LEAFHOUND

Growers of Mushroom (Repertoire) 2005
Originally released in 1971 this dose of 70s rock managed to deftly avoid the mainstream and swiftly became an underground cult legend. No doubt delays in its release till after the band split had something to do with this. The members of the band went their separate ways and were involved with other bands, most notably singer Peter French had a stint with Iguana favourites Atomic Rooster. Over the years though the album developed a mystique, mainly due to its rarity. In 2004 an original vinyl copy went for £2,000, making it one of the most valuable of all the 70s rock albums. In 2005 the album finally saw the light of day on CD, with two bonus tracks from the original band and a special bonus track from a newly reformed band. Yes, that’s right, all the hype and mystique around the band has persuaded French to reform the band and they are gigging again, although the gigs do appear to be at European festivals and other such places where flares are still legal

Anyway, what is the album like? Well, the terms ‘underground’ and ‘cult’ can often be euphemisms for shite; not in this case though. This is first grade psychedelic blues-rock with shades of contemporaries Zeppelin, The Groundhogs, Free and the Pink Fairies. If you are into that sort of thing and think you have heard it all before, relive your youth and check this out because it stands up against the best of anything around at the time. If you have all your old stuff filed neatly in alphabetical order, and you thought your collection was complete, you now need to make a space on your shelf between Laine, Ronnie and Led Zeppelin. Raw rootsy blues without all the pomp and bollocks that the later 70s brought us, if that guy in ‘Life On Mars’ discovers this he wont want to come back to the present!

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