Late in 1970 Jeff Beck reformed The Jeff Beck Group with vocalist Alex Ligertwood, keyboardist Max Middleton, drummer Cozy Powell and bassist Clive Chaman. During June 1971 Beck signed a record deal with CBS and was looking for a new singer. After hearing Bobby Tench perform with his band Gass, "Upstairs" at Ronnie Scott's club in Soho London,
Beck employed him as vocalist and second guitarist.
Tench was given only a few weeks to write new lyrics and add his vocals to the album Rough and Ready, before mixing resumed on tracks previously recorded in London by Beck and the other band members. The album was finished in July 1971 and they toured Finland, Holland, Switzerland and Germany. Rough and Ready was released in UK on 25 October 1971,
with the US release following during February 1972. A sixteen day promotional tour in USA followed
and the album eventually reached #46 in the album charts.
In January 1972 the band travelled to USA, to join Beck at TMI studios in Memphis, Tennessee. This is where they recorded the album Jeff Beck Group, using Steve Cropper as producer. Jeff Beck Group was released in UK on 9 June 1972. The promotional tour which followed included an appearance on the BBC Radio 1 "In Concert" series, which was recorded on 29 June 1972. During this session they played "Definitely Maybe" which featured Bobby Tench playing guitar, a rare occasion whilst Tench was associated with Beck.
On 24 July 1972 The Jeff Beck Group was officially disbanded and Beck's management put out this statement: "The fusion of musical styles of the various members has been successful, within the terms of individual musicians, but they didn't feel it had led to the creation of a new musical style with the strength they had originally sought".
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