Sir Richard Bishop at the Knitting Factory
Hollywood, California
June 5, 2005
As one third of genre-ignoring aural juggernaut the Sun City Girls, six-string-slinger Sir Richard Bishop has, for the flesh-eating lion’s share of three decades, permanently stained the unsuspecting underpants of the musical world. In fact, the SCG were downright notorious for stirring up the pot, the public and their sonic soup with such disparate elements as rock, free improv, country, experimental, spoken word, folk, performance art and dozens of other styles and anti-styles known, unknown and never to be considered. After forcing a wearily counted number of platters and tours upon anyone who was hearty–and smarty–enough to accept them, the trio called it a day when their tubster, Charles Gocher, checked out of this mortal hotel on February 19, 2007.
Now, as his brother Alan Bishop (who used to play bass and sing in SCG) runs the Sublime Frequencies international music label, Rick continues to tirelessly circle the Earth solo on the gypsy trail in a seemingly never-ending tour to showcase his advanced guitar-handling skills. Aye, and what talent this knight do possess! One of his main mentors, Django Reinhardt, would be proud. At the Knitting Factory, Rick effortlessly produced a patchwork quilt chock-full of African, Indian and Middle Eastern influences, and topped it off with a shiny Sun City Girls nugget or two. If I do say so myself, there’s gold in them thar fingers!
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