OPAL BUTTERFLY

Opal Butterfly was formed in London in late 1967 after the five members quit their 9 to 5 jobs (restaurant manager, engineer, antique dealer) to concentrate full-time on their music making aspirations. The financial banking of a wealthy banker allowed the group to spend the first six months of 1968 doing nothing but rehearsing. Opal Butterfly's first single was released in mid 1968 and was a cover of The Cowsills song "Beautiful Beige". Their psychedelic twist to the song at the height of flower-power failed to generate any real sales or popularity, even though the group toured the British club circuit relentlessly.

Their second single was also a re-make, this time using the established and proven songwriting skills of Pete Townshend. The band decided to cover The Who's "Mary Anne With The Shaky Hand" and released an up-tempo version of the song in early 1969. Although this second release led to a short-period of airplay for the 45, the single faded quickly and did little in terms of sales. A number of personnel changes followed in late '69 (including a guy named Lemmy who joined them for a brief period - the same Lemmy who would go on to Hawkwind and later form Motorhead). 

In early 1970 the group released their final single, a self-penned number titled "Groupie Girl". The song was used in the soundtrack for a movie by the same name released in mid 1970 and featured the band. Opal Butterfly continued touring for the remainder of 1970, but with no record contract, decided to call it a day. 

TINKERBELL’S FAIRYDUST

The name of this late-'60s British band might unwittingly lead some collectors to believe they were another in the hordes of dainty U.K. psychedelic pop groups. However, though a few of their tracks did indeed fall into that category, for the most part they recorded equivalents to American sunshine pop. In fact, they filled out their repertoire with some close, unimaginative covers of late-'60s, lightweight, U.S. harmony pop/rock hits. The group's more psychedelic offerings attract the most interest, although there weren't too many of those to choose from since the band only issued three singles. All of them appeared on Decca in 1967-69, the highlight being the 1968, 45 rpm "Twenty Ten," a nice minor-keyed piece of harmony-laden light psych, with soft wah-wah guitars and foggy organ. The B-side of their first single, "In My Magic Garden," was slightly more middle-of-the-road psychedelia-influenced harmony pop, and not bad

In 1969, a self-titled Tinkerbells Fairydust album was assembled at Decca, and included four of the six songs that had appeared on their singles, as well as nine other tracks. Although this got as far as the test pressing stage, it never did get released. It did get issued on CD in the late 1990s, and though it does include "Twenty Ten" and "In My Magic Garden," the majority of it's a disappointment, emphasizing light harmony pop-psych numbers that make them out to be the British equivalent of American groups such as the Happenings. ~ Richie Unterberger