In early April 1970, and still signed to
RAK,
Jeff Beck reformed
The Jeff Beck Group with keyboardist
Max Middleton, drummer
Cozy Powell and bassist
Clive Chaman and vocalist
Alex Ligertwood. Later in April that same year, the new band began recording sessions at
Island Studios in London. They worked on songs by Beck and focused on "Situation", which had lyrics by Ligertwood. Other songs such as "
Morning Dew" (previously heard on Beck's album
Truth) were given attention, with the help of producer Jimmy Miller, who had worked with
Traffic and with
The Rolling Stones. During May 1971, after a week of recording sessions, Beck left
RAK and signed a new record deal with
CBS.
Epic, a subsidiary of
CBS, was assigned to release Beck's work, and having heard the Island studio tapes were not happy with the vocals. During May, Beck started looking for a new vocalist. In late May, after hearing
Bobby Tench perform with his band
Gass, he employed him as vocalist for the band. Tench was given only a few weeks to write new lyrics and add his vocals to the album, before mixing resumed on tracks previously recorded by Beck and the other band members. During early July 1971, the band returned to Island Studios to finish the album and Beck took over as producer.
Rough and Ready was released in UK on 25 October 1971 with the US release following during February 1972. A sixteen-day promotional tour in USA followed, ==Critical reception==