User blog:LordTBT/News:Redwall Collectors Community: Spaced Out: The Story Of Mushroom Records



At the beginning of the summer, Grapefruit Records released Spaced Out: The Story Of Mushroom Records, a two-disc CD collection featuring a wide selection of contributions from various musicians on the UK Mushroom Records label, something that had a bit of a cult following in the 1970s. It was known for signing artists with folk, jazz and Indian genres.

The Liverpool Fishermen, Brian Jacques' folk band, was one of Mushroom Records' artists, and indeed they received a track on the album.

Track 16 of Disc One, "The Ould Triangle," is a 1:46 song that features no instruments, and is sung acapella.

In fact, you can hear it on Spotify here.

However, the best part of "Spaced Out" is the accompanying booklet. It features 19 pages containing the history of the entire label, including how it got started, as well as much of the original artwork and advertising used.

Alas, references to The Liverpool Fishermen are fairly sparse.

On page 10, there's an old advertisement for Swallow the Anchor, with an original price of £1.50.

And on page 17, The Mushroom Folk Sampler LP cover artwork appears. Also on this page is the only textual 'mention', which refers to the aforementioned LP as containing "various artists" that are "well worthy of investigation."

We reached out to Grapefruit Records in an attempt to learn more, but unfortunately didn't hear back.

"Spaced Out" is something for the collector who values rarities in music - these are musicians not particularly popular or well-known.

I hope there's even more Mushroom Records material in the Grapefruit Records archives that's waiting to be released.

Below, please find the booklet for your reading pleasure.