I Want Candy — Photo: Carl Raw on Unsplash

May 5, 2022

Indie Garage With The Count Bishops

Three versions of the same song first by The Strangeloves, The Count Bishops and finally Bow Wow Wow....

Sixties Style With The Strangeloves

The song 'I Want Candy' was originally recorded way back in 1965 by The Strangeloves, a band created by a New York based song writing team.

They were:

Jerry Goldstein
Richard Gottehrer
Bob Feldman

Strangely in the day they pretended to be brothers from a Sheep Farm in Australia, evidently their British Accents weren't much cop! I can only guess that the British and Australian 'invasions' of music to the States back in the day meant it was more 'trendy' than being from America?

Gottehrer went on to co-found Sire Records and Goldstein produced Sly & the Family Stone and War.

The Count Bishops Proto Punk Legends

The next version is by the proto-punk/pub rock/garage rock band The Bishops aka The Count Bishops released on the Chiswick Record Label in 1978. The band's first E.P. release 'Speedball' was in fact the very first release for Chiswick Records! The label itself releasing for artists such as The Damned, Motörhead, Sniff 'n' the Tears and The Radiators From Space.

The band were formed in 1975 and by 1980 had split shortly after guitarist and driving force behind the band Zenon De Fleur passed away. The band probably didn't receive the recognition they deserved, they were a link between the pub rock/r&b sound and early punk drawing similarities between Essex bands Dr. Feelgood and Eddie & The Hotrods. Both bands are featured on this site at the links.

The Band Were

Vocals - Dave Tice
Guitar - Johnny Guitar
Guitar - Zenon de Fleur
Bass - Pat McMullen
Drums - Paul Balbi

The original vocalist for the band was Mike Spenser who was to leave shortly after the release of their Single 'Takin' It Easy', he was to go on to form garage rock band The Cannibals and set up a record label himself called 'Hit Records'. Catch the Cannibals with their track 'Good Guys' released in 1977 on the amusingly entitled Independent 'Big Cock Records Label'. Dave Tice (originally in Australian Heavy Rock Band called 'Buffalo' along with Paul Balbi), then stepped into the vocalist role, catch their track from 1972 called 'Suzie Sunshine', the vocal style and riffing kind of remind me a little of Black Sabbath, anyway they pre-dated other Aussie Rockers AC/DC and Rose Tattoo.

The Count Bishops were heavily influenced by 60's beat and garage bands such as The Rolling Stones, The Standells and The Strangeloves covering 'I Want Candy' as well as 'Dirty Water' and 'Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White' by The Standells. Check out Speedball released on Chiswick Records in 1975 at Discogs for the track listing, they also did a mean version of 'Route 66'! Anyway, catch their version of 'I Want Candy' at the youtube link.

C-30, C-60, C-90 Go!

The same song 'I Want Candy' was resurrected in 1982 by Bow Wow Wow reaching #9 in the 1982 UK Charts for them. I remember this band well at the time they featured in the U.K. Charts with tracks such as 'Go Wild In the Country'. The toured with some of the big acts of the day such as The Pretenders and The Police.

The band were formed by Malcolm McLaren who persuaded Dave Barbe, Matthew Ashman and Leigh Gorman to leave Adam Ant and to form a new band under his management. He lobbed in at the time a 13 year old English-Burmese singer Annabella Lwin (real name Myant Myant Aye). In the early days and somewhat surprisingly the band had two singers, the second being George Alan O'Dowd (aka Boy George) who would leave to form Culture Club.