 The band played its first gig in May 1967 , and had its first major break at the 7th National Jazz and Blues Festival in Windsor on 13 August . Oldham had managed to secure a separate set for the group in a side tent away from also accompanying Arnold on the main stage , where they gained attention . The next week , Welch wrote in the Melody Maker that " it was the first time I had seen a group actually in the act of winning its first following in quite dramatic circumstances . " When Arnold went back to her family in the US shortly afterwards , Oldham offered the group a contract of their own . Hague was not interested in the " progressive " direction the group wanted to go in , so he was replaced by former Mark Leeman Five and Habits drummer Brian Davison . 
