Sam Gopal – Grass

Sam Gopal (also called Sam Gopal’s Dream) is an underground British Psychedelic rock band.

The band is named after its founder, Sam Gopal, born in Malaysia. From the age of seven, he played tabla, a northern Indian percussion that replaced drums in the band.

On 28 April 1967, the band performed at The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream, a UK Underground event organised by the International Times at Alexandra Palace. The line-up was Sam Gopal on Tabla, Mick Hutchinson on guitar, and Pete Sears on bass guitar and organ. Other performing bands included Pink Floyd, The Pretty Things, Savoy Brown, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Soft Machine, and The Move. Sam Gopal Dream played at the UFO Club, The Electric Garden in Covent Garden (later to become Middle Earth), The Roundhouse, and Happening 44. They later played the Christmas on Earth Show at Olympia in London with Traffic, Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd. Jimi Hendrix later sat in with the original Sam Gopal Dream at London’s Speakeasy Club.

After the original band broke up in 1968, Sam formed a new line-up which included vocalist, Lemmy. He was a singer-guitarist with Sam Gopal, before becoming the bassist of Hawkwind and, in 1975, the founder, singer and bassist of Motörhead.

Sam Gopal’s album Escalator was recorded in 1968.