Forest were an English psychedelic folk trio who formed in Grimsby, Lincolnshire in 1966. Made up of brothers Martin Welham, Adrian Welham and school friend Dez Allenby, they started out performing unaccompanied traditional folk music in a similar vein to contemporaries The Watersons and The Young Tradition. The band were pioneers of the nascent 1960s psychedelic folk scene writing unconventionally crafted songs evoking Britain's ancient groves using a variety of acoustic instruments. Beginning life under the name The Foresters of Walesby, they began singing unaccompanied vocal harmony folk songs in Lincolnshire folk clubs. After relocating to Birmingham in 1968 the band shortened their name to Forest and soon progressed to writing within the burgeoning psychedelic folk movement in the wake of the Incredible String Band's emergence in the mid-1960s. They were championed by DJ John Peel and performed several sessions for BBC Radio 1. In 1969 they were signed by Blackhill Enterprises and were amongst the first wave of signings for EMI's new progressive Harvest Records label. The non-album single "Searching for Shadows" was released in 1969, followed by Forest's debut eponymous album which featured an array of acoustic medieval sounding instruments, contrapunctal harmonies and pastoral lyrical imagery. Full Circle was released a year later, an eclectic set of songs with darker themes that saw more disparate styles incoporated into their brand of pagan folk. The album included the neo-classical 'Graveyard', opening track 'Hawk The Hawker' which was given a country music hint by the inclusion of steel guitar (played by session musician Gordon Huntley) and the traditional folk piece 'Famine Song', which saw the band return to their unaccompanied three-part harmony roots. Both gatefold album covers featured strikingly haunting artwork by artist Joan Melville. Disbanded in 1972. 01 - Hawk The Hawker 02 - Bluebell Dance 03 - The Midnight Hanging Of A Runaway Serf 04 - To Julie 05 - Gypsy Girl & Rambleaway 06 - Do Not Walk In The Rain 07 - Much Ado About Nothing 08 - Graveyard 09 - Famine Song 10 - Autumn Childhood LINK RS or LINK FS
