Honeybus (pop / UK)

Biography:

Honeybus were a 1960s pop group formed in April 1967, in London. They were best known for their 1968 UK Top 10 hit single, "I Can't Let Maggie Go".


The best known line-up consisted of:


Pete Dello (born Peter Blumsom, 1942, Oxford, Oxfordshire) -  vocals, keyboards, guitar
Ray Cane (born Raymond Byart, 1945, Hackney, East London) - vocals, bass, keyboards
Colin Hare (born Colin Nicholas Nicol, 4 June 1946, Combe, near Bath, Somerset) - rhythm guitar, vocals
Pete Kircher (born Peter Derek Kircher, 21 January 1945, Folkestone, Kent) - drums, vocals
Jim Kelly (born James Kelly, 19 December 1946, Dundee, Scotland - died 26 December 1995, Dundee, Scotland) - lead guitar, vocals

(Lloyd Courtenay (born 20 December 1944, Wallasey, Cheshire) - drums (only recording for "Story" album) )



Material was written mainly by the band's main resident composers, Dello and Cane, although Hare and Kircher also contributed songs. The group's supporters and critics, amongst them Kenny Everett, compared the band's sound to that of the Rubber Soul era of Beatles. Honeybus, however, never achieved the commercial success of many other artists of their time, only once in their history connecting with the public for a major hit with 1968's "I Can't Let Maggie Go", which was so popular that it earned the band a cover photo on the popular music magazine, "Disc and Music Echo", for which they posed atop a red London bus.

"I Can't Let Maggie Go" reached Number 8 in the UK Singles Chart, staying in the Top 40 for over two months, but any chance of future success was shattered when Dello resigned during the single's chart run. He had been willing to play live on radio and television appearances or a special concert showcase, but abhorred the live scene and the idea of touring America, which he had done earlier in the 1960s. Deprived of their key songwriter and performer, the band drafted in Jim Kelly to replace Dello on guitar and vocals, whilst Cane, whose talents and instincts were a close match for Dello's, took over most of the songwriting and a large share of the lead vocals.

This lineup scored a minor success with "She Sold Blackpool Rock" and a follow-up single to "Maggie", "Girl Of Independent Means", but the group never really recovered. Kircher was next to leave the band, in the summer of 1969, and went on tour with Engelbert Humperdinck. He was replaced by drummer Lloyd Courtney for the remainder of the sessions for their debut album, but Honeybus eventually disbanded late in 1969. Their music is arguably best evaluated by listening to the posthumous 1970 album Story, which, without an active band to promote it, sank without a trace.

Dello, Hare and Kelly all went on to record critically-acclaimed solo material in the early 1970s, which failed to achieve any significant commercial success, however the principal players Dello, Hare, Kelly and Kircher all worked extensively on each other's solo material, causing, in effect, a Honeybus reunion in all but name. The Dello line-up of the band reunited in 1971 to record a new body of songs for the Bell Records label and a complete LP, "Recital", for British Warner Bros. Records. A change in management at Warner Brothers meant that Recital was never issued commercially, although some promotional copies were issued to music industry insiders and are now highly collectable. The hit song "I Can't Let Maggie Go" enjoyed an unexpected reprise in popularity in the 1970s when it was used as the soundtrack for a television advertisement for "Nimble" slimmer's bread.

Since their heyday, Honeybus have found themselves pigeonholed as one-hit wonders. Ex-member Pete Dello stated in an interview for Dutch TV's "Single Luck" (NPS for Nederland 2, 2003) that he believes this tag does not fairly represent the rich legacy of material left behind by the band, and that surely having one hit was better than none at all.

Post Honeybus

Eventually, everybody except Kircher and Hare gave up music as a profession.
The Dello penned song "(Do I Figure) In Your Life", has been covered by the likes of Dave Berry, Joe Cocker, Ian Matthews, Dave Stewart, Paul Carrack and Dana. Dello now owns several motor car showrooms across Britain.
Kircher's drumming career saw him joining several bands, among them Compass with Billy Bremner, Roger Rettig and Brian Hodgson, Shanghai, John Scott Cree, Liverpool Express, The Original Mirrors, and most notably Status Quo. He retired from the music business after Status Quo's appearance at Live Aid.
Kelly released a solo single in 1969 entitled "Mary Mary", written by Ray Cane. The B-side which was also written by Cane was entitled "Rev. Richard Bailey". The single was released on Deram, but failed to chart. Kelly joined the Sleaz Band in the 1970s and they released a single entitled "All I Want Is You" on the Fontana label. An album was also recorded, but never released by the record company. He died on Boxing Day in 1995, after a long illness.
Surviving members of Honeybus were briefly reunited for a Dutch TV show in 2003.


Colin Hare and Honeybus

After a number of years of musical inactivity, guitarist Colin Hare resurfaced in 2002 with new solo material. He now runs an official Honeybus website, where he announced in October 2007 that he is planning to go on the road with a completely new Honeybus line-up. Their debut EP, "Down From Pitswood", features two original and long-forgotten Honeybus songs which the band had recorded for radio sessions in the late 1960s, re-recorded by Hare with the new line-up.

Source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeybus