In 1970, Smith left the group, and Pope and Staples changed their name to "The Bullwhip Brothers", performing as a largely acoustic duo at Toronto art festivals and at private events.
In 1973, the band was renamed Rough Trade, and was joined by percussionist Chris Faulkner, bassist Bob Jennings, and drummer Donny McDougal.
As would happen frequently going forward, the players supporting Pope and Staples were subject to sometimes wholesale change, and by 1974, the Pope/Staples duo was joined by Hap Roderman, Jane Cessine, Sharon Smith and Marv Kanarek.
By this time, the band's line-up was Pope, Staples, JoAnn Brooks (vocals, percussion), Rick Gratton (drums), Michael Fonfara (keyboards, arranger), and Peter Hodgson (bass).
[4] After a six-month layoff, Pope and Staples rebuilt the band, adding David McMorrow, Bucky Berger, Terry Wilkins, Bert Hermiston, Colina Phillips and Betty Richardson to the line-up at various points in 1978 and 1979.
The controversy surrounding the raunchy lesbian-themed second single "High School Confidential" helped propel the song into the Canadian top 20, and made the band stars.
Although the song widely was believed to have the potential to break into the top 40, the bankruptcy of the band's American distributor Boardwalk Records[6] halted its progress on the charts as the single ceased to be available in stores.
[9] During the recording of Rough Trade's 1982 album Shaking the Foundations, Wilkins and Berger left and were replaced by Howard Ayee (bass) and Jorn Anderson (drums) as unofficial members.
(By this point, the group was explicitly identified in the album credits as simply Pope and Staples, augmented by other musicians as needed on a track-by-track basis.)
However, Rough Trade's 1983 album Weapons failed to place a single on the Canadian charts, marking the beginning of the group's commercial decline.
[citation needed] In 1984, the duo of Pope and Staples were paired with new producer Terry Brown, after having previously co-produced all their True North material with Gene Martynec.
The duo was supported by session musicians in the studio, including Berger, Wilkins, Ayee, and Anderson, as well as guests such as Dalbello and Neil Chapman of Pukka Orchestra.
Around the same time, guitarist Springer changed his stage name to Wild T and found modest fame as a solo artist in Canada.