Susie Honeyman

Susie Honeyman
Born	(1960-01-31) 31 January 1960
Origin	Scottish
Genres	Post-punk, Alternative rock, Sound sculpture, Soundtrack
Occupation(s)	Musician, curator
Instruments	Violin
Labels	A&M Records, Bloodshot Records, Some Bizzare, Quarterstick Records, Fire Records, Grey Gallery Records
Associated acts	Mekons, Echo City, Little Sparta

Susie Honeyman (born Glasgow 31 January 1960) is a violin player best known for her work with the Mekons.^[1] She is co-founder of the Grey Gallery.

Biography

Honeyman studied Music at the University of Edinburgh and moved to London in 1982. She is married to painter Jock McFadyen, with whom she has two children (Annie b.1993 and George b.1995)

Apart from her long involvement with the Mekons^[2]^[3] (she joined the band in October 1983) she has played live and recorded with many musicians,^[4] including The Fire Engines, Rip Rig + Panic, The Higsons (as the Susie Honeyman String Sensation), Mari Wilson (as a Melting Moment), Hermine and accordion player Ian Hill. Honeyman played with Vivian Stanshall^[5] from 1983 until his untimely death in 1995. She has also worked with double bassist Julia Doyle and drummer Dave Fowler and the Senegalese singer Nuru Kane.^[6]

From 1983 until 1992 Honeyman worked with Echo City, the sonic playground builders and performers, building the UK's first sonic playground in an adventure playground in Bethnal Green, making instruments, playing as a band and running music projects worldwide with children and adults with special needs, working in such varied locations as the Singapore Arts Festival, Glasgow Garden Festival, festivals in Canada and the Southbank Centre in London.

For many years she has collaborated with composer Giles Perring. In 2004 Susie and Giles Perring wrote 'Marsh Music' a piece incorporating tape loops of traffic from the A13 which formed part of a major mixed exhibition by the Architecture Foundation in collaboration with Jock McFadyen, Helena Ben Zenou, Iain Sinclair and Chris Petit.^[7] In 2005 the Wapping Project joined the Jerwood Foundation and Jazz on 3 (BBC) to commission a piece of music from Honeyman and Perring to accompany the disturbing monumental photographs of Annabel Elgar.

In 2005 Honeyman and her husband Jock McFadyen founded the Grey Gallery, a nomadic entity working with artists, musicians and writers on a project by project basis. Grey Gallery projects include an award-winning survey show of the sculptor Richard Wilson^[8]^[9] for the Edinburgh Art Festival 2008 and a solo show by the artist Bob and Roberta Smith 'This Artist is Deeply Dangerous'^[10] in 2009.

Aside from the Mekons, Honeyman is a member of Little Sparta,^[11] a 3 piece band based in London. Little Sparta has performed their own score live to Lotte Reiniger's 1926 film 'The Adventures of Prince Achmed' at the Edinburgh Festival, and written music to accompany Allan Pollock-Morris's photographic exhibition 'Close: A Journey in Scotland’^[12] which toured the Chicago Botanic Garden and the United States Botanic Garden in Washington in 2011 and opens at the New York Botanical Garden in 2012.