The five managed to obtain hard-to-get American instruments by working their passage to New York and back by ship; on their return they began gigging regularly as The Hedonists, playing an R’n’B set peppered with some of Brian’s songs. Brian’s first LSD experience, around Xmas 1964, prompted a name change to Raspberry Parade and a change in his songwriting: the songs got weirder. Brian also weirder …

Throughout 1965 the band were performing around London and Essex from a base in the East End. Britain was not yet ready for psychedelia though, and the new songs were not well received. A chance meeting changed their fortunes. Clive Bonneville, a wealthy young Californian, saw the band perform in London and invited them over to San Francisco, where audiences were more open to this new experimental style. Bonneville paid their travel expenses and so Raspberry Parade made the first of many trips to the States, where they played to large and appreciative crowds, but made little money.