However, Cope himself has all but disowned My Nation Underground, considering it an artistic mis-step which failed to produce the music which he wanted (although he has also accepted responsibility for the failure).

My Nation Underground was the follow-up to Cope’s relatively successful Saint Julian album of 1987, which had seen him move from raw psychedelic rock to a more streamlined and solid hard-rock approach built around the tight five-piece "Two-Car Garage" band.

The band disintegrated after the Saint Julian promotional tour, leaving only Cope and his musical right-hand man, guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Donald Ross Skinner.

The other members of the core team were Fair on keyboards plus eccentric percussionist Rooster Cosby (who’d remain a close Cope associate).

Lyrical subject matter included false gurus (the single "Charlotte Anne", punning on "charlatan"), domestic violence, and an apocalyptic re-imagining of the worldview of the serial killer Dennis Nilsen.