At the end of the 1960"s, Island Records was THE record label everyone looked up to. THE A&R man at Island was the gifted, but somewhat eccentric GUY STEVENS, who was an integral part of the small, brilliant team that made Island so special during this period. Although Guy agreed to produce Mott"s new album, he demanded a thousand pounds up front before he would work on the project. Studio time was duly booked, although Island"s ever tightening purse-strings meant that the budget to complete the album would only run to a miserly five days worth of recording at Island"s Basing Street Studios. After the more methodical approach the band had adopted during the recording of "Wildlife", where they built tracks with overdubs, this time Guy wanted to record live in the studio:insisting on first takes with the vocals overdubbed later. The first recording session on 19th September 1971 passed quietly enough, with little evidence of what was to follow. In fact, Guy didn"t even turn up on the first day leaving the band in the capable hands of engineer Andy Jones. The recording of the album continued to progress slowly over the next three days with only a couple of songs completed. With the studio time fast running out, something needed to be done and Guy, the master of the vibe, had just the idea to get the band playing with the aggression and energy he desired. John Glover of Island Records can remember visiting Basing Street Studios shortly after the final session for the album. "I clearly remember walking in one Monday morning and they"d finished the album sometime over the weekend and gone totally berserk. Guy always incited them in to being outrageous and the whole place was wrecked". Unable to decide between "Bizarre Capers" or "Brain Damage" for an album title, Guy eventually went for a compromise suggested by Dale Griffin. The album would be called "Brain Capers" and the sleeve concept was credited to Bizarre Damage. Guy dedicated the album to one of his heores - James Dean. Released on 19th November 1971, "Brain capers" picked up a mixed response from the music press. Chris Charlesworth from Melody Maker declared that it was "back to rock for Hoople after their comparatively light last album". Charlesworth didn"t seem overly keen on the rockier material picking out "Your Own Back Yard" and "Darkness Darkness" as his personal favourites. Martin Hayman at Sounds thought that the album was a return to "the real Mott The Hoople form" and that the band had established themselves with more musical confidence. Looking back Ian Hunter has warmed to the album over the years "You know "Brain Capers" to me was five days of chaos. I didn"t think anything came out of it, but when I listened to it recently, you can actually hear the Sex Pistols loud and clear. I was quite chuffed. I like "Brain Capers" better than I did. I was very surprised because I never listened to it for many years and then the punks started talking about it." Guy died in August 1981, aged 38.