The Count Bishops was a British rock band formed in 1975 in London and splintered in 1980 following the death of guitarist Zenon DeFleur in March 1979. Though the band had limited commercial success, they forged an important stylistic and chronological link between the root rhythm and blues band Dr. Feelgood and the proto punk sound of Eddie & the Hot Rods; together forming the foundation of the pub-rock scene and influencing the emergence of punk rock. The group made history in England by rel...
The Count Bishops was a British rock band formed in 1975 in London and splintered in 1980 following the death of guitarist Zenon DeFleur in March 1979.
Though the band had limited commercial success, they forged an important stylistic and chronological link between the root rhythm and blues band Dr. Feelgood and the proto punk sound of Eddie & the Hot Rods; together forming the foundation of the pub-rock scene and influencing the emergence of punk rock. The group made history in England by releasing the first record from independent label Chiswick Records.
In 1978, two singles ("I Take What I Want" and "I Want Candy") led the Count Bishops to an appearance on the BBC TV show Top of the Pops.
A few days after the release of their album Cross Cuts, which had been a year and a half in production, Zenon Hierowski crashed his Aston Martin and died on 17 March 1979. Instead of the anticipated "breakthrough", the Bishops were forced to retrench. They toured with Blitz Krieg (of Blast Furnace fame) deputising for Zen, and then Paul Balbi (drums) was deported back to Australia after returning from a Spanish festival. The band carried on with Charlie Morgan (Tom Robinson Band, Elton John) on drums and just Johnny on guitar for some months, including a tour of Australia with Balbi, but Zen's death had taken much of the impetus away and they split up in 1980.
Though overlooked band from 1975-79 in the R'n'B and Pub Rock era, the band supplied Johnny Guitar to Dr. Feelgood and Stevie Lewins to Wilko Johnson's Solid Senders. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
