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Opal Butterfly (OB) was born out of
Cardboard Heaven (CH) in 1967, with Simon
King (aged 17) forming OB and asking his old band member Robbie Milne (20,
previously in a local Didcot band with Arthur Brown) to join on lead guitar,
along with Allan Love (20, vocals), Richard Bardey (20, bass) and Tommy Doherty
(20, guitar). Tommy: "The name about when I was looking at a butterfly on my
wall in a case, but Butterfly by itself was a bit dull, so we thought of
something more colourful".
Before signing with CBS, the band did two demo tracks
(covers) at a studio in London, "I had too much to dream
last night" and "Wind up toys". From a music
paper of the time:
In fact, these young men were participating in an
exercise new to the pop world. They were commuting to a rehearsal room to spend
their whole day practising and composing. They have spent a solid six months
doing just this every day. Not once have they made a public appearance. The
aim, I am told, has been to create an original and unusual stage act - "A fresh
musical experience".
Their first official recording was "Beautiful Beige/Speak Up", released in 1968, described
in the press as a "crisp debut" and an "amiable slice of harmony pop
psychedelia". From the beginning, OB were managed by Geoff Hibberd and Bernard
Cochrane, represented by Starlight Artistes and publicity was handled by Brian
Longley.
OB's second single was a cover of the Who's
"Mary Anne with the shaky hand", with the rather
famous "My Gration Or?", clocking in at a whopping 7
minutes, 27 seconds. "Mary Anne..." was described in the press as "opting for a
more energetic and grandiose approach than the Who's own rendition".
OB toured throughout 1969 and 1970, playing around 90
minute sets - typical set list
In 1969, Tommy and Simon got together to pursue other
projects outside of OB, while Robbie alone kept the OB name with replacement
musicians, namely Ray Owen (vocals, also of Moon and Juicy Lucy), Davy O'List
(guitar), XX (bass) and Mike Burchett (drums).
In a bizarre twist, in turned out that Tommy and Simon
were also using the OB name, for their project, and so, after
briefly 'discussing' the issue, Robbie wound up joining The New Look Soul Band
(later to become Fine China, featuring a very
young Michael Barrymore).
With the new OB line-up, briefly including Lemmy (guitar,
also later of Hawkwind and Motorhead, of course) and then Ray Major (guitar),
and Tommy changing to bass, OB recorded a third single, "Groupie Girl/The Gigging Song" on Polydor (cover image) and also appeared in the B movie
"Groupie Girl". (Lemmy had been kicked out of the band before the single and
film, by the way, to be eventually replaced by
Trev Thoms). In addition to drumming
on quite a bit of the music, Simon King appeared as an 'actor' in the film,
although he only had one line to say, here captured for
posterity (4880k) in glorious DVD quality video 8-)
Around 1970, the last incarnation of OB finally split up
and went their separate ways, with Simon going on to Hawkwind of course, after
an introduction from Lemmy.
Footnote: Robbie played with Fine China until they
split in 1971. |
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