Lost-In-Tyme: 04 March 2007

A week later, accompanied by diminutive partner, Roger Armstrong, he slunk into a seedy pub in Highbury and was confronted by four mean looking characters playing Chuck Berry riffs as if their lives depended on it. To the right, chewing gum and looking like he would eat your cat was ZENON HIEROWSKY; (later de Fleur) by any other name THE COUNT BISHOPS had arrived. Maniac American Mike Spencer inveigled his way into the operation several weeks later, sacked most of the band, brought JOHNNY GUTTAR over from the States on the promise of a vast record deal (CHISWICK RECORDS I ask you?

) and gave birth to THE (original) COUNT BISHOPS. After one disastrous recording session, where the bass player couldn't even play "Walkin' The Dog", they went into Pathway Studios (8 tracks and no air) in August '75 and in about 7 hours laid down 13 blistering rock and roll tracks from which, in November of that year emerged the first release on CHISWICK, THE COUNT BISHOPS SPEEDBALL E.P.

It didn't exactly set the world on fire, but through the vast Rock On Empire of two market stalls and few sympathetic dealers it managed to shift its initial pressing of 1,000 copies in a surprising short space of time.
Not long after the band drifted away from CHISWICK, for a while to a small Dutch label called Dynamite for which they recorded Taking It Easy/Train Train. CHISWICK picked up the rights for this, flipped it to make Train Train the A side and released it as their fifth single.

In the meantime Mike Spencer had left the band in an incident involving an unfriendly plate glass window. The four piece band that had recorded Train Train allowed an album of what were essentially demos to escape in Holland and went on to lay down backing tracks for what was to become the first 'official' COUNT BISHOPS album.
At this point singer DAVE TICE was drafted by drummer and fellow Australian PAUL BALBI to complete the five piece line up that recorded "THE COUNT BISHOPS" album.

Dave overdubbed his vocals on the already recorded backing tracks and the album came out in July '77. The single Baby Your Wrong/stay Free had already been pulled in April of that year.
During the rest of '77 and the early part of '78 the band gigged extensively building up a strong personal following despite being fairly unfashionable in the face of the punk publicity onslaught.

In the Spring of '78 they recorded some live material at the Roundhouse for a projected live CHISWICK album featuring 6 different CHISWICK acts. Although the projected album never got off the ground THE BISHOPS set was so good that it warranted an album of its own. 'LIVE BISHOPS' was released later that summer in 10"and 12"form with a name abbreviation to simply THE BISHOPS and a further personal change, PAT MCMULLAN replacing original bass player Steve Lewins.

On the back of the album they toured with Motorhead equalling themselves more than adequately in front of the braying heavy metal fanatics with their red hot rock and roll.
In April '78 the Sam Dave classic "I Take What I Want" was unleashed to excellent radio play but slightly disappointing sales. The blistering "I Want Candy" came out in September as the first release through the EMI deal with CHISWICK, and though the sales were encouraging this time and the band made their first Top of The Pops appearance, the lack of radio action could not sustain the record to give it the chart placing it deserved.

And so into '79 with a lot of road work behind them, two critically acclaimed albums (and rightly so) one single that got the play but not the sales and one that got the initial sales but not the play (not to mention one bona fide classic in Train Train).
Three weeks ago the BISHOPS completed the album that they had been working on since early '78. Two days later ZENON DE FLEUR crashed his DB6 into a tree and died in hospital one week later.

Despite the tragic loss, the band decided to continue as doubtless ZEN would have wished. Ironically, this looks like the one to break them.
CROSSCUTS will be out at the beginning of May with MR JONES lifted as the single, and if hard work and commitment still mean anything then this album deserves to make it, for these boys have paid their dues several times over.

The original EP featured just four tracks, including the similarly superlative "Teenage Letter," a performance which sounds like the Flamin' Groovies if they really were on fire. The eleven extras round up a mass of material which never saw release during the band's own lifetime, but packs a similarly psychotic visceral kick.

1. What you want to know (5:59)
2. Down on the floor (2:41)
3.

Hammerhead (3:31)
4. I'm thinking (5:40)
5. Flight (19:39)
- part 1.

As your mind flies by
- part 2. Vacuum
- part 3. New York
- part 4.

Central Park

The Reviews

1
Rare Bird's second album "As Your Mind Flies By" turned out to be their classic release. It's stuffed with a great 70's atmosphere and flawless songwriting. All the 5 tracks on the album are impressivly strong.

"What You Want to Know" and "I'm Thinking" are melodic, organ-driven, early 70's progressive rock at its best. The arrangements have lots of cool, twisted and varied organ-sounds and the vocals are great. The rest of side one is made up of the short, baroque-influenced "Down on the Floor" and the great, heavy-progressive "Hammerhead".

The second side consists of the 20-minute "Flight". This is one of those tracks that will make any fan of 70's progressive rock cry of joy. The first part of it is quite dramatic and classical-influenced, then it goes into a great jamming part with a choir and excellent duels between the organ playing of Graham Field and the twisted el-piano of Dave Kaffinetti.

The two last parts of the track are energetic and heavy with the most perfect organ-sounds you can imagine. With no doubt one of the best progressive rock albums from 1970.

2
Second album for RARE BIRD marking a wonderful contribution to the progressive rock genre.

Without a question fans of organ and keyboard driven prog rock will love the music of RARE BIRD. Their arrangements although centred around the keyboard work of David Kaffinetti offers some great drumming and bass interplay. Steve Gould s melodramatic vocals are a tad bit raw but I think fit the music perfectly and give it a nice degree of grit.

Prog heads will love the side long 20 min long track "Flight" an ambitious four-movement track which surprisingly does not overshadow side 1 which is littered as well with 4 fantastic tracks. For me the sound of RARE BIRD is a scientific cross of URIAH HEEP, T2 and ELP. "As You Mind Flies By" is pretty much a masterpiece and is an essential recording

3

This is a wonderful album that is build around the excellent duo-keyboardwork from Graham Field and David Kaffinetti.

The shorter songs alternates from romantic to bombastic featuring powerful vocals (warm, melancholic, dramatic) and great play on the Hammond organ ("I'm thinking" is the Hammond in its full glory!) , electric piano and harpsichord ("Down on the floor"). The absolute highlight on this album is the 'magnum opus' "Flight" (at about 20 minutes), divided in four pieces.

Part One contains propulsive interplay between drums and organ, Part Two has exciting duo-keyboardwork (swirling organplay), Part Three delivers a psychedelic organ (like early PINK FLOYD) and in Part Four is the focus on slow and sumptuous Hammond organ play (including excerps from RAVEL's "Bolero"), the vocals have a slightly hysterial undetone but fits perfect to the atmosphere.

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Keywords: Rare Bird, Count Bishops, Steve Gould, Mind Flies, Flies By, Mind Flies By, Train Train, Graham Field, As Your, You Want