In addition to Hobday and McCabe, the embryonic Span included Nigel Langham (guitar), Ashley Potter (organ) and a teenage drummer Gary 'Roscoe' Murphy.
[2] A liaison with local promoter / manager Mike Clayton,[1] resulted in the replacement of Potter with Jon Poulter, and the addition of a four piece horn section.
[3] However, it was another Drifters number, "Come On Over To Our Place" that was selected as the A-side for the band's debut single on the Columbia label in November 1966, backed by another Hobday original "Still Nights".
[3] With a line-up of Hobday, Bennett, McCabe and Gary Murphy,[2] the revitalised band paid more attention to the importance of studio work, starting with an October 1967 session at Decca Records with Dave Paramor[2] who had produced their EMI singles.
[4] Without record company support, the Span took matters into their own hands, privately funding a single that appeared on 16 February 1968 on the Jewel label – a new Melodisc subsidiary run by Emil Shallit.
[2] However, publicity both at home and abroad brought a cameo appearance in the film, Better A Widow,[1] successful tours of Germany and Belgium, a support appearance with Cream in the UK, jamming with Jimi Hendrix at the Speakeasy (Bennett was so nervous at the prospect of performing with his idol that he dropped his plectrum),[2] and the performance of a 20-minute science fiction fantasy entitled "Cycle" at London's 100 Club.
[3] Following a session for the John Peel's Top Gear programme in May 1968, the Span was chosen as the featured group in a BBC Television series[2] produced by documentary film-maker Paul Watson, called A Year In The Life.
By the mid-1980s the band had become a cult name amongst collectors of obscure British psychedelic records,[4] an interest intensified by the BBC's decision to broadcast an updated A Year In The Life in December 1989 (subsequently repeated in early 1991).