They signed a contract with management agency Lynton Maitland, who arranged an album deal with Decca and one day of studio recording time.

[5] According to French, late in the recording session they realised that they had run out of songs and time was limited, so he and Halls composed "With a Minute to Go" on the spot.

[5] The album was first released in Germany by Decca's licensee Telefunken in 1970 as the self-titled Leaf Hound, comprising just seven tracks, omitting "Freelance Fiend" and "Growers of Mushroom".

They also released a single of "Drowned My Life in Fear" with a B-side of "It's Gonna Get Better", a non-album song recorded earlier, with Madeline Bell as backing singer.

The band (with Thomas, not the Brooks brothers) did a short tour of Germany and on return to the UK were told by their agency that the album was no longer going to be released there.

[4][5] Nearly a year later, in October 1971, Decca did release Growers of Mushroom, but with the group already disbanded and not able to promote it, there was little interest from record buyers.