The release of the John Leckie and Stuart Epps produced album , ‘In the Red’ sees the Blue Bishops live backbone energy complemented by a top production team. John and Stuart, having seen the band many times live, set out to capture that distinctive heartbeat that’s been so successful at gigs and bring it out with a clear band signature in the production, allowing each track its own individuality but with a clearly defined Blue Bishop’s style. This is further underlined by the addition of keyboards on a variety of tracks played by welcome guests Rod Argent of the Zombies and John ‘Rabbit’ Bundrick, of Free – now a long serving member of The Who.

With ten original tracks and three covers delivered with their own special twist, the album marks an important stage in the band’s history. The songwriting covers a broad spectrum from the lighthearted current take on the tough financial times, ‘Credit Card’, to a rocky reflection on the confusing messages of climate change, ‘The Sea will Rise’ and ‘The Black Diamond’, a biographical story of a mining disaster in the North East of England. Underlying all this is a style rooted in rock and rhythm and blues that brings together the influences that come from the musical backgrounds of each individual member as a tight, co-ordinated unit.

The Blue Bishops comprises a bunch of seasoned players who, between them, have worked with household names and global stars galore. They range from Jethro Tull to Joan Armatrading, The Kinks, Thomas Dolby, Blancmange, Bill Wyman, Lene Lovich, Argent, Nina Hagen… The Zombies….and lots more.

This formula means the Blue Bishops music is crafted, exciting, deep-rooted, ballsy and different, with enough early blues and enough late acid rock to turn every gig into an event.

The Line-Up:

• Geoff Grange – Vocals, Harmonica and Guitar
• Simon Burrett – Vocals, Slide and Guitar
• Jim Rodford – Bass guitar, Vocals
• Justin Hildreth – Drums

The History

The 2nd Blue Bishops album DEEP was well thought of, gaining a highly rated 9/10 review from ‘Blues in Britain’ and nominated as one of the best albums of 2002. It featured ex-Wishbone Ash founder and bassist Martin Turner who played with the band for 9 years in all, and who co-produced the album alongside legendary engineer Mark Tucker. Martin Barre from Jethro Tull made a guest appearance too. At this time in the band’s history Bob Sellins, had the lead guitar slot which he occupied for around 10 years. A role that Geoff and Simon now share between them.

An impromptu live album called “Bootleg”, made up of un-mixed tracks recorded “off the desk” in a series of gigs has been a hot favourite with Blue Bishops fans, in the period between ‘deep’ and the release of ‘In the Red.’

The Music

occupies a space in a genre that has a powerful 60s/70s appeal – but with a new take, with original numbers from experienced performers whose energy and freshness gives an encouraging nudge to all those who packed their own gear away years ago and feel they have to listen to old records to get what they want. Or to a younger audience who just want to see the real deal  – a live, no-nonsense straight down the line band with new and interesting songs to listen to.

‘One of the best kept secrets on the scene’ Blues Matters
‘I’ll have to watch my back’ Robert Cray at the Bishopstock festival
‘One of our top 20 albums of the year’ Blues in Britain on the release of the ‘deep’ album

Well, the saga of the long-awaited album continues. The history of closed studios, lost masters, lost overdubs…[outside parties - nothing to do with the amazing production team of Stu Epps and John Leckie]…was worth the wait.

The keyboard parts Rod has put on so far add a dimension that’s absolutely spot on for the new material, not to mention his enthusiasm and that energy that just flies out of his fingers. Thank you Rod. Roll on the next session.

To hear Rod in action on ‘Place in Time’, check out the Album Samples page.

With Jim Rodford’s busy touring commitments with the Zombies, The Blue Bishops are delighted to welcome former Voyager bass player, Chris Hook to the stage for the Cancer Charity gig on 19th July at Seaton Football Club, Seaton, East Devon.

Chris has already played with us on a brief tour through through the Midlands and the North of England and it’s a real pleasure to have him back for this special occasion.

Chris is a musician of some standing [occasional sitting down, and in an emergency, lying flat out] having had a career thats taken him onstage with many celebrated artists from around the world, not least his own band Voyager, produced by the late and sadly missed Gus Dudgeon.

Chris had already worked with Geoff in previous lives, where the common denominator is Stu Epps, who ran The Mill Studios for Gus for many years. When Stu suggested Chris when Jim Rodford was touring in the US and Russ Rodford [our regular 'other' BBs bass player]  was also on the tour, it was an easy decision to invite him along.

This annoyingly well preserved, funny, talented man, like every other roving Bishop, is a delight to play with and we’re impatient to hit the stage with him again. For those of you, like me, who have an unhealthy interest in guitars, Chris can occasionally be seen with a Rickenbacker bass, among several other prized instruments. The distinctive sound of these instruments – a love or hate thing for some people – is made even more distinctive by the way Chris wrenches a sound out of it quite unlike the usual Ricky ‘Boing’. We’ll have to wait and see which bass makes an appearance but I, along with the rest of the Bishops, am sure it will be worth waiting for.

We don’t get to see Chris often enough, so imagine my surprise when I went into Stu Epps studio the other day, to put some lead guitar on a song for Cliff Richard by Mike Reid and Elliot Frisby, when who should be standing there but Chris, bass in hand and full on into the session. That’s when the beer cans got opened…

Nice song though.

So come along if you can. And if any of our fans in the West Country miss us in Seaton, you’ll catch us the following weekend at The Kingfisher in Colyford, East Devon, this time with Russ Rodford

back on bass. It’s that rooftop gig again…watch out for details.

I’m delighted to be able to say that Jim Rodford will be joining us to add his world-class experience and musicianship to the band.

As the former bass player with Argent, the Kinks, the Animals, the Zombies and even Lonnie Donegan, his experience speaks for itself. Not to mention his enthusiasm for the kind of driving music the Bishops have a reputation for delivering.

While we are sad to see Martin go, we wish him loads of luck and understand his need to complete a project that’s been close to his heart for a long time. But at the same time we are delighted to give Jim the warm welcome he deserves and look forward to having another fine bass player driving the music forward.