The Bishops: Anglo-Australian R&B
Nov. 1 1979, Australian Rolling Stone

It seems fair: Australian music has finally become a successful export, so, in exchange why shouldn't we import some of more interesting foreign bands? They get LRB, AC/DC, the Sports, Billy Thorpe, Jo Jo Zep and maybe the Angels, and we get Graham Parker, Elvis Costello, the Stranglers, Kevin Coyne, XTC, Dr. Feelgood and sundry others. And now we get the Bishops. The Bishops are, however, different. They haven't been going quite as long as that other great British R&B outfit, Dr Feelgood, nor have they made as many albums. In fact, up till now, their albums have been available only in the import shops, and what overseas press the've had has not been read by many here. Which all means that very few of us know who the Bishops are.

Although they were put together in late 1975, it was not until 1977 that the Bishops lineup stabilised and they were able to build on the excellent reviews they'd been receiving with the release of The Count Bishops in that year. It was suggested during the sessions that a singer was needed, and drummer Paul Balbi (formerly of the Australian band Buffalo) suggested Buffalo's Dave Tice. Tice explained what happened over a cup of tea on the first scorching hot day of the season - appropriately at Bondi.

"I was very bored with heavy metal, and when Buffalo split in 1977 I looked around here and saw noyhing else I wanted to do, so I moved to London and joined the Bishops. The crossover wasn't very hard, as I used to play R&B in the early days in Brisbane. Joining this band was just the completion of the circle." Within two days of arriving in London, Tice was in the studio laying a vocal over the already recorded tracks. That's what you call adaptability, and it was rewarded with ecstatic reviews in the British music papers, notably by Charles Shaar Murray from New Musical Express. Since that time the Bishops have released The Bishops Live and a series of singles, and 1979 could have been the best year yet for the band had it not been marred by the tragic death in a car accident of their founding guitarist Zenon de Fleur.

The band found a temporary replacement drummer, but rather than enlist a permanent new member they decided to come here, tour, and attempt to negotiate Balbi's return. "The gigs we've played here since we arrived are really rather similar to London," says their American guitarist Johnny Guitar. "The crowds aren't as big and they don't know us, but to talk about the London pub rock scene is wrong. We haven't done a real London pub for years, and neither have bnds like the Feelgoods. We play clubs and larger hotels - just like here."

As Guitar says, their gigs so far haven't been exactly crowded, but when I saw them at their second concert at the Capitol Theatre they were great to watch. Their music fits best into a hot, sweaty and congested atmosphere as they churn out originals and R&B calssics. Their simple but tight lineup (Tice handling vocals, Guitar on guitar, Pat McMullen on bass and Paul Balbi on drums) brings to mind the sound and presentation of bands like Eric Burdon's Animals, the earlier Pretty Things and Rolling Stones, and to an R&B layman, Dr Feelgood. But Guitar is quick to dispel that association - "We personally can't see the similarity. We're both doing the same stuff but we worked out our acts independantly. People were telling us we sounded like them before we'd even heard them." The comparison is no longer drawn being in London. Tice says that there's alsoa definate change of attitude occurring in London towards Australia. "When I first started playing with the Bishops, critics would say the band as great then ask, "Who's this bloody Australian up front?" Now there's an attitude in England that Australia is a nice place to go to. Some of your acts are getting listened to in England and British acts are coming back saying they liked the place." "It's also no longer uncool for an English band to admit that they want to make a bit of money. Everyone seems to be realising that it's a little unrealistic to try and change the world earning next to nothing in England when there's the American market and the Australian market,"Johnny Guitar adds. Like any R&B band the Bishops aren't overly concerned with the future of rock & roll, playing a set which on some nights can consist of as much as 75% unoriginal material, and most of that from the early sixties and before. Tice explains - "We're not simply R&B purists. Although that aspect comes into it, it's not our reason for existing. There are so many great songs - from the black blues players, from the Sixties, and if someone doesn't do them a new generation would grow up not having heard them. It's important to keep it alive because we believe it was the best era in rock & roll." So that's what they do - thrash out their music to London udiences in the paths of their English predecessors of the early Sixties - Ginger Baker, Alexis Korner, Graham Bond and many others. Now they're doing it here. A few audiences ask Tice to sing the old Buffalo song, "Hotel Ladies", but most are appreciating the Bishops for what they are - a shot of good British rhythm and blues.

All night sessions. A Bishop confesses.

Johnny Guitar whose face and name sake you see over there to the right, is the guy on lead with the Bishops. Behind him, if you look closely, you'll see the three friendly familiar letters that spell out Vox. (Vox having paid for this advertisement, quite like to see their name mentioned. This is perfectly understandable. If you were Vox and you were paying, you would, too.) Anyway, the Bishops are just back from seven weeks in sun-soaked Australia so we kicked off by asking about that and then drifted around to various other topics.
(Like Vox amps.) We're the italics by the way. ....Australia was great... there's a whole scene going on down there that nobody knoes about...most people think Australia is just AC/DC and leave it at that...we had a great time...it got a bit dodgy towards the end...the crew quit on us and we got this other guy in who managed to blow up half our equipment...compared to Britain it's all very different...
How did you find recording when you were starting? ...a studio, any studio is fine as long as you have an engineer who's got a bit of sympatico...you want an engineer who listens...there's a guy called Alan Winstanley down at TW who's really good for that...you feel as tho' you're working towards the same end...I hate being rushed in a studio..you know, all that looking at the dor and thinking we've gotta be out of here in another three hours and we haven't even got the rhythm track down right...
Do you use many toys? ...you mean foot pedals and such?...no, that stuff isn't really part of our sound...I think the most important thing is to get the sound you're after and just play...I always record with an AC30 ...I've got an old white one that's really settled down now...a new AC30 needs a couple of months to break in and after that it's fine...I suppose in all I've had about six or seven Vox's - one got nicked in Spain...the others have all gone to good homes...

What was the worst experience you ever had in a recording studio? ...a few years ago we had a bash at this direct to disc bit...the theory of it's fine...you know, no tape stage so you can get all the transients and a really open sound...didn't work out like that tho'...the sound they were getting in the cutting room was totally different to the sound coming off the monitors...and the cutting room was four floors up and there wasn't an intercom...nightmares, nightmares...the best way to record tho' is when you're not rushed...it's funny but if you're not panicking you get everything down really fast...all you need to get a decent track together is enough time and an engineer who's interested enough to do it into the small hours...once you got those you're flying...