In 1966, two of the bandmembers in the Sons of Fred joined an underground psychedelic rock band called Sam Gopal’s Dream. Sam Gopal is from Malaysia and plays the tabla, a type of drum that often accompanies the sitar in Indian music. Bandmembers initially were Sam Gopal (tabla), Mick Hutchinson (guitar), and Pete Sears (bass guitar); a little later, Andy Clark was added on organ.
Sam Gopal’s Dream performed at The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream, the benefit concert mentioned earlier for the International Times underground newspaper, and also at the UFO Club. To date, the recordings made by Sam Gopal’s Dream for Screen Gems Records in 1967 remain unreleased.
Sam Gopal formed a new line-up known simply as Sam Gopal that included as vocalist and guitarist Ian Willis, better known as Lemmy; this reorganized band released one album, Escalator in 1968. Lemmy later played bass guitar for Hawkwind and, in 1975, founded the pounding British heavy metal band called Motörhead.
(March 2014/2)
