Koola Lobitos was the prototype band Fela Kuti set-up before changing the name to Fela Ransome Kuti & Africa 70 in 1970.
Fela was sent to London in 1958 to study medicine but instead decided to study music at the Trinity College Of Music. While there, he formed the band Koola Lobitos, playing a style of music that he would later call Afrobeat. The style was a fusion of American Jazz and Funk, with West-African Highlife music. In 1961, he married his first wife, Remilekun (Remi) Taylor, with whom he would have three children (Femi, Yeni and Sola), and in 1963 Fela moved back to Nigeria, re-formed Koola Lobitos and trained as a radio producer for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. In 1969, Fela took the band to the United States. While there, Fela discovered the black power movement through Sandra Smith (now Isidore) - a partisan of the Black Panther Party - which would heavily influence his music and political views and renamed the band "Nigeria 70".
Fela was sent to London in 1958 to study medicine but instead decided to study music at the Trinity College Of Music. While there, he formed the band Koola Lobitos, playing a style of music that he would later call Afrobeat. The style was a fusion of American Jazz and Funk, with West-African Highlife music. In 1961, he married his first wife, Remilekun (Remi) Taylor, with whom he would have three children (Femi, Yeni and Sola), and in 1963 Fela moved back to Nigeria, re-formed Koola Lobitos and trained as a radio producer for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. In 1969, Fela took the band to the United States. While there, Fela discovered the black power movement through Sandra Smith (now Isidore) - a partisan of the Black Panther Party - which would heavily influence his music and political views and renamed the band "Nigeria 70".