Most of the new studio album was recorded in June / July 1977. Mark Clarke played bass during the sessions, but Ritchie spent his spare evenings redoing these! According to Dio, Ritchie will be featured playing bass on six out of the eight numbers on the LP. The titles include 'Kill The King', 'Long Live Rock'n'Roll' and ‘Night People’, which were played during the 1977 tour. Rehearsals for the tour were at Shepperton Studios around September 17th. They managed to blow up a dry-ice machine and damage their computer whilst down there. The Helsinki show was cancelled. Ritchie arrived the day before, but the group’s gear was held up in customs and wasn’t cleared in time. After the UK shows the group finished off the album. This involved writing and recording another track.

The first night at Liverpool the solos were not getting through to me like they should have. The next night was a little better and the magic returned, albeit briefly. There was a spectacular demolition job when Ritchie disappeared off the stage and reappeared in the ‘Royal Box’. After strumming around with his legs dangling over the edge, he proceeded to belt the instrument to bits, swinging the remains on the lead just above the crowd’s heads.

“This ain’t a bad album, it would’ve been better if not for the rather clinical production – which also marred ‘Clear Air..’ somewhat. For me the pick of the tracks are ‘Slags To Bitches’,‘Twin Exhausted’ and ‘Mercury High’. ‘Fool’s Mate’ is an attempt to do ‘The Mule’ again. What a mess. Nauseef gets completely out of control, when is he going to get rid of the 1001 percussive obscurities and just knock shit out of his kit? This underlines the main fault with IGB – lots happening on the surface, but no real depth.” Stephen.

The ‘Painted Horse’ cop is quite clear, there’s a ‘Super Trouper’ lift also. By the way, Super Trouper is the trade name of a brand of powerful spotlights, this is likely where Gillan got the inspiration from _ “Super Trouper I can see you now, return your stare”.