside drummer Steve Austin. Once they were joined by singer and musician Mike James they became very successful and started their first club at the Golden Eagle. This ran  for a year, but due to the success of the group they were unable to continue running the club and closed it around June 1974. They then started a club at Wythall House, Park Hall, Wythall, putting on some very successful gigs, one of which was a concert on March 14th 1974 with Shirley Collins and the Etchingham Steam Band (see the poster below). The line-up changed  to a five piece sometime around this time with Steve leaving the band and Trevor Foster and Heather McCauley joining. This line up continued through until 1975 when there were further line-up changes, and in 1976/77 both the line-up and name were changed , with the band now becoming "Bright Eyes" and changing their style from folk to pub-rock.