The departure of Sandy Denny, Trevor Lucas and Jerry Donahue following Rising for the Moon in 1975 left Fairport Convention reduced to Dave Swarbrick, Dave Pegg and Bruce Rowland, and contractually obliged to produce one more album for Island Records.

Chris Blackwell, who to my mind is the richest, clueless, most unscrupulous pillock it was ever my misfortune to meet, had other ideas.

"[3] As such, the basic line-up of Swarbrick and rhythm section was augmented by numerous guest performers.

Simon Nicol was asked to assist in sorting out the project: "... there was plenty on tape but it was a bit of a ragbag really.

"[4] The album's title comes from the reputed inability of less skilled ventriloquists to pronounce "bottle of beer".