For the follow-up, Nelson unveiled a slimmed-down new line-up, with bassist Charlie Tumahai and drummer Simon Fox. EMI duly teamed up Be-Bop with producer Roy Thomas Baker, who was then shaping the sound of another of EMI’s bands, Queen. But it wasn’t quite the harmonious union they’d hoped for. “We recorded most of Futurama down at Rockfield Studios in Wales,” Nelson explains. “I was incredibly impressed by Roy Thomas Baker’s engineer, Pat Moran. I learned an awful lot just by watching him and seeing what he could do with the studio. But I wasn’t completely overwhelmed by Roy. He would sit in an armchair by the mixing desk and go: ‘Wakey wakey! Roly poly!’ And he’d organise food fights, which he seemed to believe was fun. He also set fire to the mixing desk by pouring sugar on it, then lighting it with a match. I thought: ‘This is public-schoolboy nonsense.’ “There was one occasion when we were at Sarm Studios in London, doing overdubs,” Nelson continues. “I asked for a bit more level for my vocals with the headphones and, ‘for a joke’, Roy turned it up full blast. I had to throw the headphones off, because my ears were nearly bleeding. I said to him: ‘Look, if you don’t stop this messing about, you’re off!’ I read an interview with him afterwards where he called me a prima donna. But this was our second album, and I really wanted it to be perfect, whereas this guy was just pratting about.”