René Bishop - A Perfect Gentleman

The old music material and the newly recorded voice serve the current tape hype in a unique way!

René Bishop, a 71-year-old whose smooth, silky voice took the competition by storm. The senior from Deventer (located in the Overijssel province of the Netherlands) travelled to The Voice Senior auditions hoping to make his lifelong dream come true. For his audition, he chose to sing the 1950s song “Unchained Melody.”

“Unchained Melody” was written for the 1955 prison movie Unchained, where the lead character contemplates escaping prison to live life on the run or finishing his sentence to return home to his wife and family. The song, most notably popularized by The Righteous Brothers, describes a person longing for a lover whom they haven’t seen in a very long time.

When René took the stage in a sleek, pin-stripe suit, his rich voice immediately caught the judges by surprise.

"Pretty talented pensioners on The Voice Senior, but Bishop stood out to us for his beautiful rendition of an Elvis Presley classic". Talent comes in all shapes and sizes and for some people, age is nothing but a number. For a lot of singers, they don’t lose their ability in their later years which is what The Voice Senior wanted to prove. For the judges, hearing René’s stunning vocals reminded them of ‘The King’ himself.

The show starts the same as any other, the judges are facing the opposite direction in the red chairs as the contestant starts to sing. But as soon as René started belting out ‘Unchained Melody’ the whole room erupted into cheers.

We can’t help but think he was truly channelling Elvis in his performance. At 71 years old, his vocals were flawless and his stage presence was a marvel. But when René hit that high note, wow!

Don’t let the age fool you, this man is a powerhouse with some seriously strong vocals. The whole room was applauding and the judges, of course, turned around for René Bishop after his flawless performance.

Label: STS Analog - T6111190

Format: Reel-To-Reel, 15 ips, ¼", 2-Track Stereo, 10.5" NAB Reel, Limited Edition, (CCIR Equalization)
Country: Netherlands
Released: 2019
Genre: Jazz, Blues
Style: Easy Listening

Tracklist:

1 Voy A Pagar La Luz / Contigo Aprendi
2 Island In The Sun
3 Can't Help Falling In Love
4 You Raised Me Up
5 Amor Eterno
6 Love Is All
7 Am I That Easy To Forget
8 And I Love You So
9 Secret Love
10 Unchained Melody
11 She
12 Moonlight Over Georgia
13 When Close My Eyes

The singer René Bishop participated in the Dutch talent show "The Voice Senior 2018" and advanced with millions of clicks on the Internet to the audience favourite. Fritz de With, CEO of the label STS ANALOG was also very taken, searched the internet for the name, found a restaurant run by the singer's son, made contact and thus found the performer. This laid the foundation for this wonderful production.

The great feature is that René Bishop still has his tapes from the 1960s. With them, he once drove to his performances with his tape machine PHILIPS "PRO-12" to playback the instruments and sing along. For the re-release, he brought everything to Amersfoort to the studio of STS ANALOG. All tapes were listened through and the best preserved ones were selected. In the acoustically perfectly suited storage room of the studio, the recordings took place over two days. The vocals were recorded with a NEUMANN microphone at a distance of 30 cm, which gives the voice a very open sound. The old tape material was played back with a NAGRA tape machine and mixed together with the current vocal recordings via a mixing console in one pass and recorded with another NAGRA machine. Using the in-house "MW Coding Process", the music was given the necessary atmosphere during the mixing process.

To get a "teaser" of Rene Bishop's voice and performance, please enter the search term "René Bishop Unchained Melody The Voice Senior 2018" on the Internet. You will then come across the video, which is unique in this form: the 71-year-old gentleman in a highly elegant pinstripe suit delivers a performance that is coherent in all nuances and takes the jury and the audience by storm in the Dutch talent show for senior singers. This pop song, composed in 1955 by Hy Zaret (lyrics) and Alex North (music), has become world famous in the version of the Righteous Brothers and has been interpreted by many other singers, including Elvis Presley, of which this performance is a reminder. The expression, power and dynamics of René's voice are impressive. His age seems to be pulverized. With the Spanish title "Voy a pagar la luz" pure sentimentality comes up. The full orchestral sound makes its valuable contribution. Elvis flair comes up on "Can't Help Falling In Love". The vocals are very soulful, and the guitar is especially well captured in front of the orchestral sound tapestry. Piano and violin are in the foreground on "You Raised Me Up". René Bishop presents his vocal variability. Latin feeling arises with "Amor enterno". This is the only track on this compilation that, in my opinion, doesn't fit this singer that well. It works all the better with "Love Is All", where everything fits very well. "Am I That Easy To Forget" and "And I Love You So" follow standard songs without highlights, but also without flaws. It gets jazzy with "Secret Love"; foot bobbing sets in. The accompanying band can come up with nice brass parts! "Unchained Melody", the song from the contest, is adorably sung and a lesson in the vocal power of the performer. "She" follows a well-performed standard song. With "Island In The Sun" René Bishop manages to put me in the vacation mood. The performance of "When I Close My Eyes" succeeds confidently and with energy, as befits a perfect gentleman.

Although this song material is pop music that belongs to the "easy listening" category, I find the music in this interpretation very impressive, which is mainly due to the expressiveness. However, a couple of tracks are a bit schmaltzy, I would have liked a bit more drive there. There are slight differences in the sound of the recorded music, which is due to the historical tape material.

Package: half track ¼“, stereo, RTM LPR35, 1 metal reel, CCIR, 320 nWb/m, 38 cm/s

Ultra-Master Tape Copy Features:

• 1st Generation Reel to Reel Tape made from the Original Master Tape
• Pure Analogue Recording
• Carefully copied from a Philips EL3501 master recorder to 6 Philips N4522 recorders
• Analogue Tape Copies from original analogue masters
• Each tape copied with CCIR equalization with reference level 320 nWb/m on halftrack 1/4” LPR35 Recording The Masters Tape
• Duration Each Tape: Approx. 30 minutes
• Special-made silver or golden aluminium reel with a cutout STS Logo
• High-class cardboard box features production cover picture labelled to the box
• Box is reminiscent of glorious pre-recorded tapes of the '70s and their 7" boxes
• Quality control certificate included - includes track list & description of the tape copy process
• EQ: 320 nWb
• Half-track format
• Tape Speed: a 15 ips, 1/4 -inch 2-track analogue tape

STS Analog Studio is one of Europe's leading audiophile recording production studios, using the analogue ultra-master tape medium wherever possible for the best analogue sound and dynamics. STS Analog Studio based in Holland, has been used by several leading component manufacturers such as Marantz, to produce CDs of exquisite musical quality. Over the years, they have developed their own unique 'MW Process' to make their recordings sound as good as possible from studio master tape to CD and LP.

The album René Bishop - A Perfect Gentleman was released in August on the Master Tape and CD.