John of Gaunt III's rule was becoming unpopular due to high taxation and his affair with Alice Perrers, political opinion closely associated the Duke of Lancaster with the failing government of the 1370s. Furthermore, while King Edward and the Prince of Wales were popular heroes due to their successes on the battlefield, John of Gaunt had not won equivalent military renown that could have bolstered his reputation. Although he fought in the Battle of Nájera (1367), for example, his later military projects proved unsuccessful. When Edward III died in 1377 and John's ten-year-old nephew succeeded as Richard II of England, John's influence strengthened.
This Was Supposed to Be the Future with members of the Part Time Heroes. Joe Pilbeam commissioned the Brighton-based illustrator Alex Young to create an image showing childhood fantasies of what the future might be like. Youngs's design, of the same theme, for the first single "Let It Roll" was voted the third best record cover of 2007 in a poll of 3,000 people carried out by Art Vinyl. "Tracks 1, 3 and 14 feature trumpet by Toby Vane of Part Time Heroes. Track 8 features horns by Toby Laing and Joe Lindsay of Fat Freddy's Drop. Tracks 9 and 13 features horns by Toby Vane and