Honeyz Reunion

It's now 25 years since the Honeyz broke through with "Finally Found". To mark the occasion Heavenli has rejoined the group. The news was announced a couple of weeks ago but it's fair to say it's been pretty low key. I only found out myself at the weekend.

The Honeyz have never really been away since they reunited for The Big Reunion which amazingly was 10 years ago. Heavenli left the group a year or so later but Celena and Mariama have continued as a duo since.

Quite what we can expect from this latest reunion is a bit of a mystery. I watched a video of Celena talking about it at the weekend and one thing of note that she said was her ambition was for the group to go on tour but there was some doubt as to whether or not there would be enough interest.

Back in 2001 when they were dropped from their record label they were more or less on top of my list of who I wanted to see in concert. To this very day I've still not seen them in concert. The reason is that whenever they play it's alongside groups I really don't want to see in concert as part of a bigger event such as a festival or a Butlins Weekender. If there was an actual Honeyz concert I would go.

At the same time I can understand the doubt around whether there would be enough interest in a Honeyz tour. My young self would have said they'd have a huge fanbase if everyone gave their music a chance. In reality at the peak of me listening to the Honeyz I had 4 housemates, one liked them and the other 3 didn't.

Speaking of the housemate who did like them, whenever "Never Let You Down" was playing we'd stop talking during the breakdown to listen and enjoy. I therefore find it a bit of a shame to discover from the Celena video that she doesn't really like that track. It goes to show though that we all have different tastes.

I've not really met any other Honeyz fans as such but from what I see and read on the internet I get the impression I'm more of an anomaly amongst them. Whilst I have a few guilty pleasures, cheesy pop music really isn't my thing. It does however seem like your more likely to find cheesy pop in the record collection of a Honeyz fan than find other R&B records. Hence they play with the groups they play with.

That said, how many British R&B groups from the 90s were as successful as the Honeyz and are currently active? I'm struggling to think of any.

You don't have to be part of any movement to like a particular music group though. One thing I learned from my days as a rave purist was that other ravers generally speaking were just normal people, many of whom had varied music tastes which may have even included the Honeyz.

Time will tell what will come about from this latest reunion. An actual Honeyz concert would be good and I'd like to think they'd sell enough tickets to at least play at one of the smaller venues in London. Whether they'd want to or not is another matter.

Naima was asked to be part of the reunion but declined. Celena said the door is always open but if she doesn't want to do it then fair enough.