The Bishops - If You Leave Today

(Muso's Guide, February 9, 2009)

Single review

Wasn’t the 1960s great? Minis and mini skirts, moptops and mods, there was something for everyone.

The teens sashaying down the Kings Road with nothing on their mind but where they were going to get hold of some grass and whether they could bag a Beatle. Simply FAB.

In a unique case study of popular music history, witness The Bishops. Like those unfortunate Japanese soldiers in WW2 who stepped blinking into the light decades later baffled about where the war had gone because they simply never received the order to stop fighting, this London trio sound like they went to ground sometime in 1966… And now here they are - blissfully unaware of the forty-something years which have passed, brothers Mike and Pete Bishop and Chris McConville are channeling The Kinks and hoping to get on Ready, Steady, Go with their latest spinner.

“If You Leave Today” is a handsome single, all tambourine-driven percussion and a guitar solo which would make Bruce Welch proud. It’s tuneful and lovely, and really sounds like Paul Heaton fronting The Hollies with some really lovely chiming guitars. Although there’s an occasional drum beat which sounds like someone kicking a bin.

‘By Your Side’ is more of the same, retro-pop with a jubilant note and plenty of charm to boot. It’s packed with handclaps to make the teens scream and sounds for all the world like a lost Everley Brothers hit, with plenty of added reverb on the vocal and a simple guitar line that would make The Coral blush. Groovy, baby.