A singer and guitarist, Foster first started playing in public in 1964 at local folk clubs. His influences at the time ranged from Cyril Tawney, to Davey Graham, ‘Big’ Bill Broonzy and Louis Killen. Foster included both traditional and contemporary material in his live performances. While still at college, he played support on the 1971 Rev. Gary Davis tour of the UK. The following year, he left art school, and went into music in a full-time capacity, until the mid-80s. Layers featured the fiddle of Nic Jones, while All Things In Common included the much covered Bill Caddick song ‘Unicorns’. Fylde Acoustic was so named because all the artists (including Gordon Giltrap and Martin Carthy) performing on the album played Fylde instruments.

After experiencing moderate success on the folk circuit, but feeling he was getting nowhere, Foster bowed out of the scene and, apart from occasional bookings, did little musically for three years. In the late 80s Foster began playing bass in a blues band, and then, in 1991, started playing in folk clubs again. He returned to recording with 1999’s Traces. Layers and All Things In Common, were reissued in 2002 on the Japanese Vivid label.