A collectable independent label from the early '70s. There have been several Mushroom labels at various times and in various parts of the world, but the one which concerns us was associated with Chalk Farm Studios and was based at 1a Belmont Street, London NW1. According to 'Music Week' of the 3rd of April 1971 it had been launched two days previously with a single by Andreas Thomopoulos, 'So Long Suzanne' b/w 'The Stranger' (50 MR-3); distribution was by the British Independent Record Distributors group at that point. Mushroom went on to offer an eclectic mixture of material; it included Folk and Indian music, sometimes separate and sometimes - as in the LP by Magic Carpet (200 MR-20; 1972) - mixed together. The single 'Funeral' b/w 'Hangin' On An Eyelid' by Rock band Second Hand (50 MR-19; 1972) is sought after, the album 'Death May Be Your Santa Claus' (200 MR-6; 1971) even more so; ditto the Magic Carpet record. Mushroom concentrated on albums and didn't issue many singles; the formats shared a common numerical series, '00', but the singles had a '50 MR' prefix as opposed to the '100 MR', '150 MR', '200 MR' or '300 MR' of the LPs. At least one 'Maxi Special' EP was issued; that had a catalogue number of SMR-12. There don't appear to have been any releases after 1972. The label with the logo at the top (1) appears only to have been used for the Andreas Thomopoulos single, and the plain one (2) for the Nitai Dasgupta single 'O Padmabati' b/w 'Baitha Tano' (50 MR-15; 1971); the third was to become the standard design. All the examples shown above were pressed by Orlake. Distribution was by Lugton / H. R. Taylor / Clyde Factors (all members of BIRD) in 1972. 'MW' of the 24th of June 1972 reported that Chalk Farm was to launch a Reggae / Pop label called 'Toadstool', which would have been a sister-label to Mushroom; the first single was to be by an artist called 'Catina'. Sadly, Toadstool never saw the light of day; it appears to have been subsumed into Cactus (q.v.), Creole's 'Pop music' label, which was licensed to Chalk Farm / Mushroom initially and issued a couple of singles by 'Katina'.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.