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The Count Bishops arrived during the interregnum between Dr
Feelgood and full-blown punk. A rowdy "deep rock" outfit who were
downright magic on a good night and never less than fun even on a
bad one, they combined an Anglophile taste in American music -
they clearly adored Otis Redding and Sam & Dave as well as
Howlin' Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson - with a Yankophile take
on the mid-60s British Invasion, being totally on their backs for the
Kinks and the Beatles as well as the Stones and (utter anathema
for actual Brits) the likes of Savoy Brown. They also managed to be an archetypally British group whose definitive line-up (the one which cut the awesomely brutal "Bishops Live" album in 1978) of two Australians (singer Dave Tice and drummer Paul Babli) an Irishman (bassist Pat McMullen), an American (lead guitarist Johnny Guitar) and a Pole (rhythm guitarist Zenon De Fleur), didn't contain a single Brit. Too much larger-than-life to be pub-rock, too traditional to be punk and too rock'n'roll to be pop, the Bishops managed to fall between more stools than most groups knew existed. If fate has condemmed them to be little more than a footnote in the chronicals of the British rock of the second half of the 70s, this CD demonstrates that sometimes it's more worthwhile to check out the footnotes. The Bishops never quite recovered from Zen's death in 1978. They Soldiered on as a four piece even after Paul Balbi's enforced return to Oz -and his replacement by Charlie Morgan, who went on to play with the likes of Kate Bush and earn serious crust by composing the theme music for The Bill - but the vibe was gone. Rock mythologies glorify both 'survivors' and 'martyrs', but once again The Count Bishops slipped through the cracks. In the words of Ice-T, "I'm outta here like I stole something". In the meantime, here's Johnny Guitar, the only Count Bishop who served time in every line-up of the band, to share his memories of each and every track included herein. Written by Charles Shaar Murray for the Best Of The Count Bishops CD (CDWIKD 150). Reproduced by kind permission of Ace Records. |
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