Stuart Brooks - Black Cat Bones/Leaf Hound

Stuart and his brother Derek Brooks both played in two incredible bands, Black Cat Bones and Leaf Hound, in the sixties and seventies. Thought very short lived, both outfits left an incredible influence on the heavy underground rock world and would go on to inspire bands for many generations to come. I had the opportunity to speak to Stuart about his time with these bands as well as his brief stay with The Pretty Things in the early seventies. It seems you can’t have a record collection without having at least one of these in your repertoire these days. Enjoy!

I was born Jan 1951, about 30 miles north of London in Hertfordshire. My older brother and a couple of friends decided they wanted to be a band during one summer holiday from school. They needed a fourth member and basically told me I would be it. None of us knew how to play anything so we all learned together, by ear, trial and error. I hadn’t chosen bass, it was chosen for me (being the junior member) but I was happy with that instrument, it’s always suited me, it was just a lucky thing.

S. Brooks on bass during the BCB years

After a couple of years our family moved into the London area, so it was difficult to keep the same band together, although we tried for a while. It wasn’t practical, so my brother Derek and I decided to form a new band, using adverts in the Melody Maker to connect with other players. Our first singer, a fellow called Roger Brearton came up with the name ‘Black Cat Bones’, we all just thought it was a cool name, no one ever had any thoughts about voodoo, black magic etc.

Black Cat Bones

We soon found Paul Kossoff, and Paul Tiller, again through the Melody Maker, and started doing gigs around N. London, all the regular blues clubs, which is where we also got to see a lot of major acts, at places like the Marquee club, 100 Club etc. There wasn’t exactly a pub scene, there were several blues clubs that operated in rooms above or behind pubs, it wasn’t like playing in a bar. I don’t remember how we got involved with Mike Vernon, possibly by playing at his club, the Blue Horizon, which was above a pub in Battersea. He introduced us to Jack Dupree and we did quite a lot of gigs with him, thirty or forty I think, then eventually ended up in the studio for his ‘When You Feel the Feelin you was Feelin’ album.

Barbed Wire Sandwich on Decca/Nova label circa 1970

We did quite a lot of gigs with him, thirty or forty I think, then eventually ended up in the studio for his ‘When You Feel the Feelin you was Feelin’ album

By that time Simon Kirk had been in the band for a while, but this was one of the last things we did before Simon and Kossoff left to form Free. Koss said he’s like to get Paul Rogers into the band (BCB) but I didn’t know him, hadn’t heard him sing as far as I remember, so I told Paul that we already had a singer, why change. He wanted to work with Rogers, so did Simon, so we agreed to part company, it was quite amicable.

Leaf Hound Circa 1969-1971

The drummer who replaced Simon was good, but not Simon, so that was a loss, but Rod Price was a great player and frankly a little more to my taste than Kossoff had been. We were all quite excited to start our album in the same studio that the Mayall ‘Beano’ album had been done in. As it turned out we just weren’t getting the results we wanted though, and moved to Tangerine Studios, which was better equipped. The recording was a pretty happy affair, but the album didn’t do well. The people at Decca had promised to release the album in the states and support a U.S. tour, which was customary at the time. Some U.S. dates had been set, but for whatever reason Decca kept delaying the U.S. release and the tour never materialized. I think that was the main reason BCB came to an end, we had some momentum but the moment and the opportunity passed.

Things started to improve a bit with the addition of Pete Ross to the band, a truly great singer. We were due to leave on a trip to Norway and Germany when Pete announced that he couldn’t go. We had less than a week to find a replacement, which we did, and a fairly sad version of the band went to Norway. We later decided to change the name of the band as we were moving farther away from blues, more rock. The singer suggested the new name, we recorded an album (in seven hours) and the singer decided to find a new bass player so Derek and myself were out. Black Cat Bones was our band, this wasn’t the Bones.

Decca kept delaying the U.S. release and the tour never materialized. I think that was the main reason BCB came to an end, we had some momentum but the moment and the opportunity passed

Stuart (center) with The Pretty Things Circa 1972

A year or two before we had auditioned guitar players for BCB and hired Pete Tolson, a brilliant player. Before we got to the first gig he was offered the guitar spot with the Pretty Things, who could blame him for leaving. So that too was an amicable split, and we stayed in touch, doing some jams on the side from time to time. Shortly after the demise of Black Cat Bones Pete called me and asked if I’d like to try out for the Pretty Things, who were looking for a new bass player, I did, and joined the band and had a spectacular time for the next two or three years.

Dakota Brown