format—with a drastically restricted play list shutting out many Australian performers. Garry Raffaele of The Canberra Times observed, "[he] sounds as though he's involved with the real issues of our time—pollution, man's inhumanity to those who share Spaceship Earth with him, communication difficulties. He writes of these things but his words are not likely to convince anybody. It's the simplistic trap again." Due to grass-roots support, Prussian Blue sold steadily and four years later it was still selling 200–500 copies per week. Critics praised the album, which contained songs written while in Europe and Festival kept him on their books. He described the title track in Rolling Stone Australia as "the only song I ever contrived" and "came about when I was going through my 'wanna-write-me-a-masterpiece' stage, which everyone goes through". It took, "six weeks getting all the right clever rhymes and all". 1975–77: Girls on the Avenue to Main Street Jive Clapton's commercial breakthrough came with his single, "Girls on the Avenue", issued in January 1975. Although Festival had little faith in the song—initially releasing it as the B-side of "Travelling Down the Castlereagh"—it was picked up by radio and reached No. 4 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart in March. According to Clapton:"Not only did I not feel that 'Girls on the Avenue' was the perfect song, but Festival Records rejected that song six times. They'd say to me, 'What's the chorus, is it "Don't you slip" or "Friday night ..."?' I don't know! Why does a song have to have a hook or a chorus? You either like the song or you don't!" The song was written about his observations of women from and around the Avenue, Rose Bay, although it was seen as a paean to prostitutes by the record label, radio commentators and the prostitutes themselves. According to Clapton, it took half an hour to write. He said the only real money he ever made out of "Girls on the Avenue" was when it became available "on one of those bargain Explosive Hits (compilations) and they sell about 400,000 each time". According to him, in 1976 there were three cover versions of it: one by Mike McGear, another by ex-Fairport Convention member Trevor Lucas and an obscure Greek version. The album Girls on the Avenue, also produced by Batchens, appeared in April 1975. For touring and session work he formed the Richard Clapton