The 1982 to 1984 period of The Gun Club witnessed a fluctuating line-up with disgruntled band members claiming that Pierce's unpredictable genius personality and excessive drug use made him too difficult to work with. The Las Vegas Story (1984) was the band's third album, seeing the return of original guitarist and great friend Kid Congo Powers, drummer Terry Graham and a new bassist Patricia Morrison formerly of the Bags. Dave Alvin also played lead guitar on two tracks. Pierce's evocative lyrics and remarkable vocals evident throughout, it encompassed tribal beat 'voodoo' rock - "Walking with the Beast" - slide-guitars - "Eternally is Here" - and haunting compositions like "My Dreams", "Bad America" and a cover of "My Man's Gone Now". The cassette tape version of the album also featured an extra track, "Secret Fires", missing from the vinyl L.P. but later available on the C.D. Powers recalls; "The song that didn’t make it on the album, “Secret Fires,” that’s in all the reissues, is an absolutely beautiful folk song. That’s a song that Jeffrey wrote as just an acoustic guitar number, he just played. It was going to be on the record. Just him and a guitar - no band. And then we decided that we should add a lap steel just for atmosphere. So we got a lap steel player to come in because none of us could play lap steel. I think in the end we just couldn’t figure out how to fit it onto the record. I think that’s why it didn’t make it onto the actual original one.." The album is 'dedicated to Debbie Harry (for her love, help, and encouragement)' December 1984 the Gun Club played two UK gigs in London but by January 1985 had broken up, cancelling an upcoming Australian Tour. Morrison and Powers remained in London, forming Fur Bible while Pierce visited Egypt with guitarist and new girlfriend Romi Mori, who he'd met at a London show. Pierce relocated to England with Mori and concentrated on a solo career, playing a London gig Jan 17th as 'Astro-Unicorn Experimental Jazz Ensemble' then recruiting Murray Mitchell, John McKenzie and Andy Anderson to record tracks which became Wildweed, the first of Pierce's albums to feature him playing the majority of guitar parts plus material released later in the year as the "Flamingo" E.P. A different line up which included Romi Mori, Dean Dennis and Nick Sanderson also recorded with Pierce, completing the six track "Flamingo" The EP featured a re-mix of Wildweed's opening track "Love and Desperation" and two cover tracks. Wildweed's evocative monochrome cover shot, of Pierce stood in a windswept barren landscape with shotgun over his shoulder, was actually photographed in the U.K., as Pierce told a Swedish interviewer; 'The picture is definitely not taken in a desert, quite the opposite. It's taken in England, on the south coast, next to The English Channel. But my idea was actually that it should look like Texas. Or Kansas. We just couldn't afford to go there only to take a photograph' With Derek Thompson on guitar, Dean Dennis on bass and drummer Nick Sanderson, Pierce toured Europe as 'The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Quartet' From August 1985 he toured the USA and Canada, with Mori taking over from Thompson. Shows were cancelled, Mori faced sexism and racism, and at the end of the tour the band's profits disappeared with the tour-manager. Undeterred Pierce returned to Europe to play more shows, culminating in the 'Quartet's final gig on 27th December in London. After six months in Japan, Pierce and Mori returned to London in August 1986, with Pierce feeling inspired and keen to start a new chapter of The Gun Club. Kid Congo Powers was by now living in Berlin as guitarist with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds but accepted Pierce's offer, managing to combine working in both bands. 'The Gun Club was different – I kept going back to Jeffrey because the chemistry really worked. It never didn’t work and we didn’t break up because of the lack of chemistry.. We were like brothers' With Mori now on bass, they recorded 1987's Mother Juno, produced by the Cocteau Twin's Robin Guthrie that featured songs such as "Thunderhead" and "Araby" and The Breaking Hands. Pierce later said in relation to the album: "We envisioned an album that sounded like ocean waves."