Pete French

Peter French (born 16 October 1948) is a British rock singer-songwriter from London. He was the lead singer for Leaf Hound, and had short tenures in Atomic Rooster and Cactus. French has also worked with Beck, Bogert & Appice (and their drummer Carmine Appice) and Cozy Powell and has performed in bands based in the United Kingdom, United States and Germany.

Career

Early career French began his career in the mid 1960s. His first band was The Max Brown Group. Some of French's influences included Elvis Presley, Dion DiMucci, Eddie Cochran, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones. One of French's first professional bands was a blues band called Joe Poe with his cousin Mick Halls. He sang in clubs around the UK in the mid 1960s with different blues bands including Switch, and Erotic Eel . The original lineup recorded their first and only album, Growers of Mushroom, which was released in October 1971, by which time they had already split up. After the band disbanded, French moved to Birmingham, and joined the band Big Bertha, which included Cozy Powell. Crane and guitarist John Du Cann had specifically chosen French as he admired Leaf Hound's album and like French's vocals.

He sung on five songs on the album, which entered the UK albums chart in the top 20. French felt "a little lost" though after the release as Crane had sacked Du Cann, and drummer Paul Hammond followed with him, so for a short time after joining he was the only other member of the band before Ric Parnell and Steve Bolton were hired. Crane disapproved of this decision and tried to convince French to stay.

The only album French sang on with Cactus was 'Ot 'n' Sweaty, an album he chose the name for and wrote co-wrote five tracks for. Other artists who performed at the concert included Brian May, Spike Edney, Neil Murray, Tony Martin, Mike Casswell, Johnny Marter, Darren Wharton, John Idan, Chris Thompson, Martin Chambers, Bobby Rondinelli, Clayton Moss, Denny Ball, Frank Aiello, Andy Scott, Susie Webb, Zoe Nicholas, Tony Ashton, Chris Farlowe, Russel Gilbrook, Norman Beaker Band and The Bailey Bros. In late 2023, French departed the group. In a 2025 interview, French said that he enjoyed touring Europe with the new Atomic Rooster, but felt that it "was never to be quite the same without Vince (Crane) and John (Du Cann)'s influence, the creativity seemed to have gone". He has a son, Dominic, who is also a musician and who now plays drums with his father in Leaf Hound.

Discography

Albums

Singles YearA-sideB-sideNotes1977"Stand Up!""Work It Out"Randy Pie single"Give Me Your Love""Same Old Questions"Solo single