MUSHROOM PLANET

The origins of mid-80's Sydney rockers, Mushroom Planet, began as far back as 1982, which saw the band playing around the local circuit under various names with various members, including Rod Morris (brother of Celibate Rifles' guitarist Dave Morris) on drums and Michael Couvret (The Celibate Rifles, et al) on guitar. Later, Andrew Radford from local band The New Avengers joined on second guitar duty, teaming up with Scott Spillane (guitar/vocals), Peter Trifunovic (bass/vocals), Steve Johns (lead vocals) and Michael Lieberman (drums), and Mushroom Planet were born. With the line-up settled, August 1984 saw the band signed to Hot Records, releasing the EP 'MMM....' to regular airplay.

Mushroom Planet quickly began to forge its identity as a hard-edged, but melodic guitar band, whilst playing support to leading acts of the day, as well as regular headlines and residencies at such popular venues as The Mosman Hotel, The Vulcan and The Southern Cross Hotel (aka; The Strawberry Hill). Behind strong indie chart success, the band and their "twin SG guitar attack", began to develop a large and dedicated following with a solid repertoire of original songs, combined with a selection of covers that drew on the band's influences such as: the 60's & 70's sounds of acts like The Sonics, The Stooges, MC5, The Ramones, Alice Cooper and The Damned, among others.

1984 saw the departure of lead vocalist Steve Johns and the band recruited frontman Ripley Hood, from the just dis-banded Adelaide group, Funhouse. This change significantly hardened the band, as evidenced by the follow-up 'double A-side' single, ''Take me Away / The Chair'', with this release having even bigger indie chart success than their previous EP, even nudging into the more commercial arena, with solid reviews appearing in such 'teeny-bop' magazines as Smash Hits, etc. This release also saw large overseas sales, especially across Europe, where the band had picked up regular radio airplay.

At this point in their existence, Mushroom Planet focused on regular gigging, where the band were able to achieve and define their signature tight, fast and dynamic working-class rock sound. Their blistering live performances could be positively volatile, and such had their aggressive intensity developed, that it wasn't unusual to see performances erupt in to clashes amongst band members, as well as the audience itself! As the popularity of the band grew nationally, they toured regularly up and down the East Coast, taking in Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra (along with stop-offs at Byron Bay, Newcastle, etc), both as an independent act, as well as teaming up with other bands, the likes of The Celibate Rifles, Wet Taxis, Died Pretty and The Eastern Dark. And, of course, the band were part of the now infamous Hot Records Rorty Dog Roadshow, the three week/four band tour, the type of which has not been seen since.

Having laid the platform and seemingly on the brink of widespread success, Mushroom Planet abandoned plans to record a full-length album and follow-up European tour, as they disbanded with some members wishing to pursue alternative career paths. Mushroom Planet broke apart at the peak of their power and popularity, as evidenced by a one-off appearance six months later to a packed-to-capacity top floor show at Sydney's legendary Trade Union Club and the gradual emergence of live tracks on various compilation albums. In 2016 Mushroom Planet recorded a six-track mini album titled 'Get Some' with the lineup of Ripley Hood (vocals), Phil Jacquet (drums), Scott Spillane (guitar), Darren Trew (guitar) and Scott Leighton (bass).

Members

 Andrew Radford (guitar), Scott Spillane (guitar), Peter Trifunovic (bass), Steve Johns (vocals), 

Michael Lieberman (drums), Ripley Hood (vocals), Phil Jacquet (drums), Darren Trew (guitar), Scott Leighton (bass).

SINGLES

''Take Me Away / The Chair'' 1985 Hot 

EPs
'MMM....' 1984 Hot
'The Third Degree' 2019 Planet Records 

ALBUMS
'Get Some' 2016 Planet Records

References

https://www.facebook.com/MushroomPlanet/about/?entry_point=page_nav_about_item