singles to date and the resultant favouritism attracted from their label Virgin Records. He attempted to exert more authority in the group, later calling himself "a very benevolent dictator." Guitarist Dave Gregory disagreed, recalling that the band was "pretty tired" and that Partridge "could be a little bit of a bully." Moulding offered: "Virgin wanted a quick follow-up to 'Nigel.' I felt pressured but Andy was champing at the bit to redress the balance and prove that he could write a chart hit, too." To follow "Nigel", the band recorded Partridge's "Wait Till Your Boat Goes Down" with production by Phil Wainman of Bay City Rollers fame. Partridge thought of the song as the band's "Hey Jude" and expected that it would catapult the group's successes. Instead, it was their lowest-selling single to date. Between late 1979 and early 1980, the members spent a significant amount of time on tour, making stops in Japan, Britain, mainland Europe and the United States, while also writing the songs that would form Black Sea. The group played gigs almost six nights a week for two months, an arrangement that Partridge said turned him into a "vegetable" and made him believe he "cracked up in a minor sort of way." During one of their performances, he suffered a brief memory lapse, forgetting XTC's songs as well as his own identity. Meanwhile, he released the side LP Take Away / The Lure of Salvage, Gregory played on Peter Gabriel's Melt, whilst Moulding and Chambers recorded singles under the moniker "the Colonel" with producer Mick Glossop. The band also contributed the song "Take This Town" to the 1980 film Times Square. Production and style As with Drums and Wires, Black Sea was recorded at Virgin's The Town House studio in London with producer Steve Lillywhite and engineer Hugh Padgham. The team were asked to return for the recording of "Take This Town". Partridge remembered seeing "how Steve and Hugh had progressed" after working with Peter Gabriel and developing their signature gated reverb drum sound: "I think they developed a few interesting new techniques and there was a new toughness to our recordings." By comparison, the experience with Wainman proved unsatisfactory. The original intention was for XTC to produce themselves, but Virgin did not allow them to. Partridge described the production as taking "Drums and Wires to the Nth degree ... The drums got boomier and bigger