 During Hunter's obscure early years, Hereford's Shakedown Sound, with future Mott members in their ranks, gigged in roughly the same circles but without any record company interest.Hunter played with various other artists throughout the 1960s, including The Young Idea, Billy Fury and David McWilliams.In late 1968 Mickie Most hired Hunter and Dufort to play in a band that was to be called 'The New Yardbirds', a name that Jimmy Page had been using for his post-Yardbirds group before discarding it in favour of 'Led Zeppelin'.