The tracks used for the album were recorded between February and March 1978 with engineer John Etchells at Super Bear Studios in France.

Session musicians included bass guitarist Rick Wills and drummer Willie Wilson, both of whom used to be part of Jokers Wild with Gilmour.

[citation needed] One unused tune that was written and demoed at the time would later evolve, via collaboration with Roger Waters, into Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" from The Wall.

[8] Likewise, the song "Short and Sweet" can be seen as a musical precursor to "Run Like Hell" (also from The Wall), with its shifting chords over a D pedal point, using a flanged guitar in Drop D tuning.

[9] "Short and Sweet" was written in collaboration with Roy Harper, who recorded a version, on which Gilmour played, for his 1980 album The Unknown Soldier.

[5] The band comprised Gilmour himself on guitars and vocals plus the two musicians on the album (bass player Rick Wills and drummer Willie Wilson) plus David Gilmour's brother Mark on rhythm guitar and Ian McLagan on keyboards and performed "Mihalis", "There's No Way Out of Here", "So Far Away", "No Way", and "I Can't Breathe Anymore".