the interest of music publisher Ian Ralfini, who signed them to the American record label, Verve Records, and became the first British act they signed. Verve subsequently released the band's debut LP, Caravan (1968), later the same year, but a few months later moved out of the UK record business and dropped the band. After a series of gigs in London, including the Speakeasy Club, the band were introduced to Terry King, who became the group's first manager. David Hitchcock, who had been working in the art department of Decca Records, asked the company's president, Hugh Mendl to sign the band. They began recording their second album, If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You (1970) in September 1969, while continuing to gig on the university circuit, and appearing at festivals alongside Pink Floyd, Yes, The Nice and Soft Machine. Recording If I could ... continued in February 1970, with the 14-minute track "For Richard", showing the band's contrast in styles and jazz-rock influence. The album was released in August, alongside an appearance at the Plumpton Festival with Van der Graaf Generator, Yes and Colosseum. The accompanying single "Hello Hello" helped them land an appearance on the TV show Top of the Pops, performing the album's title track. Caravan had started to build a live following by mid-1970, including an appearance at the Kralingen Pop Festival in the Netherlands to an audience of 250,000 and the 10th Plumpton Festival. In autumn 1970, Caravan began working on one of their most critically acclaimed albums, In the Land of Grey and Pink (1971). The balance of songwriting changed from the previous two albums, with Richard Sinclair taking a more prominent role. His song, "Golf Girl" was originally written about his then girlfriend (and future wife), but the lyrics were rewritten in the final version. The group decided to follow up "For Richard" with a suite of short sections of songs written by David Sinclair, that the rest of the band worked on and linked together to form a side-long track, "Nine Feet Underground". Although, the track was recorded in five separate stages and spliced together, the band performed the suite live as it was finally presented on the album, and it remained a popular track in their live set. The album was released in April 1971, and though it did not chart, it has remained in