bryan ferry started working on the material for "avalon" while staying at crumlin lodge on the west coast of ireland. ferry was there with his girlfriend, lucy helmore, who would become his wife in 1983. the album cover artwork featured the same lough (lake) that can be seen from the lodge. phil manzanera has said about the making of the record "by the time you get to "avalon", 90 per cent of it was being written in the studio. that album was a product of completely changing our working methods," adding "for the last three albums, quite frankly, there were a lot more drugs around as well, which was good and bad. it created a lot of paranoia and a lot of spaced-out stuff." bryan ferry said "i've often thought i should do an album where the songs are all bound together in the style of west side story, but it's always seemed like too much bother to work that way. so instead, i have these 10 poems, or short stories, that could, with a bit more work, be fashioned into a novel. avalon is part of the king arthur legend and is a very romantic thing, when king arthur dies, the queens ferry him off to avalon, which is sort of an enchanted island. it's the ultimate romantic fantasy place.”