as 1969 began, it seemed that american success was on the horizon for the bonzos. in april stratton-smith secured them the support slot on a high-profile tour of the u.s. with the who, and some appearances at the fillmore east with the kinks as well as a string of club dates. gerry bron's misgivings were revealed to be well-founded however when stratton-smith proved to be out of his depth, and the bonzos' first american sojourn was so badly-organised and promoted that the promised 'tour' ended up amounting to little more than the fillmore appearances and a few scattered low-profile club dates, with much twiddling of thumbs in between. the bonzos' act had been well received by the few audiences who witnessed it, but it was far from the triumphant adventure they had expected. upon their return to the uk in may they parted company with stratton-smith, and it was now that stanshall made the ultimately disastrous decision to take on the day-to-day management of the band himself.