Formed in 1994 around the songwriting team of ex Revillo Jeremy Thoms (guitar/vocals) and Andy Kelly (lead vocals), the Edinburgh based band New Leaf achieved a remarkable amount in their five year lifespan, despite remaining virtually unknown in their native country.
Completing the lineup with Simon McGlynn (ex Fini Tribe) on drums; John Hall on keyboards; Neil Baldwin (ex Bluebells/TV21) on bass and Andy Walker on guitar/sax, early gigs and demos secured an independent recording contract with Edinburgh label Foundations Recording. This resulted in the local release of their debut album, the country/pop flavoured “On Safari”, in late 1994.
It was well enough received to encourage Foundations label boss and band manager Yoshiro Oyama to approach Sony/Epic Records in his native Japan, with a view to licensing and publishing contracts.
A deal was struck with Sony in June ’95 followed by the Japanese only release of the “Travelling Man” E.P. Press and radio coverage were positive and sales solid. This was followed up by a re-mastered edition of “On Safari”, in November of that year, specifically for the Japanese market. Again, the reaction was fruitful enough for plans to go ahead with a second album, the outcome being the harder edged “Stereophonic”, issued in April 1997, again solely in Japan.
Building on the inroads made by the first album, “Stereophonic” was greeted very favourably, with strong media interest resulting in increasing sales. Capitalising on this, Sony/Epic picked up on the option for a third album, which the band spent the following year working on.
The resulting album, the musically kaleidoscopic “Panorama”, emerged in February 1999. Easily their strongest to date, this was the sound of a band at the peak of it’s powers. And that was where they chose to bow out – at their peak.
But finally, after 14 years, the rest of the world will at last get to enjoy the very best of New Leaf on “Introduction”, a compilation spanning 1994 – 1999 which has been licensed to Stereogram Recordings as part of its Archive Series and is due for release in December 2013.
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