Voice of the Beehive

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 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, while Woodgate stayed for most of the band's main period of activity. The band took their name from the Greek meaning of the name Melissa, meaning honey bee.[1]

Voice of the Beehive
OriginLondon, United Kingdom
GenresAlternative, pop rock
Years active1986 (1986)–1996 (1996)
LabelsFood, London, East West, Discovery
Associated actsMadness, That Petrol Emotion
Websitevoiceofthebeehive.com
Past membersTracey Bryn
Melissa Brooke Belland
Mike Jones
Mark Bedford
Daniel Woodgate
Martin Brett
Brad Nack
Tom Fenner

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 albums Let It Bee and Honey Lingers. Sex & Misery, a third album, was released in 1996;[3] 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 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.

In October 2017, Bryn and Belland reformed with the original line-up to play a pair of concert dates in London, including the '80s/'90s revival show Indie Daze 4.[4][5][6]

Band members
  • Tracey Bryn – guitar and vocals – (born 17 May 1962, Encino, California)
  • Melissa Brooke Belland or "Missy Beehive" – vocals – (born 17 February 1966, Los Angeles, California)
  • Mark Bedford – bass guitar
  • Martin Brett (Brett Martini) – bass guitar
  • Mike Jones – guitar
  • Daniel "Woody" Woodgate – drums

Discography

Studio albums

Compilation albums

Singles
Year Song Peak chart positions Album
UK
[7]		 US Hot 100
[10]		 US Modern Rock
[11]		 AUS
[8]		 IRE
[12]		 NZ
[9]
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" — — — — — —
"—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that country.

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,[14] and No. 214 in Australia.[8]

Notes
  1. Angel Come Down peaked at No. 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 No. 75, Angel Come Down peaked at No. 103.[13]

References
  1. "Stuff (from Number One magazine, 25 April 1987)". Shane Marais. p. 4. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  2. Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 588. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  3. Colin Larkin, ed. (1997). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music (Concise ed.). Virgin Books. p. 1221. ISBN 1-85227-745-9.
  4. "Five In Five with Tracey Belland of Anglo-American Pop Rock Band 'Voice Of The Beehive'". Flickofthefinger.co.uk. 31 August 2017.
  5. "Indie Daze (@IndieDazeTM) | Twitter". twitter.com.
  6. "Voice Of The Beehive (@VOTB_Official) | Twitter". Twitter.com.
  7. "Official Charts > Voice of the Beehive". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
  8. Australian chart peaks:
  9. "charts.org.nz > Voice of the Beehive in New Zealand Charts". Hung Medien. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
  10. "Billboard > Voice of the Beehive Chart History > Hot 100". Billboard. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
  11. "Billboard > Voice of the Beehive Chart History > Alternative Songs". Billboard. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
  12. "The Irish Charts – All there is to know > Search results for 'Voice of the Beehive' (from irishcharts.ie)". Fireball Media, via Imgur.com. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  13. "Chart Log UK". Dipl.-Bibl.(FH) Tobias Zywietz. Archived from the original on 16 October 2015. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  14. "Official Charts > Gimme Shelter (EP)". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
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