They were joined by Harvey Bainbridge who had played bass in Devon group Ark who in turn had performed with Calvert and Brock as the Sonic Assassins, and by keyboardist Steve Swindells who had been in Pilot.

Simon House had left the earlier band to join David Bowie but contributed violin to the sessions, as did noted British jazz trumpeter Henry Lowther.

[citation needed] Lyrically this is Calvert's most diverse dealing with themes such as telepathy ("Psi Power"), skydiving ("Free Fall"), Australian drug misuse ("Flying Doctor"), heroic bravery ("The Only Ones") and espionage ("The Dead Dreams of the Cold War Kid").

There is a light-hearted playfulness to these tracks, with only the lyrics of "The Age of the Micro Man" hinting at the bleak cold futuristic factory workers concept that Calvert and Barney Bubbles put together for the stage show of the album.

[citation needed] New acoustic versions of "Flying Doctor", "Psi Power" and "The Age of the Micro Man" were included on The Road to Utopia (2018), produced and arranged by Mike Batt with additional orchestrations.