"playing like an arse"; Watts later put that down to his cocaine usage. Fletcher would later reveal that Watts had "gone off the rails". Watts was temporarily replaced by session players Mal Scott (who toured with the band throughout 1997 and played on the standalone Squire/Helme co-written single "You Can Talk to Me" in December 1997) and Toby Drummond. The band went on to play support slots with The Rolling Stones, U2, and Oasis. In 1998, the band began work on a follow-up album with another new drummer, Mark Heaney. They previewed several new songs during secret fan club gigs and festival appearances, including "City in the Sky", "700 Horses", "Tombraid" and two Helme compositions "Won't Let You Fall" and "Moth". Second album recording sessions and split The band entered Olympic Studios with producer David Bottrill in January 1999 to record the album, with the working titles of Minus Blue and Motocade, and tensions came to a head between Squire and Helme. Fletcher later revealed that he witnessed Helme "turn a Larrivée guitar into match sticks during that session". Squire walked out of the studio and didn't return; the sessions were abandoned, and the group split up. The band's split was officially announced on 23 January 1999, with a press release citing musical differences. A spokesman for the band later informed the NME that Squire had "become increasingly dissatisfied with the material being produced by Helme until it reached a point where their partnership was no longer possible". Despite having previewed fully formed songs including two of his own compositions, Helme would later claim in 2001 that his contributions were being ignored and that the songs the band were working on were "unfinished tunes with unfinished lyrics, and they're all John's songs". Squire had previously commented that "I'd say the ratio of songwriting is the same as before; Chris and I help each other out with songs, but we haven't done that many strict collaborations", and sources close to the band confirmed that the band had worked on a number of his songs that were set to appear on the album. Helme admitted in 2011 that he had been unhappy with Squire writing the majority of the band's material and, therefore, picking up the majority of the band's publishing money. Due to this, he attempted to launch a solo career whilst still in the Seahorses, and claimed that the Seahorses'