The monthly poker game at Crypt Studios is legendary among North
London musicians. Over the last few years, a car, three watches, five
guitars, a couple of vintage keyboards and a wife have been won and
lost on the turn of a card, along with some serious cash. But in the
extraordinary April game of 2008, everybody won.

Late into the marathon session, Crypt owner/engineer Matt Sime was
sitting pretty with a full house (jacks over fives) when he was raised
£300 by Feeder guitarist Dean Tidey. Producer Rick Barber, jingle
writer Remy Felix Vaz, composer Nick Croft and session musician Luke
Brighty all folded, but songwriter Billy Mowbray called. Cashless,
Matt offered to match Dean and Billy’s bets with a day’s free
recording time in the studio. The tension was unbearable. Cigars were
chomped, chips were dipped and Matt downed a quart of the hard stuff.
No one could quite believe it when Dean and Billy both revealed
identical straight flushes (in spades and hearts) to share the unusual
pot.

Cashing in on their prize, Dean and Billy invited the other players to
join them at the recording session to produce some tracks. The
results were so good that they decided to do something with them and
thus Bleach was born, an unfeasibly talented and experienced collective
of some of London’s finest composers,
engineers, producers and card players.