Merryweather was getting bored playing Cockburn's folk rock songs and longed to do a heavier form of rock. He left The Flying Circus in March 1968, and reunited with former Tripp members Ed Roth and Jimmy Livingston to form a new band. Adding ex-Fraser Loveman Group guitarist Dave Burt and drummer Gary Hall, the new group, initially dubbed 'New King Boiler' named after the iron furnace in His grandmother's basement where they rehearsed. Gary Hall drank so much coffee that he was soon being called "Coffee" by Neil's grandmother (the name stuck, though he chose to spell it "Coffi"). The band got three demos together with the help of an engineer friend at Arc recording studio. Friend Bruce Palmer (former bassist for The Mynah Birds and now playing in LA with Buffalo Springfield) was in Toronto and sold the band on going to LA the way that he and Neil Young had done the years before, they decided to pile into a car and just drive to "La La Land".