Sam Gopal

Sam Gopal (born December 4, 1944 in Ipoh , Malaysia ) is a Malaysian tabla player who was involved in the development of British psychedelic rock in the 1960s with his bands "Sam Gopal Dream" and "Sam Gopal" .

biography

Born in Malaysia, Sam Gopal started playing tabla at the age of seven. In 1962 he came to London as a music student . In the mid-1960s he founded the band "Sam Gopal Dream", with Mick Huntchinson on guitar and Pete Sears on bass. Keyboard player Andy Clark joined them later . Despite some recordings, the group soon broke up.

Gopal put together a new band called "Sam Gopal". The members were Gopal Lemmy (guitar and vocals; later founder of Motörhead ), Roger D'Elia (guitar) and Phil Duke (bass). They released the album Escalator and the single Horse , but broke up after only a year.

A second version of the group "Sam Gopal", put together in 1969, consisted of Alan Mark (vocals), Mox Gowland (harmonica, flutes), Micky Finn Waller (guitar) and Freddie Gandy (bass) in addition to Gopal. The group later called itself "Cosmosis". Although they got a successful manager in Peter Grant ( The Yardbirds , Led Zeppelin ), the big breakthrough did not materialize. A serious car accident in the early 1970s made Sam Gopal slow down for a long time.

After a stay in Paris and recordings with Didier Malherbe and Patrice Lemoine, Gopal went to Nepal for several years . In 1988 he came to Berlin , where he founded the band "Sangit". Among other things, they made the music for the documentary series "The Great Moghuls" (1990). With Andy Clark, Gopal recorded the albums Soap Opera (1990) and Not For Sale (1991).

In the 1990s, Sam Gopal turned to 12-tone music . In 1999 the album Father Mucker was released .

Web links

• Website of Sam Gopal (English)
• Sam Gopal at Allmusic (English)
• Sam Gopal at Discogs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Allmusic, see web links
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Sam Gopal's vita on his website, see web links