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In a fit of madness, they all agreed to take the chance and they left their families in Scotland and made their way by car through France to Italy where they were also promised some work to boost their finances.

When they arrived in Italy with their new found manager, who could speak fluent Italian, they discovered that there was no ship going to Argentina and they had no work in Italy. However, they were offered an audition with an Italian agent, operating out of Florence. They passed with flying colours and were offered work immediately in one or two night clubs. One, the Helio Caballa, was just outside of Rome, where they learned later that they kept Sophia Loren's new baby awake every night. It was an open air club on a hill just above the Villa Ponti in Marino.

One week in the summer of 1970, they were playing in Forte dei Marmi in a club called 'La Cappannina de Francesci', when an A+R manager from RCA Italiana heard them. He was there on holiday, but he invited the group to Rome for a recording test. They were in fact going back to Marino the following week and they agreed to visit the studios. They actually recorded three songs for the test; Yellow River, I can't tell the bottom from the top and Jesus Christ Superstar. The company liked them so much, they included these recordings later on their first album.

But, in the meantime, they had to wait for RCA to decide if they were a marketable product, so they continued working to a strict schedule of dates up and down Italy. During this period, they had been a little suspicious about their Argentinean manager's honesty and they soon discovered they were right to have doubts. He had been pocketing all the expenses money and had left a trail of unpaid hotel bills. He was sent back to Scotland and for the first time the group had to look after their own affairs. Sally and Ken very quickly picked up the language and began to liaise with the italian agent who, fortunately, was still prepared to act for them. Perhaps the impending record contract had something to do with that.

In October 1970, they were offered the recording contract by RCA and they were allocated a producer, Giacomo Tosti.

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Site created: November 12, 2006 Last update: Juni 23, 2008