it was at this point the stress of managing the group's affairs, while simultaneously writing half of their material and performing front of stage, began to take a serious toll on stanshall's physical and mental health. nevertheless, he and the others opted to embark upon a second american tour during september. innes said that when the band picked him up at his house to drive to the airport, stanshall answered the door with his head completely shaved, which gave him a startled, almost frightened look. true to bad form, the trip was cut short after roger ruskin spear suffered a personal family tragedy and shockingly no-one from the uk office saw fit to inform him or the others about it until well after the event. an understandably enraged spear immediately abandoned the tour and returned to the uk. initially the band attempted to fulfill the remaining dates without him, but the tour really began to derail after a rancorous press interview where stanshall and innes complained about recent events and the general lack of support and promotion from their record company. their candour only led to the band and liberty records becoming further alienated from each other. when stanshall also began displaying signs of a complete nervous collapse under the strain of his duties as front man and manager, he and the band quickly decided to cut the tour short at great expense to their future ambitions. as a collective, they would never return to america.