SHAKESPEARE AND THE BIBLE
are a bunch of Hamburg musicians of varying hairstyles, genders and philosophical beliefs, based around the Welsh singer-songwriter Owen Jones (who first arrived in Hamburg 20 years ago, playing drums for The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy, and, noticing that the pubs stayed open much longer than in his native country, immediately decided to stay for ever).

In addition to Owen’s vocals and rhythm guitar, the band features the powerhouse drumming of Adrian van de Velde and the silken tones of chanteuse/bassist Kristina Rauen, plus keyboarder and harmonica dervish Oliver Hasse and our very own "architect of the arpeggio" Christian Schütze on various guitar-type instruments.

Shakespeare And The Bible’s repertoire reflects the wide variety of their musical influences, ranging from sensitive folk ballads to angry protest chants, from indie-rock anthems to joyful punk romps. What they all have in common are good, strong tunes and thoughtful lyrics.

NEW ALBUM : »International Departures«

With the exceptions of new versions of Into The Night and Don't Let Me Keep You - both of which were first recorded by the original Shakespeare And The Bible band in the mid 90s but never released (although the latter did appear on a limited edition Jazz Butcher cd in 2000) - all the songs have been written since the release of Plus Or Minus Zero in 2009. This gives the album more thematic cohesion than the previous one, which was basically a collection of tracks writtten over a period of 20 years - although the variety of musical styles remains as ever in our work... fuck pigeon-holes.

We're not getting any younger, and with age, inevitably, comes loss, which is a theme in several of the new songs. Trust Me, I'm A Barman is for our dear departed friend Michael - but it's no dirge, rather a celebratory romp with a touch of The Pogues about it. read on...