This time, again a little more from Richard Williams’ 2008 notes in the CD insert, where we have reached the foot of Page 9, January 1971, and a dramatic and in many ways tragic developement:
“When they reassembled at the studio in the first week of January, however, a bombshell was waiting. Sandy had finally been persuaded that the time was now right to embark on a solo career. “It was a great shock and a huge disappointment,” Donahue says now. “The band was the best thing that had happened to any of us, including Sandy. She always felt more secure with her friends and a band around her.” Over the next few weeks she changed her mind several times, uncertain whether to pursue a solo direction or continue with the group. But it was already too late to reform the band: Donaldson and Donahue had quickly accepted an offer to tour with Gary Wright and Conway with Cat Stevens. As all five members moved on to new destinies, the second album lay in ruins behind them. “Fotheringay Split” was the Melody Maker’s front page headline, underlining the significance of a band whose record sales never matched their reputation.”
By this time I had become an avid reader of Melody Maker, and this was not a story to cheer an adolescent about to sit 9 GCE “O” levels in a few months.
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