For Malice In Wonderland Nazareth’s eleventh album released in February 1980, Manny Charlton handed over the producer's hot seat to Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter, pedal-steel guitarist/guitarist with the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan.
This turned out to be a controversial move within the band– Manny "I stopped [producing] because I wanted to learn. I'd done five albums and felt that the band was in a sort of rut, and I wanted someone else to produce the album. The record company recommended Jeff Baxter. Another guy who wanted to do it was Bruce Fairburn who went on to do Aerosmith, that was one decision I wish had gone the other way." A lot of Zal Cleminson went into the album with songs like Hearts Grown Cold and Showdown At The Border. Zal was also heavily involved in Talkin' To One Of The Boys, So naturally he was hacked off, when in Britain the album went nowhere, with a bullet. But another far more serious development also caused the guitarist to want to quit, In early 1980 the boys got a devastating piece of news which came totally out of the blue: Mountain was heavily in debt and about to go bust. So for weeks on end, instead of rehearsing, Pete and Dan were on the telephone full-time talking to moneymen and just desperately trying to pick themselves off the floor. Zal just wanted to play – day and night - and couldn't deal with all the financial hassles getting in the way of rehearsals. So he left to form his own band, Tandoori Cassette, which never took off.