Warhorse were a band formed by former Deep Purple bassist Nick Simper. He had left Deep Purple in 1969 and joined Marsha Hunt's backup band. Not long after, Nick Simper replaced her backing band with Ged Peck on guitar and Mac Poole on drums. While this was going on, Simper would play in an extracurricular band along with Ged and Mac, with singer Ashley Holt. When Hunt became pregnant, the band stopped touring and Simper re-organised the group as Warhorse. Holt became the bands singer, and they would bring keyboardist Rick Wakeman onboard, but when the first demo was recorded in April 1970, he was replaced by Frank Wilson.