Steve had kept in close contact with Moe Armstrong, who had stayed in New Mexico to be with his wife, Joanie, who was pregnant. It was, however, a false pregnancy, and in early January, they arrived at Heathrow. Unfortunately, they were sent right back to New York because Tim and Kurt, who had documentation and cash for his visa, failed to find them at the terminal. After a couple of days in New York, they returned and made it through the gates. (For Moe’s take on this, listen to the beginning of Moe’s Interview, Part 2.)
Moe's take on this... Listen...
The record was nearly finished, and Moe appears on only a few cuts, making his serious debut on both sides of the first single. But his strength was not in studio work, but performing in front of an audience. To this day, most people who remember Daddy Longlegs at all remember Moe first. He was a whirling dervish on stage, with costumes, puppets and enough energy to glow in the dark. His arrival was very fortunate for us, in that Warner decided to delay shipping the album until late April, and we had nothing to promote for months. But from his arrival on, the live shows kept getting better and better. See comprehensive list of show dates...
We toured the UK constantly, and had a particularly strong and vocal following in Wales. Soon we were packed off to the continent for the first time, playing multiple venues in Germany, Belgium, Holland and Switzerland. The shows were so well-received that our live reputation became a double-edged sword when the LP was finally released on April 24th. We had grown so far beyond that record that it barely sounded like us any more. See album reviews...
Toured and toured... Listen...
Back in London, we returned to the studio and re-cut “High Again” and a hard-edged B-side just to see if we could get closer. The single was released July 4th and was immediately banned by the BBC, which didn’t help sales but resulted in more and bigger shows. We moved into Oakdown Farm in East Sussex in late spring, then immediately set out on the summer festival circuit, including huge shows in Turku (Finland), Stockholm, Amsterdam and Frankfurt, plus the Buxton Festival, Plumpton (Reading) Festival and the Medicine Ball Caravan (Canterbury) in the UK.
In addition, we appeared on television and radio, including BBC’s Disco 2, AVRO-TV in Amsterdam, several outlets in Germany and Sweden, plus BBC radio with John Peel, Mike Harding and Noel Edmonds. We were quickly burning out. By September we were all ready to sleep for months. But for Moe, a Vietnam veteran, it was more serious. After a series of violent arguments with his wife, he was ready to call it quits for good. Steve begged him to remain and start doing side projects that were a little less draining, but the die was cast. After the Lyceum gig with the Kinks and Faces on September 18th, he announced that he would be leaving. Our final gig as the original line-up was October 12th at Friars Aylesbury, and Steve decided it was time for him to do other things as well.
Moe's exit... Listen...
Moe returned to the States and Steve hooked up with an acoustic band, eventually finding a long-term gig with Julie Felix. Kurt and Clif recruited guitarist Gary “Norton” Holderman from the States and pianist Pete Arnesen, an Austrian-American living in London . Daddy Longlegs returned to the road on November 12th at London’s Lyceum and soon after cut their most popular album, Oakdown Farm.
Back in London, we returned to the studio and re-cut “High Again” and a hard-edged B-side just to see if we could get closer. The single was released July 4th and was immediately banned by the BBC, which didn’t help sales but resulted in more and bigger shows. We moved into Oakdown Farm in East Sussex in late spring, then immediately set out on the summer festival circuit, including huge shows in Turku (Finland), Stockholm, Amsterdam and Frankfurt, plus the Buxton Festival, Plumpton (Reading) Festival and the Medicine Ball Caravan (Canterbury) in the UK.
