In Search of Amelia Earhart notably Andy Roberts who shared vocals on the album, created an atypical British folk album conceived around the idea of the legends surrounding Amelia Earhart and her supposed demise. Matthews had read a book by Fred Goerner hypothesizing that Earhart and her flying companion Frederick Noonan had crashed around the Japanese held Marshall Island area and been taken prisoner by the Japanese on Saipan, in the Marianas, in 1937. Their plane had supposedly been outfitted with aerial cameras and had a bigger fuel tank than anyone outside of the US government knew. After being grilled by Japanese interrogators Earhart would
Paul Noonan in Juniper and contributed to backing vocals as well. In 1997, the band signed a six-album deal with PolyGram. Their only two singles – "Weatherman" and "World Is Dead" – charted in Ireland when released in 1998. That same year, Rice quit the band just as they were about to begin recording their debut album. With a body of songs already accumulated, Noonan, Geraghty, Phillips and Crosby decided to continue under the name Bell X1, with Noonan taking over lead vocal duties and Paul "Binzer" Brennan coming in on drums. Rice, meanwhile, moved to Tuscany, Italy to write songs for