Opal Butterfly

Later in the year Simon King formed his new band and recruited Milne on Guitar. The remaining lineup were associates of the two and included Allan Love (vocals) Richard Bardey (bass) Tom Doherty (guitar) Regarding the name, Doherty stated "Butterfly by itself was a bit dull, so we thought of something more colorful".[2]

The group began recording demos and received the interest of CBS Records. These included covers of "I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)" and "Wind Up Toys", both tracks by The Electric Prunes.[3] In 1968, the band released their first official recording "Beautiful Beige"/"Speak Up" which was described as a solid piece of harmonial psychedelic pop, but made no impactful gains. The group's most notable recordings came in 1969 with an organ-backed remake of The Who composition "Mary Anne With The Shaky Hand" with the B-side being "My Gration Or?". Despite radio play, the single only gained them local support and the band would revamp its lineup and change labels to Polydor. Most notably, the band acquired Lemmy Kilmister. Kilmister met the band at a shop called The Chelsea Drug Store located in the Kings Rd Chelsea. He started a friendship with King who then asked him to join, and Kilmister would be a member until the group's decision to kick him a few months later.[4] With the new label, the new lineup released a single, "Groupie Girl"/"The Gigging Song". For this final effort, the band returned to its roots as the songs were more blues influenced in nature. However, the single caused a slight uproar when the cover featured a nude woman and radio stations refused to play the single. Throughout 1969 into 1970 the band initiated a tour in Britain for sets of 90 minutes. They appeared in the Derek Ford film, Groupie Girl (1970), as "Sweaty Betty".[5] Lemmy did not contribute to any recordings or the film.[6] One last line-up change was formed but did not change the band's fortunes and they broke up in 1970. Kilmister and King would cooperate once again in Hawkwind.

In the meantime, Milne formed another Opal Butterfly line-up with replacement musicians, namely Ray Owen (vocals) David O'List (guitar), Stan Decker (bass) and Mike Burchett (drums) but this line-up only lasted a short while. Doherty and King formed their own version of Opal Butterfly and were not too pleased of Milne forming his own version, so in 1969 Milne joined the 'New Look Soul Band' who were later to become Fine China.