Real name: Michael Neal

Effective period / Period of releases: 1976 - 1978

The main engine in the World Peace Band was one Michael Neal, a k a "Rainbow" or sometimes even "Rainbow Starburst". A DJ with KBLA in the late '60s, Rainbow was a slightly younger guy with ambitions to become an actor; he was also an aspiring songwriter and a good (primarily rhythm) guitarist. In the early 1970s he was playing with a local LA band called the Gypsy Kings when he hooked up with Sky Saxon via the Seeds old manager, Lord Tim Hudson. Sky's other cohorts in the WPB fall more into the 1960s hippie veteran camp as you may expect, and includes impressive names such as Elliot Ingber and Mars Bonfire. The exact line-up in the World Peace Band beyond Sky and Rainbow isn't known and probably varied over time.