Anderson acquired Jannis Zographos as his new manager, who also handled Vangelis, and sung on "Suffocation" and "See You Later" for Vangelis's album "See You Later", released in 1980. In 1979 he recorded his first album in collaboration with Vangelis, "Short Stories", which was released in 1980. After he secured a recording deal with Virgin Records, Anderson retreated to southern France to write material for a solo album. His proposals for albums based on the Russian-French artist Marc Chagall and the book "A True Fairy Tale" by Daphne Charters were not enthusiastically received by the label's management, who lost interest and requested their advance back. Anderson spent much of 1980 recording a collection of songs for "Song of Seven" with a group of musicians he named the New Life Band, which Atlantic agreed to release. When it was put out in November, it reached number 38 in the UK and number 143 in the US. Anderson completed his first solo tour with the band, performing a mix of solo and Yes material in Germany and England.