Legendary Rocker PETE FRENCH Teams With Ripple Music To Release New LEAF HOUND Album Live In Japan

July 11, 2013, 10 years ago

hot flashes news leaf hound pete french

Late 60s/early 70s classic rock band LEAF HOUND is legendary. And now the band's equally legendary frontman, PETE FRENCH, and the rest of Leaf Hound, has joined forces with Ripple Music to release an LP, CD, DVD project of all newly recorded live material, Live In Japan. Recorded live in July of 2012 in Tokyo, Live In Japan will see worldwide release later this year via Ripple Music.

Few bands from the proto-metal period command the undying respect and nods of approval as does Leaf Hound. Talk about a pedigree. Leaf Hound formed in 1969 under their original name, BLACK CAT BONES. Early incarnations of the Black Cat Bones featured guitarist Paul Kossoff and drummer Simon Kirke who both left to form FREE. Black Cat Bones issued one album then replaced their vocalist with perfect-wailer Pete French, guitarist Rod Price departed soon after to join FOGHAT and French added his cousin Mick Halls on guitar. With that change, Leaf Hound was born.

In 1970, Leaf Hound released the seminal album Growers of Mushrooms, which has rightly been hailed as a bonafide classic of 70's British underground rock scene. Original Decca vinyl copies on are one of the most rare collectable rock albums out there with prices soaring above £4,000!

After the band broke up, Pete French found himself in high demand. He has been the voice of ATOMIC ROOSTER, CACTUS and RANDY PIE as well as releasing an acclaimed solo album on Polydor, Ducks In Flight, which featured the likes of Micky Moody, Brian Robertson and Kenny Jones. But the legend of Leaf Hound wouldn't die. Interest in the band took a seismic shift when the album was first re-released on CD in 1994, finally giving rock fans easy access to the buried treasure. It gained a second re-release in 2005. The music is a prime slice of classic 70's hard rock - a heady mix of CREAM, THE WHO, Free, BLACK SABBATH and LED ZEPPELIN.

Following intense public demand, Pete French put a new version of Leaf Hound together in the spring of 2004, and in 2007 Leaf Hound released their first new album in decades, Unleashed, on the R.A.R.E/Repertoire label to highly positive critical acclaim. To launch the release of the album, they headlined the second night of the All Hallows Festival at London's Camden Underworld.

Now, the next chapter in the myth that is Leaf Hound unfolds as the band has joined the stalwart heavy rocking label, Ripple Music to unleash an all new set of killer live Leaf Hound onto the unsuspecting public. Soon to be released on LP, CD and DVD formats, Ripple Music will bring to a whole new audience the legend that is Leaf Hound.

Leaf Hound is:

Pete French - Vocals

Luke Rayner - Guitar

Peter Herbert - Bass

Jimmy Rowland - Drums



Featured Video

KELEVRA - "The Distance"

KELEVRA - "The Distance"

Latest Reviews