The Wild Angels rock 'n' roll band was formed in the summer of 1967. The original members were Mal Gray (vocals), Mitch Mitchell (bass), John Hawkins (lead guitar), Bob O'Connor (drums) and John Huggett (keyboards). Mitch had met Mal and Bob some two years earlier when he placed an ad in "Melody Maker" for "Musicians wanted - Rockers only", but although a group called the Rockin' Gold Stars had come out of this, they never did any gigs. Originally, Mal had wanted to use the name "Wings Of Leather" for the band (from the lyric of Eric Burdon's "San Francisco Nights"), but Mitch noticed that the film "Wild Angels" starring Peter Fonda had just been banned in the UK by censors and thought that the band would get extra publicity from this. Five years later, "Melody Maker" ran an article on group names and reckoned that The Wild Angels was one of the best ever, as it really told you what sort of music they played. The band's first gig was at The Nightingale Café in Biggin Hill in Kent. This café was the haunt of rockers and Hell's Angels plus several old Teddy Boys. The gig stormed it and the band became residents. A feature was the bank holiday 'run' when bikers from all over would gather at the 'Gale prior to riding to a coastal town (usually Margate or Folkestone) to seek a punch-up with the local Mods after having first rocked their socks off to the Angels' beat! It was around this time that John Huggett left to do other things and he was replaced by Pete Addison on rhythm <b>...</b>
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