Mike approached in more depth to rock music, forming another short-lived band called Barefeet, with his brother Terry. That led him to work as a bassist in Kevin Ayers & The Whole World. Kevin Ayers was a founding member of Soft Machine, but left the group in 1968. The following year he released the album Joy of a Toy, which led them to tour in 1970.

Among the members of The Whole World was dealing with David Bedford on keyboards. Bedford, a classically trained composer, became good friends with Mike, helping in the composition of an early version of what would be his first solo album. While touring with The Whole World, Mike contacted Centipede, a large jazz orchestra led by Keith Tippett. The wide range of instruments available to influence a multi-instrumentalist Mike in the character that would later give to his own compositions.

Kevin Ayers & The Whole World recorded two albums, Shooting At The Moon and Whatevershebringswesing, before disbanding in August 1971. By then, Mike had gone from being bearish to be the lead guitarist for the band, and his master alone and had given him a remarkable reputation.

Between 1971 and 1973 Mike began to arrange the musical ideas bubbling in his head. Using a four-track recorder he received from Ayers, two tracks in one direction and two in the other, discovered that if the erase head covered with a piece of cardboard he could record on four tracks. This could start recording the ideas needed for his project: to create a symphony, similar to large-scale compositions for orchestra with different moves that could be found in many works of classical music, but using it all instruments nature, especially from the world of pop-rock. Mentioned that the Fifth Symphony of Jean Sibelius deeply influenced him at the time.

Provided with the recorder went into the bedroom of the house he shared with other group members, and ideas for new work slowly began to take shape. It got down to work, Mike decided to play all the instruments himself, and thought that it would not be difficult with his natural gift for music on almost any instrument to master, from the xylophone to the grand piano, classical guitar, the Farfisa organ ... While still working with Kevin Ayers, also helped in the recordings that were made in the famous Abbey Road studios in London, where he had the opportunity to share some conversations with The Beatles. He soon discovered that the study had a warehouse full of all kinds of instruments, some of which belonged to the Fab Four, so I managed to arrive early and, while other users of the study came, he was experimenting with these tools and incorporating new sounds and textures to your project. Absorbed in a job I knew was going to be revolutionary, it was proposed to capture all the deep emotions he was experiencing as an explorer of a virgin field of music. The work was writing would also be a job that gradually became the vehicle to vent their deepest emotions, and that was costing more to live.

After creating an initial model, began to go all record companies trying to convince someone to support his project. The only reply was negative record companies, who argued that this was "not commercial" and that, in some cases edited reached, no one would buy it, obviously, that had happened to put his faith in that little demo worked. Having composed the hypnotic introduction (the melody most emblematic of his early work), remembering that follow: if only I could record, edit and promote it!