Although there was a tabla player and percussionist named Sam Gopal in this quartet, the true leader of Sam Gopal was Ian "Lemmy" Willis, aka Lemmy Kilminster, who was in beat and psychedelic bands in the 1960s before joining Hawkwind and Motorhead. Sam Gopal played middling psychedelic rock with Eastern and blues influences, with Willis handling lead vocals, lead guitar, and much of the songwriting. That Eastern influence, such as it was, was most evident in Gopal's tabla, unusual since the group's psychedelia often employed heavy guitar lines. Sam Gopal issued one album, Escalator, in the late 1960s, and would probably be even more forgotten today had Lemmy not gone on to greater fame.
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