Sad Wings of Destiny two weeks in November and December 1975 at Rockfield Studios in Wales with producers Jeffrey Calvert and Gereint "Max West" Hughes, and Chris Tsangarides as co-engineer. Calvert and Hughes were the main members of the pop group Typically Tropical who topped the UK charts in 1975 with "Barbados", Gull's first hit. The band stayed sober during the recording sessions, which lasted from 3:00 pm until 3:00 am. Mixing took a week at Morgan Studios in London. David Howells of Gull records commissioned Patrick Woodroffe to provide the cover art, a piece called "Fallen Angel" depicting a struggling, grounded angel surrounded
UK Independent Singles and Album Breakers Charts 20 hit in the mainstream charts. The new indie charts went live on 29 June 2009; at the time, sales from independent labels contributed towards approximately a fifth of sales of albums and singles in the UK. The new charts were received positively by McNay, who remarked that they would, once again, "be genuinely independent charts which can help measure the success of, and promote independent records". Stewart Green, commercial director of the independent record company Beggars Group also praised the new charts. He stated: "This will provide a fascinating snapshot of those slow-burners that do not achieve instant success