Ann Bishop's management agency seems to have been responsible for at least a couple of records. The first was a 1972 EP by Ken Grey, 'A Night At The Caledonian Suite', which had a matrix number of VH-SP-001 and was manufactured by British Homophone (1), while the second was an EP by pianist Monté Simpson, recorded live at the opening night of his 1978 season in the Carlton Hotel, Great Yarmouth (2). I would guess that the latter EP was made available to the public either later that year or during the 1979 season, though according to a handwritten note my copy was bought at the Carlton in July 1980. Its catalogue number was ABM-1, and pressing was done by RCA. There's no company identification on the labels of either record but the Rex Grey had a production credit to A.B. Management and 'The Stage' magazine for the 15th of June 1978 said Grey was a client of the Ann Bishop agency, so that lets us know what the 'A.B.' stood for. The letters of the prefix of the Simpson EP correspond with those of Ann Bishop Management, and according to the sleeve that was the company responsible for for co-ordinating the release. At least one other client of the agency made a record, an album called 'Howard Beaumont Plays The Hammond M-100', but it came out on a mainstream label, Joy (JOYS-256; 1973).
Copyright 2014 Robert Lyons.