Leaf Hound – Growers Of Mushroom

The review on the Top 25 Most Expensive Items Sold On Discogs in August 2024 article mentions similar sounds to Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin but I am hearing Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs (Sunbury period).

I wish I knew who was responsible for the cover art..? Although it is unrepresentative of the bands hard rock style (this is not a psychedelic record!), never the less it's a really eye catching sleeve and probably goes a long way to creating even more collectors interest in it. I know that David Anstey was responsible for a lot of the Decca and Deram album sleeves from that time. Could it be him..?

Why no statistics here? Never sold before? No one who owns or wants it? Strange!

LOVE THIS 1970 HARD ROCK ALBUM. VERY UNIQUE STYLE THAT IS FOR SURE, REALLY WELL DONE AND CAN NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT WENT WRONG MARKETING THIS GREAT ALBUM, WHAT A SHAME.
I OWN 2003 AKARMA REISSUE AND I CAN NOT FAULT THE QUALITY OF THE AUDIO, IT IS BRILLIANT.

Just some thoughts on this whole discussion:
As I do own the UK & the German original (among some other pressings) I can say the German one is of equal if not slightly better sound quality as the UK one.
For the re-releases: The repertoire LP is the best shot here. If you go by CD it might be the repertoire and the See For Miles one. Forget about the rest.

For the "hype" about this record: I would have been very glad, if I had gotten it in the late 80ties for under 300 UK Pounds. As long as I collect records (1979) it was very hard to see one or even get your hands on one for sure.

So what about the number beeing pressed? I know the interview with Peter French throwing in the number of 2000 as a guess. In the producition process from one stamper (from a mother) you can only get 500 - 1000 LPs at max before degrading. Sometimes up to 2,000 copies were pressed for well-known artists with large editions (to save costs at the expense of quality). I heavily doubt it, that Decca did put out more than 1000 on the market, as the band did no longer exist in Oct 1971. Decca certainly knew that, as a marketing campain was almost non-existent.
I have never heard of other runout stamps, than the ones mentioned above, which underlines the fact that there was only ONE pressing run.
F.y.i.: Decca used the stamper code BUCKINGHAM.
B stands for the first stamper, U for the second, etc.
The letter is at 3 o'clock.
The number for the mother is at 9 o'clock. Here is the 1 for the first mother.
At 6 o'clock the letter D stands for Jack Law as the mastering engineer.
This means for the known pressings, as described above:
First mother on both sides.
Side 1: Second stamper was used (first was obviously not used. This was mostly due to defects or something similar).
Side 2: First stamper was used.
The "unidentified mark" described above is a B (as with other pressings by other artists, it is harder to recognize).

I got my LP very cheap from a guy who bought it around 1972 from a store in UK with a price of 0.95 Pounds, 'cause no one was interested in the output of a non-existing band and press releases of s.c. experts at that time did compare almost everything new with Led Zep. I tend to agree that almost every band had to loose that comparsion at that time. Comparing the two singers today, well it is pretty clear i.m.o. who stands tall and who has to fall.
So, what price should be on the record? That depends on what someone is willing to pay.
From the point of musical quality at that time it was a great record slightly ahead of the time, today it might seem to be a bit outdated, but still a great and very desirable as well highly collectible LP (as is its s.c. predecessor Black Cat Bones).
But for sure one has to hear the music first open minded before one makes a judgement.

Arguably a top shelf early 70s English classic no frills hard rock album. Not prog or psychedelic at all. **However, nonsensical that it has been so over hyped so as to have neophytes from later generations drooling/clamoring over it to the tune of thousands of dollars. When I first saw it in a list in 1986 or so, it cost $75.00 and was fairly reasonable thereafter for many years. While I'm not sure, I saw once that 3 thousand copies were made of the English original, so in that case not ultra rare. Many others are equal to or better than it in sound, performance, and skill and rarer in the number of copies made. Some examples are Andromeda, Fuzzy Duck, Orang-Utan (only released in America), Jerusalem, Tractor, Incredible Hog, Elias Hulk (all of which have more prog and psychedelic aspects); and that doesn't even mention many non-English groups. Gee, Free is better for God's sake. A lot of the hype has to do with what was probably the Decca Art Dept. naming the album "Growers of Mushroom" and the connotations therefrom. The band probably didn't name it that since they'd broken up before it was released in England. The cartoon front cover is sort of interesting and the colors are nice (although nothing much to the back cover), but the German cover has a real picture (and a good one) of the band and a fold open poster which also has a more real likeness of the band. Telefunken is equal to or better in quality to the Decca pressing as well. There is also a Yugoslavian original. That "Freelance Fiend" and "Gowers of Mushroom" are not on the German original (which came out first) is not such a big deal. The most complete edition would be the oddball Discwasher label pressing from '78 in America which has all the English copy's tracks plus a B-side "It's Gonna Get Better" from the German single "Drowned My Llfe in Fear." I saw someone rant that the German original is not a "full album," but the 5 minutes or so less it has by not including "Freelance Fiend" (possibly a single in , which would explain why not on the German copy) and "Growers of Mushroom" (a derivative track of one or more bands I can't quite put my finger on as I write as well as probably the worst track on the album) does not make the German copy less than a full album.

I've also seen at least 4 originals come up for sale in the last year, none of which went for more than a still absurd 8K or so, so the rabid fanatic who paid "11K pounds" or whatever...probably believed the "Q" magazine (whatever that is) hype that this is the "most collectable rock album," etc. Far from it.

All in all still a great hard rock LP, but let's all cool it down a bit and for sure not over hype others, which sort of degrades them all in a certain sense. I see a number of others have similar thoughts...thankfully. Hopefully the market on this will even out in coming years and far more reasonable prices will arise. The German one is fairly pricey now too, by the way. What's next, the Discwasher version goes for 5K!? Get real dudes.

Wonder what the reason for having the OG blocked from sale is?

Edit: Well, I agree with Frayedknot. Would be cool to know the reasoning behind the block.

Blocked from sale, then unblocked, is anyone going to explain why that happened. All previous sales history lost?

I know I’m gonna get some shite. I’m on a hunt for rare releases now. But to me this album is ok, not bad, not the best, just ok. Just listened to all of it. The songs do little to make up for the album. I feel it’s great mainstream old fashion hard rock. But we can all it it’s NOT psychedelic or progressive. And I’ve been through this. I don’t usually grow impatient for a album to be over but this is an exception. It has good riffs, it feels like it goes somewhere at times. The price has nothing to do with how good a record is. Even with This record. 6/10 would just Spotify it. But again this is me. See what y’all think.

my mistake, is they had no idea the u,k, was issued.