Origin: Houston, TX, USA
This Houston trio formed in 1968 and was initially known as the United Gas. Original members included Richard Avitts (guitar), Doug Tull (drums) and Leon Rudnicki (vocals, bass). In 1969, Doug Walden (vocals, bass, keyboards) took over for Rudnicki and soon began writing songs for the group. A name change was suggested when they landed a contract with Metromedia to avoid confusion with another band named Pacific Gas And Electric. The name was inspired by St. Christopher since Walden and Avitts liked to write songs of a spiritual nature. They released one self-titled LP in 1970, but before it w…