Shotgun Express was a short-lived British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 R&B band formed in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in May 1966. Although it achieved little success at the time, it is notable for having briefly included such subsequently famous musicians as Rod Stewart

Rod Stewart

Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....

, Mick Fleetwood

Mick Fleetwood

Michael John Kells "Mick" Fleetwood is a British musician and actor best known for his role as the drummer and namesake of the blues/rock and roll band Fleetwood Mac. His surname, combined with that of John McVie, was the inspiration for the name of the originally Peter Green-led Fleetwood Mac...

 and Peter Green

Peter Green (musician)

Peter Green is a British blues-rock guitarist and the founder of the band Fleetwood Mac...

.

The band emerged when Peter Bardens

Peter Bardens

Peter Bardens was a keyboardist and a founding member of the British progressive rock group Camel. He played organ, piano, synthesizers and mellotron and wrote songs with Andrew Latimer...

' instrumental

Instrumental

An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....

 group, Peter B's Looners, which included Bardens on keyboards, Peter Green on guitar, Dave Ambrose on bass and Mick Fleetwood on drums, decided to change styles and add vocalists. They were joined by singers Rod Stewart - previously of Steampacket

Steampacket

The Steampacket was a British blues band of the 1960s, notable mainly for the fact that so many of its members already were, or subsequently became, famous as individual musicians. It was, arguably, the UK's first "supergroup".-History:...

 - and Beryl Marsden

Beryl Marsden

Beryl Marsden is a British R&B and pop singer, who first came to notice on the Liverpool club scene of the early 1960s. She recorded a number of "powerful and soulful", but unsuccessful, records, and has been described as "undeservedly neglected".-Life and career:She was born Beryl Hogg in the...

 - who had been the leading female singer on the Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

 club scene - and took the name Shotgun Express.

The band played London clubs, and focused on performing soul

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

 classics such as "Knock On Wood

Knock on Wood (song)

"Knock on Wood" is a hit 1966 song written by Eddie Floyd and Steve Cropper and originally performed by Eddie Floyd. The Eddie Floyd version peaked at number twenty-eight on the Hot 100, and spent one week at number one on the soul singles....

", "In The Midnight Hour

In the Midnight Hour

"In the Midnight Hour" is a song originally performed by Wilson Pickett in 1965 and released on the 1966 album The Exciting Wilson Pickett. It was composed by Pickett and Steve Cropper at the historic Lorraine Motel in Memphis where Martin Luther King, Jr. would later be murdered in April 1968...

", and "Hold On, I'm Comin'". Green left the band in late 1966 to join John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, and was replaced by, first, John Mooreshead and then Phil Sawyer

Phil Sawyer

Philip 'Phil' Sawyer is an English musician who was a member of the Spencer Davis Group in the 1960s and later recorded under the alias Beautiful World.-Biography:...

. The group released their first single, "I Could Feel The Whole World Turn Round" (Columbia

Columbia Graphophone Company

The Columbia Graphophone Company was one of the earliest gramophone companies in the United Kingdom. Under EMI, as Columbia Records, it became a very successful label in the 1950s and 1960s...

 DB 8025), in October 1966, but it was regarded as over-orchestrated by the band's followers and was not successful. Stewart then left to join the Jeff Beck Group at the start of 1967. The group released a second single, "Funny Neither Could I", again with little success.

Shotgun Express split up in early 1967. Fleetwood joined Green in John Mayall

John Mayall

John Mayall, OBE is an English blues singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, whose musical career spans over fifty years...

's band before founding Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...

. Marsden joined The She Trinity

The She Trinity

The She Trinity was a Canadian/British pop group of the 1960s, an all-girl group who played their instruments, quite unusual at the time. The original members, Robyn Yorke, Shelley Gillespie and Sue Kirby, were Canadians who came to England around 1965. They were joined by Pauline Moran on bass and...

, Ambrose joined Brian Auger

Brian Auger

Brian Auger is a jazz and rock keyboardist, who has specialized in playing the Hammond organ.A jazz pianist, bandleader, session musician and Hammond B3 player, Auger has played or toured with artists such as Rod Stewart, Tony Williams, Jimi Hendrix, Sonny Boy Williamson, Led Zeppelin, Eric Burdon...

, Sawyer joined Spencer Davis

Spencer Davis

Spencer David Nelson Davis is a British musician and multi-instrumentalist, and the founder of the 1960s rock band, the Spencer Davis Group.-Early life:...

, and Bardens later formed prog-rock band Camel

Camel (band)

Camel are an English progressive rock band formed in 1971. An important group in the Canterbury scene, they have been releasing studio and live recordings steadily, with considerable success, since their formation.-1970s:...

.