Fat Mattress - Fat Mattress

Artist - Fat Mattress
Album - Fat Mattress
Origin - Folkestone/Dover - Kent, UK
Year - 1969
Label - Polydor
Location of Shrubs - Unknown

Fat Mattress were the band formed by Noel Redding during the end of his time as bassist for the Jimi Hendrix Experience. They only made two albums. Fat Mattress 1 and Fat Mattress 2. This is Fat Mattress 1.

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Peter Tosh - Legalize It

Artist - Peter Tosh
Album - Legalize It
Origin - Kingston, Jamaica
Year - 1976
Label - Virgin (UK) CBS (USA)
Location of Shrubs - Unknown

Peter Tosh's first solo album on leaving The Wailers.

The Incredible String Band - The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter

Band - The Incredible String Band
Album - The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
Origin - Glasgow, UK
Year - 1968
Label - Elektra
Location of Shrubs - Unknown

One for Rowan Williams, outgoing and first hippy Archbishop of Canterbury on the day his successor has been announced. Rowan Williams wrote the liner notes for their biography Be Glad and his favourite The Hedgehog's Song from their 1967 Album (and my favourite of theirs) The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of The Onion was one of his selections when he appeared on Desert Island Discs.

Chas & Dave - Don't Give A Monkeys

Band - Chas & Dave
Album - Don't Give A Monkeys
Origin - London, UK
Year - 1979
Label - Rockney
Location of Shrubs - Unknown

Shame bloody Jim Davidson is in this too

The Lords - Shakin' All Over '70

Band - The Lords
Album - Shakin' All Over '70
Origin - Dusseldorf, Germany
Year - 1970
Label - EMI
Location of Shrubs - Unknown

I don't own this album sadly but spotted it in the racks of the record shop that I briefly worked in a few years back. It's a classic of the genre with well maintained shrubs and those Lords sure have groovy jackets. Here's another photo from the shoot.

Listen to The Lords 1964 - 1971 on Spotify

The Lords on Beat Club in 1966

Thee Headcoatees - Ballad Of The Insolent Pup

Band - Thee Headcoatees
Album - Ballad of the Insolent Pup
Origin - Chatham, Kent, UK
Year - 1994
Label - Damaged Goods
Location of Shrubs - Unknown

Back to Kent on This Is Shrubcore with Thee Headcoatees. The female version of Billy Childish's Thee Headcoats featuring Holly Golightly, Kyra LaRubia, Ludella Black & Bongo Debbie.

Thee Headcoatees - Ballad of the Insolent Pup

Thee Headcoats featuring Thee Headcoatees - Wild Man

Curtis Mayfield - Roots

Artist Curtis Mayfield
Album - Roots
Origin - Chicago, Illinois, USA
Year - 1971
Label - Curtom
Location of Shrubs - Unknown

When I first bought Roots, Curtis Mayfield's second LP about ten years ago I was a little slow to notice these were actual tree roots he was posing with & thought the title just referred to Roots music perhaps. Silly Tim, it's a shrubcore classic.

Keep On Keeping On - Old Grey Whistle Test, 1972

Fairport Convention - Unhalfbricking

Band - Fairport Convention
Album - Unhalfbricking
Origin - London, UK
Year - 1969
Label - Island Records
Location of Shrubs - Arthur Road, Wimbledon, London SW19, UK

Here we join English Folk Rock pioneers Fairport Convention enjoying tea in singer Sandy Denny's parents garden on the cover sleeve for their third album Unhalfbricking which contains what is probably my favourite song of theirs in Who Knows Where The Time Goes. Sandy's parents Neil & Edna greet us at the gate. St. Mary's Church is visible in the background.

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Shrubcore on Super 8 with The Bank Holidays

Here we see Australia's wonderful The Bank Holidays in the promo film for their 2006 single Tread Easy made on Super 8, also features both hills and golf along with plenty of shrubs of course.

Band - The Bank Holidays
Album - As A Film
Origin - Perth, Australia
Year - 2006
Label - Lost & Lonesome
Location of Shrubs - As yet unidentified

The Beatles - Saint Pancras Old Church Gardens, London 1968

Band - The Beatles
Photography - Don McCullin
Origin - Liverpool UK
Year - 1968
Location of Shrubs - St Pancras Old Church, Camden, London, UK

Love - Forever Shrubcore

Ooh Love, one of the greatest bands ever and shrubcore 'til the very end as you can see from these promotional photographs.

Band: Love

Album: It's not one, it's some promotional photographs Tim

Origin: Los Angeles, USA

Label: Elektra mostly

Year: Various 1967 - early 2000's

Location of Shrubs: California, USA

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This song didn't make the cut on Forever Changes and only surfaced a few years ago as a bonus track on a CD reissue but it's wonderful.

Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66

Band - Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66
Album - Herb Alpert Presents
Origin - Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Year - 1966
Label - A&M
Location of Shrubs - Unknown

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Caravan - If I Could Do It All Over Again. I'd Do It All Over You

Band - Caravan
Album - If I Could Do It All Over Again. I'd Do It All Over You
Origin - Canterbury, Kent, UK
Year - 1970
Label - Decca
Location of Shrubs - Holland Park, London, UK
Identified Horticulture - Aesculus Hippocastanum Spotter - Paul Pritchard, University of the West of England

The golden age of Shrubcore is undoubtedly the mid 1960's to the early 1970's and this album by Canterbury Scene legends Caravan is a classic of the genre. Extensive research has identified this delightfully bucolic scene to be shot not in the ancient Blean woods of east Kent as initially expected but a mere stones throw from the Shepherd's Bush roundabout in west London's Holland Park.

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Welcome

One London Saturday in July 2011 I was flicking through my record collection and realised I had a significant amount of records by bands who liked being pictured on their LP sleeves among Shrubs or other delightful types of foliage thus Shrubcore was born. This blog attempts to spread knowledge & awareness of this wonderful & inclusive genre.