The Orange Illusion

The Orange Illusion was a pop/rock group formed in 1967 by Michael Des Barres (lead vocals), Nicholas Young (lead/rhythm guitar), Kit Williams (rhythm/bass guitar) and Darryl Read (drums). "Hendrix blasted out Purple Haze from Old Nick's Bar's juke. We all raved on about drumming - and spun the B-side Fifty First Anniversary, which was equally hot. Des Barres lent over to Nick Young and said, "Hey! - we should do a group."
The teenage group was formed while they were all at the Corona Academy Stage School and rehearsed in the school's theatre playing cover songs of the hits of the day such as The Who's Substitute, the Rolling Stones' Paint It Black, The Small Faces' Whatcha Gonna Do About It. Their first show was at the Corona Academy in mid-1967 where some girls mobbed them on stage, and the show was brought to an early halt by Rona Knight, the school's principal. They went on to play youth clubs in west London, and were going to be taken on by the manager of The V.I.P.'s. However, on the brink of this break, Hazel Malone (the schools acting agent) broke the group up in mid-1968 by more or less threatening no more professional acting work if they continued to play. The group were consequently forced to break up.
Michael Des Barres formed Silverhead in 1971, a proto-glam rock outfit and subsequently went on to have a busy acting career playing lead roles in Hollywood. Darryl Read went on to form the protopunk group Crushed Butler and later made two poetry albums with Ray Manzarek and continues to perform music and act. Nicholas Young went on to star in the 1970s' TV series The Tomorrow People and form the talent agency Crawfords Commercial. Kit Williams became a producer at Granada Television.

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