Voice of the Beehive

Voice of the Beehive
Origin London, United Kingdom
Genres Alternative, pop rock
Years active 1986 (1986)–1996 (1996)
Labels Food, London, East West, Discovery
Associated acts Madness, That Petrol Emotion
Website voiceofthebeehive.com
Past members Tracey Bryn
Melissa Brooke Belland
Mike Jones
Mark Bedford
Daniel Woodgate
Martin Brett
Brad Nack
Tom Fenner

Voice of the Beehive was an Anglo-American alternative pop rock band formed in London in 1986 by Californian sisters Tracey Bryn and Melissa Brooke Belland, daughters of The Four Preps singer, Bruce Belland. They teamed up with British musicians Mike Jones, Martin Brett, Mark Bedford and Daniel Woodgate, the latter two of which were former members of Madness. Bedford left after making formative contributions to the band and did not feature again, although Woodgate stayed for most of the band's career. The band took their name from the Greek meaning of the name Melissa, meaning bee's honey.[1]

Career

The band had five Top 40 singles from two albums in the UK.[2] Their biggest commercial success came with the singles "I Say Nothing", "Don't Call Me Baby", "Monsters and Angels" and "I Think I Love You", taken from their first two albums, Let It Bee and Honey Lingers. A third album, Sex & Misery, was released in 1996; by this point sisters Tracey and Melissa were the sole group members. The band reformed in 2003 to play a two-week UK tour.

The members of Voice of the Beehive have since gone their separate ways. Tracey Bryn is a teacher in Laguna Beach, California. Melissa Belland runs her own company "Made In Heaven", also in Laguna Beach. Martin Brett runs Brett Dempsey Music Productions in London and joined I, Ludicrous on bass guitar in 2008. In 2011, he released his first solo single "Lover's Lane" under his original punk name Brett Martini. He also trained to become a facial hair specialist for film, theatre, and television in 2010. Daniel "Woody" Woodgate still plays drums, together with Mark Bedford on bass, in Madness. Mike Jones lives in Norwich, England and still plays guitar.

Band members

Discography

Studio albums

Compilation albums

Singles

Year Song Peak chart positions Album
UK
[2][3]		 US Hot 100
[6]		 US Modern Rock
[7]		 AUS
[4]		 IRE
[8]		 NZ
[5]
1987 "Just a City" — — — — — — Let It Bee
"I Say Nothing" 45 — — 73 — —
1988 "I Walk the Earth" 42 — — — — —
"Don't Call Me Baby" 15 — — 48 15 25
"I Say Nothing" (re-issue) 22 — 11 — — —
"I Walk the Earth" (re-issue) 46 — — — — —
"Man in the Moon" 93 — — — — —
1991 "Monsters and Angels" 17 74 8 72 — — Honey Lingers
"I Think I Love You" 25 — — 12 — —
"Perfect Place" 37 — — 31 — —
1995 "Angel Come Down"[upper-alpha 1] 86 — — — — — Sex & Misery
1996 "Scary Kisses" — 77 — — — —
"Heavenly" — — — — — —
"So Hard" — — — — — —

Other appearances

Voice of the Beehive provided harmonies on Bill Drummond's album, The Man (1986).

An early version of "Beat of Love" was featured on the London Records compilation Giant (1987).

Melissa and Tracey contributed a cover of "Three Feet High and Rising" to the Johnny Cash tribute album Til Things Are Brighter (1988).

In 1993, Voice of the Beehive contributed a cover version of "Gimme Shelter" with Jimmy Somerville to an EP released to raise funds for the Putting Our House in Order homeless initiative. The single, which contained different duet versions of the song on each format, peaked at No. 23 in the UK,[10] and No. 214 in Australia.[4]

Notes

  1. ↑ Angel Come Down peaked at #86 in the UK on the top 100 chart with exclusions applied for positions 76-100, removing singles falling out of the previous week's top 75 that reported a 20% or greater decline in sales over two consecutive weeks. On the uncompressed top 200 chart, with no exclusions applied below #75, Angel Come Down peaked at #103.[9]

References

  1. ↑ "Stuff (from Number One magazine, 25 April 1987)". Shane Marais. p. 4. Retrieved 2017-04-26.
  2. 1 2 3 Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 588. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  3. 1 2 3 "Official Charts > Voice of the Beehive". The Official UK Charts Company. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Australian chart peaks:
  5. 1 2 "charts.org.nz > Voice of the Beehive". charts.org.nz Hung Medien. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  6. ↑ "Billboard Artists / Voice of the Beehive: The Hot 100". Billboard. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  7. ↑ "Billboard Artists / Voice of the Beehive: Alternative Songs". Billboard. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  8. ↑ "The Irish Charts – All there is to know > Search results for 'Voice of the Beehive' (from irishcharts.ie)". Imgur.com (original source published by Fireball Media). Retrieved 2015-12-04.
  9. ↑ "Chart Log UK". Dipl.-Bibl.(FH) Tobias Zywietz. Retrieved 2014-01-20.
  10. ↑ "Official Charts > Gimme Shelter (EP)". The Official UK Charts Company. Retrieved 2017-04-29.
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