MILK THE BISHOP

Group that handed in a perfect exercise in pure pop (spanning the sixties to the nineties) in 1994.

The group we're talking about, Milk The Bishop, was in fact more of a solo-project of bass-player and Ghent-based Armand Bourgoignie than a concerted group effort. At the time he had just left the reasonably promising young group "The Laroids", to concentrate on this here thing.

Together with Wouter Van Belle (known for his production work with Gorky, Axelle Red, Dead Man Ray and many others) who was in charge of the production and did most of the keyboards, and with the collaboration of a few guest musicians (the inevitable Wigbert Van Lierde, Geert Goedertier, Lars Van Bambost and Mark Bonne) he recorded the "The People's Popsicle", preceded it with the single "Asshole" (who's being an asshole, who's digging his own hole ... ), and accompanied it with the mildly psychedelic but very radio-friendly singles "Malibu", "Spinning around" and "Golly Golly Gee Whiz".

The reception of the record on the radio and in the press was very good indeed. In Humo it went : "The People's Popsicle is a one-man-band of Armand Bourgoignie, someone with a very strong Beach-Boys complex ... This is a very good record that touches all colors of the rainbow, can still head in a number of directions for performing live, so is begging for an international release. Surely there are enough Crowded House, Hüsker Dü, House of Love and Byrds-fans around to buy Milk The Bishop a career.  Let's see how long it takes before Bourgoignie has a sandpit in his living room, as does his barking mad role-model Brian Wilson".

If it's sign of madness, I wouldn't know, but - after this brilliant start and a number of gigs during the holiday season - the project was dumped.

When Armand Bourgoignie was asked - at the height of the career of his next band Mad Dog Loose - if he is such a flexible musician that he can play in two groups who are that different, he replied : "I love very different stuff. With Milk The Bishop I wanted to bring pure pop, but I've dropped that now. I wanted to relive the excitement of the sixties - in my head a very romantic thing - without realizing that it's the nineties now, and that these times are not asking for pure pop. Rather they are asking for moody - constantly changing in rhythm and color - spanning all known musical styles - anything-goes-rock. Fin de siècle, I guess".

What Armand Bourgoignie is doing nowadays - since Mad Dog Loose also had a career somewhat like a B-52's, dropping a few bombshells and then disappearing from sight - isn't exactly clear to me : these last years he has been signaled as being :
- studio-technician (he did the mixes for Das Pop's debut single)
- musician (In 1995, he was part of the band that backed Lieven Tavernier. More recently, he was spotted on stage with Cabbage, the group of a few ex-Metal Molly-members, but doesn't feature in the credits of  their debut album "The miraculously winking Jezus").
- bartender : Herman Brusselmans, Flemish writer, said in an interview with Vern on his favourite CD's : "It's an exception if I put on a Flemish CD over such a long period, but this one (referring to The People's Popsicle of course) has some terrific singles on it. Something like Malibu, perhaps it isn't art with a capital letter, but it sticks in your head, you can whistle along with it and it makes you feel like dancing. It was hyped on Studio Brussel and all, but I don't think that it sold a rotten penny. I met this Armand fellow, he was working as a bartender in the Caruso, and I was surprised it was a guy like him that had made this music, that hé was able to do that. Somehow it didn't match : him as a person and those songs. You start looking at someone like that with a lot more respect".

The guitar-player of the band on stage (Joost Zweegers, ex-Sideburns) later went on to win the Rock Rally of 1996 with his band Novastar.

Band members:
- Armand Bourgoignie (vocals, guitar, bass)
- Wouter van Belle (keyboards, percussion)

Band members(live):
- Armand Bourgoignie (vocals, bass)
- Joost Zweegers (vocals, guitar)
- Marc Van de Veire (vocals, guitar)
- Wim Avonts (vocals, drums)

Buy CD's of this band at

Albums :
- The People's Popsicle (Double T, 1994)
Singles :
- Asshole (Double T, 1993)
- If we take our chances (Double T, 1993)
- Spinning around (Double T, 1994)
- Malibu (Double T, 1994)
- Golly Golly Gee Whiz (Double T, 1994)

Websites :
- Nothing. Really Nothing. Shame & scandal.

Forum :
- Read the messages/questions about Milk The Bishop
- Add your message, question, cd- or concertreview ... about Milk The Bishop