The band was formed by John Packwood (guitar), Tim Kerley (drums), Neale Hancock (vocals/guitar), and Simon Wigglesworth (bass), all of whom had previously played together in The Hunny Monsturs.
[2] The band recorded an album for Glass but it remained unreleased due to the label's financial problems, and when the label dissolved, its founder David E. Barker signed The Badgeman to his new venture Paperhouse (along with Walkingseeds, Teenage Fanclub, Phil Shoenfelt, Don Fleming and Gumball), a subsidiary of Fire Records of London.
The album's most notable champion, the musician, writer, and historian Julian Cope went so far as to make Ritual Landscape his Unsung Album Of The Month in December 2007 on his highly regarded Head Heritage Unsung website, describing the band's sound in such terms as "post punk..folk..muscular..heathen racket".
[3] The same review appears in Cope's book of collected writings on the subject of obscure or underappreciated rock and roll, Copendium.
[4] The cover art features in Andrew Johnstones book How The Neolthics Influenced Rock'n'Roll[5] The band split up shortly after the album's release, with Hancock, Wigglesworth, and Kerley forming Big Bird.