Joe Boyd called it a disaster, stopped managing them and headed back to the USA and a job with Warner Brothers. The band left Elektra Records and signed with Island, releasing the soundtrack to the Be Glad... and Liquid Acrobat As Regards The Air, regarded by some as their best recent album, but I started to lose interest around this point.
Rose Simpson was replaced by Malcolm LeMaistre in 1971, around the time Heron recorded a well-received solo album, Smiling Men with Bad Reputations, and Licorice was gone a year later, replaced by Edinburgh jazz musician Gerard Dott. Williamson produced his own solo album (Myrrh), and further line-up changes resulted in what was, to all intents and purposes, a fairly standard amplified rock band. Their final albums were disappointing, and Island dropped them in 1974.
At that point disagreements between Williamson and Heron were close to irreconcilable, and they split in October 1974, with Williamson moving increasingly into traditional Celtic styles and storytelling. Heron formed a rock group, Mike Heron's Reputation, later abbreviated to Heron.
From the late nineties and into the early years of this century there were various reunions, with and without Williamson and his wife, Bina.