Ramone at the Cat Club in New York. Blood described the tour: "The States was a bit frustrating 'cos I felt we could have had a good shot at the title there. We did it in comparative luxury 'cos Virgin underwrote the tour. And we had Motörhead's tour bus! Unfortunately we never got back there. We did some shows supporting PiL, and five weeks of our own shows, and there was quite a buzz. There was this place called the Scream Club in LA, this big marble ballroom, and it was early in the tour, second gig or something, and we rocked up to play there and they were lined up around the block and I'm going, 'Are we at the right place?!' that's when I realised". The group then toured Europe, playing at the Roskilde Festival in 1988. Their follow-up album, Volatile, with Peter Blyton producing, was released in May that year. It did not receive the same level of critical or commercial acceptance as The Cave Comes Alive!. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, felt that it "contained a decent array of riff-heavy, hard rock tracks, but lacked the raw spark that had characterised the band's earlier output". While Szatmary at AllMusic declared it was "More '60s-style punk from these Australian rockers". The same recording sessions also resulted in a four-track 12" extended play, EP, which was released in March 1989. By the time Volatile had appeared the line-up had changed again: Bambach, Blood, Corben and Lawson were joined by Michael Couvret (ex-Celibate Rifles bass guitarist) on rhythm guitar. In December 1988 Phil Hall (ex-Sardine v, Dropbears) replaced Bambach on bass guitar and Mark Wilkinson (of The Girlies) replaced Couvret on guitar. This line-up supported Iggy Pop on his January 1989 Australian Instinct tour at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney and at the Newcastle Workers Club – which collapsed later that year in an earthquake. They recorded a cover of The Misunderstood's "Children of the Sun" for Timberyard Records' Christmas compilation Rockin Bethlehem. Wilkinson played on the band's third studio album, Beethoven's Fist, with Kevin Shirley producing, mixed by Michael Brauer, in Los Angeles. Wilkinson left before its release in November 1990. McFarlane described the album as "underrated hard rock". The track, "Mr Big Mouth", co-written by Wilkinson and Blood, was released as the B-side of the single from the album, "Cherry Red", which appeared in October. The band played