Don Bradshaw-Leather - Distance Between Us

Don Bradshaw-Leather is a mysterious cult artist active on the London scene in the early 1970s, releasing just the one ambitious double LP on his own label in 1972. There has been speculation as to who this guy was. Some saying he looks like Robert John Goddfrey of The Enid, and also because of similarity in the title and some of the music, it was touted that it could have been Adrian Wagner’s prequel to his “Distances Between Us” – both not true. Don Bradshaw-Leather was, in fact, his name, born as just Donald Bradshaw I believe, and (according to Jay who was a regular in the basement of Honest Johns, Rhythm Records in Camden Town) was seen around a lot in the area in the early 1970’s busking and at small gatherings and concerts. He would hock his records around the local stores just to cover his expenses, and never sought any proper distribution. At least two versions exist of this, one with a laminated cover, the other standard matt card. In the late 1970’s it was still possible to find copies of this, in fact, Honest Johns in Goldhawk Road still had new ones in 1979. I and my brother Steve used to buy every copy we could find in Record & Tape Exchange’s various bargain basements in London, copies from as little as 10p, and we had dozens – but we never ever found a good pressing, even ones that were supposedly new! It’s a magical record really, if you can stand the usual record noise (a real annoyance when some parts are so spacious and close to silence), with just 4 tracks, each a slightly different mood, involving drums, percussion, piano, Mellotron, and voice, amongst sundry other things, lots of big reverb, clever layering / multi-tracking. Almost Krautrock in its attitude, it’s wanton abandon, and for the heck of it, experimentation makes it one that peels off the delights layer by layer, drawing the listener into the ritual.