Perth County Conspiracy (Does Not Exist)

Rumour…Mushroomusic …What School Bus Tour

Canada , Private Pressing, 1973

Label: Rumour Records

Catalogue #: Rumour II

Format: 12” 33 rpm LP

Pressing: Mono

Country: Canada

Year: 1973

Comments: West Coast Canadian private press folk psych LP. This is the very rare white label, plain cover variation of what was later issued as the “What School Bus Tour” LP (see my other auctions for this variation).

You are unlikely to see a finer copy than this one, complete with its original inserts.

Check out my other auctions for other rare Perth County Conspiracy records, including their other very rare private label release (as featured in the Hans Pokora guide). Also, see photos and details below.

Condition:
Cover: Ex
Inserts: Ex.
Disc: Ex.

The psych reference guide Dreams Fantasies & Nightmares mistakenly credits this Perth County Conspiracy LP as their 1969 first, whereas it actually dates from 1973 which places it after their other fine LPs recorded for a major label (Columbia). It also refers to it as being titled Mushroom Music, whereas actually it ended up being titled What School Bus Tour. The Borderline crew have, of course, done a magnificent and very comprehensive job with their psych research and writing in the series of books that is well known for the classic Fuzz Acid and Flowers. However, with very rare, privately pressed records such as this one, it is not surprising that complete and correct information on the records is sometimes hard to come by.

Although numbered Rumour II, this is actually the first chronologically of 2 remarkable privately pressed Perth County Conspiracy LPs which, whether intentionally or not, provided very vague information as to their name, label or contributors. They were probably both released at the same time in 1975 since the catalogue number on this one is Rumour II and gets promoted on the press release for the Cabin Fever LP (see my other auctions).

There is no mention on the record itself of Perth County Conspiracy and, since it was released in a plain white card cover, unless you were lucky enough to find that the very rare inserts were still enclosed you could easily be forgiven for continuing to be misled as to its identity!

Basically what we have here is a very rare Canadian folk psych record in excellent condition complete with its original 2 inserts, one a colour drawing with poetry on the reverse, the other standard printed text. Bob Burchill had joined the collective by this point and actually appears to have become the main conspirator.

A very fine and currently undiscovered gem. Great shape and very rare. See photo below.