Terry, Eric and Keith in the newly formed trio began the familiar round of rehearsing and gigging, wondering where fate might take them. 
Then early in 68 Graham Nash who had yet to find his own future with Crosby, Stills & Young had a word with Mickey Most suggesting he pay some attention to Terry.

Mickey checked Terry  and  band out at London's  Revolution club immediately spotting his  potential.  The result was an association which was both the making of and in some senses the breaking of Terry . He signed an exclusive and restrictive deal with Mickey which no doubt seemed a good idea, a good career move at the time. Remember that Most was one of the hot producers  of his time with a string of  successes behind him , Terry was still just a young kid wanting to get on. Whatever, the paper chain that wound itself around Terry  would prove to have links made of solid steel.

Most’s  commercial success with the artists he represented; Donovan, The Animals etc was at the cost of his very determined artistic control of their output. He decided that the way forward for Terry was with soul ballads, a reasonable idea given his past performances and the Peter Jay single. Terry though had his head ringing with the driving  rock music  being performed by the likes of Cream and Jimmy Hendrix.
Most had the group into the studio in April and produced a single ‘Better by Far’ which failed to chart , once again on the B side was a  far superior number ‘Fires Alive’ penned by Terry. As with the Peter Jay single it should have been flipped.

Perhaps no great shame that the single flopped though as it gave some force to Terry’s request to have more artistic control and led to Most cutting him more slack as they prepared to record an album.

Meanwhile events elsewhere were taking  shape which would hang a ‘what if’ placard around Terry’s neck that still causes comment some 4 decades after  they took place.
The Yardbirds who Terry had toured with and become friends with had effectively folded. Jimmy Page , with others, was trying to form a new Yardbirds and looking for a vocalist, no surprise that Jimmy approached Terry.

To be young and alive in 1968 was to be alive indeed, to be young alive and Terry Reid in 1968 with people like Aretha Franklin commenting ‘there are only three things happening in London, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Terry Reid’, it must have seemed like walking on water was only a step away.  For my money, at that point in time,Terry made the only choice he could.
 
So it's late summer 1968 and Terry's into the studio to produce his first album.  Eric lease who was actually a guitarist had been replaced by the aforementioned Bill Bonham on keyboards and horns.
The group got the tracks recorded in a few sessions spread over the late summer early autumn, delivering a piece of work with a raw sparse sound.
The range of songs and diversity of sounds suggests that Terry was allowed a fairly free reign in the studio. Most of the tracks were penned by Terry and included his well-regarded classic song 'Without Expression'.  Overall impression is of someone trying things out experimenting and searching for their muse.

Certainly listening to the tracks now in our digitally perfect age there is a refreshing raw sound that modern bands are keen to emulate.
 Bill Bonham who apart from the Hammond organ and Fender Rhodes bass played sax and flute, remembers John Paul Jones who was nearby rehearsing with the soon-to-be led Zeppelin helping out with stand-up and electric bass.
After laying the tracks down the band were booked on a package tour with Scott Walker managing a couple of dates before they had to cancel due to Bill Bonham becoming seriously ill.
Just to pile on pressure the band were also booked to tour the first time in America on Creams farewell tour.  This was a chance not to be missed and Terry replaced Bill with keyboard player Peter Solley who quickly had to learn the band routine and was still in effect  practising as he climbed the steps of the USA bound plane.

Apart from the band problems this first chance to get to America seemed to hang by a very slender thread as far as contracts , plane tickets etc. Terry's support slot had been specifically/suggested requested by Eric Clapton but there was a sense that Cream’s management weren’t that bothered.  As the dates of the tour approached with little sign of concrete arrangements Terry began to get worried.  An anxious phone call to Eric Clapton's people was responded to late one night by Eric himself who listened to Terry told, him to get a taxi and gave him an address in West London. Terry and taxi driver duly set off into the night to find themselves at the gates of a mansion that looked like it had been left over from the set of a Hammer horror movie. They pushed the gates open to find themselves at the Gothic pile that was George Harrison's home. There followed a night of jamming and talking with Eric, George and Terry, witnessed by a bemused and unable to believe himself, taxi driver.  Eric reassured Terry that all would be well and he would personally make sure that arrangements were completed.
They were and straight after recording the last album track Terry, Peter and Keith flew off to America and a whole new ball game.

Playing in English town halls clubs small venues etc just cannot be compared to the American stadium arenas with their massed fans that were awaiting them in America. Highlight of the tour was probably their gig at Madison Square Gardens in New York. If opening for Cream was not enough Terry also got to play alongside the likes of country Joe and the Fish and Jimi Hendrix.

Like many a young man crossing the pond Terry was bowled over by his American experience and as will be seen became a regular visitor.
On their return to UK Mickey most released the album they had recorded before leaving but oddly only in America.  The album ‘bang bang you’re Terry Reid’ made only a small impression on the American charts hardly surprising since Terry was now back in the UK and unable to promote the album with gigs.
Ironically at the beginning of 1969 with Terry hardly back in the UK the newly formed Led Zeppelin were off on their first American tour and the first steps to stellar success
The spring of 1969 saw Terry and co back in the studio to record the eponymous second album. Considered by many to be Terry's finest hour this album, again including a wide diversity of songs and styles, was far more polished than his first and includes some standout tracks which have borne the test of time.  The opening track ‘Superlungs my supergirl’ a Donovan number, inevitably landed Terry with the nickname by which he is still often called today. Have to say and despite suggestions that unless Terry had a previous life as a 14 year old girl with a penchant for drawing it was not originally written about him or for him.

With the tracks laid down in the studio Terry embarked on a string of concerts both in the UK and America.  Gigs in America included some dates with Ten Years After in the autumn and curiously a significant appearance in an offbeat film Groupies.  Put aside the cheesy nature of the title and ignore the dodgy premise of the film , delight instead in the fact that just by chance there is a film record of Terry, Peter and Keith on fine form at the Filmore East.
Later in November Terry was again invited to tour with the Rolling Stones this time in America on the infamous tour that ended under the dark skies of Altamont. The tour was pure rock 'n' roll the stuff legends are made of .

Terry just 20 at the time was there in the thick of it and has numerous stories to relate from this time.  My own favourite being of his time staying in the Chelsea Hotel in New York.  Also in the hotel were the infamous Coquettes an outrageous and it has to be said courageous, touring theatre group of hippy transvestites who coined the phrase gender fuck. Terry  was with Keith Richards listening to the group bitching about and mimicking Mick Jagger, Terry was more concerned about getting his ironing done for his stage clothes and on enquiring about where he might find an iron had one of the Coquette's whisk his laundry away with a motherly cluck clucking, returning it perfectly pressed later on.

Sadly all was not fun either for the Stones with the dark events at Altamont about to cast a shadow over them or for Terry who had had a serious falling out with Mickey Most.
Most  had promised not to mix the album without Terry there but whilst Terry was in America had done just that.  Terry returned to the UK and had a blazing row with him unaware that Donovan had done the same the day before.  Most was in no mood to compromise and in effect told Terry to knuckle down and do what he was told or he wouldn't record again.
In New York Peter and Chris aware of the career blocking events made the decision that it was time to leave and went off to form their own band Paladin.
So there's Terry back in the UK alone on the threshold of success and the brink of disaster.