Arriving five years after Dragon’s first official break-up in 1979, 1984’s Body and the Beat marked a new era for the band. Though they’d reformed in 1982 with the “classic” line-up intact, they’d done so ostensibly to help pay off outstanding debts. The prospect of recording a seventh record was unplanned, and signalled a dramatic reshuffling of personnel—and creative hierarchy. Second keyboardist Alan Mansfield made the quintet a sextet, with XTC drummer Terry Chambers replacing a burnt-out Kerry Jacobson early on in the recording process. Nurturing a heroin addiction that would claim his life the following year in 1985, Dragon’s keyboardist and chief “hitmaker” Paul Hewson was unable to contribute meaningfully to Body and the Beat. His absence created a creative power vacuum that was filled by bassist Todd Hunter, who assumed the position somewhat by default and had never captained Dragon’s songs. This changing of the guard would prove to be a seismic and effective shift that persists to this day, both for the band and Hunter—who was joined in this daunting new endeavour by his wife, XL Capris singer Johanna Pigott. Together with increased input from lead vocalist Marc Hunter, they’d pen the majority of Body and the Beat—most notably singles “Wilderworld” and “Cry”—as well as produce one of Dragon’s biggest hits and most defining songs: the unsparing emotional inventory of interband drug abuse that is opener “Rain”. Subsequently, Hunter and Pigott would go on to become the minds behind John Farnham’s smash hit “Age of Reason” in 1988.