Honeyz - Butterflies

Few would argue that the Honeyz were the biggest UK female R&B group from 1998-2000 and Mis-Teeq were the biggest from 2001-2003. 

Both groups are reunited but the difference I struggle to get my head round is that Mis-Teeq are playing at Wembley Arena for £100+ a ticket whereas the Honeyz played at a pub in Clapham a couple of weeks ago which was free to enter before 9pm.

In 1998 I was a teenager with my whole life ahead of me and music aspirations of my own. Now I'm a 40 something who never fulfilled those ambitions, a lot more skeptical and hate all things modern. The Honeyz themselves are only a few years older than me and whilst they did make it in music they've spent the last 25 years knowing they're unlikely to be able to make a living from being the Honeyz anymore.

When I listen to the Honeyz it takes me back to a time when I was young and optimistic and the world seemed a much better place. This is the sort of reason why lots of groups reunite, the see the demand from fans to be taken back.

Then they do something there's often no demand for, they release new music. When I heard that the Honeyz had a new song I can't say I was excited. Neither were too many people by the looks of things. It was released this week and currently has 73 views on YouTube, 3 of which are me and 2 are a friend who I told about it. To put that into perspective, the last post I made on this little blog got more views

The silver lining is this was written 20 years ago, probably longer than that because it was from when Naima was still around but it's the current line up who recorded the vocals for this recently. On that basis it could be said this is a sign of what was to come had they still been around for the 3rd album in the early 00s.

The guitar intro almost sounds like it could be a Queen song but this all changes once we get to the singing. It's an odd combination but it's a catchy number, I could still hum the chorus after a first listen. 

The jury was out after a first listen but it sounded better after a second one. Then the third listen just before writing this post has got me thinking this is actually quite good. 

Why the lack of interest particularly given the hype about the Mis-Teeq reunion?

I would say lack of awareness of it's existence is the main factor. Another is the question of who exactly are the Honeyz in terms of members? 

The line ups have changed a lot and the only constant member is Celena. In terms of the current line up we have Heavenli who left before the 3rd single and first returned when their popularity was in decline. Then there's Candace who was never in the group in their heyday. 

Then again should that matter? when the much hyped Oasis reunion was announced all we knew was the Gallagher brothers were returning, nobody knew or probably even cared who else was joining them. 

Would the return of Naima be the difference between playing pubs in Clapham and playing arenas? I can't see it myself but then again I didn't thing Mis-Teeq had a hope in hell of selling enough tickets for Wembley Arena so you never know. 

Why Honeyz?

A few months ago I wrote this post about why I became an Alisha's Attic fan. I went off them in the end and moved onto the Honeyz who were the 2nd all female music act I owned any music from, after Alisha's Attic.

A bit like Alisha's Attic I was late to the party with the Honeyz. I remember them from the start but never bought their album until 2001. Around the same time I was getting more into R&B and watching "The Lick" with Trevor Nelson on MTV Base which no doubt helped.

I would listen to their album a lot but still considered them just another music act I like and listen to. I was still very much an Alisha's Attic fan even if I knew at the back of my mind that I was going off them.

In August 2001 the inevitable happened. Alisha's Attic's long awaited 3rd album was released and flopped and they were immediately dropped from their record label.

Around the same time though the Honeyz were back with new single "I Don't Know" which had been doing the rounds on the music channels. I've since learned group member Celena doesn't like that record but I think it's great. 

It was probably me going into the record shop to buy both CDs of the "I Don't Know" single that made the statement that I was now a Honeyz fan rather than an Alisha's Attic one.

Unfortunately the single flopped and it was rumoured they were too on the verge of getting dropped. Seemed half my luck as I'd only just become a fan, but it turned out to be true and the next single never got released, nor did the album. 

By the end of the year it seemed time to move onto someone else to follow. I bought 2 albums by female artists at the same time, the self titled Aaliyah album and "Whoa Nelly" by Nelly Furtado. Aaliyah was sadly no longer with us by this point so Nelly Furtado seemed the logical choice.

However it felt like I was forcing the issue this time. As much as I liked them album I didn't like it as much as I liked the Honeyz.

The 3rd all female act for me to own music by was En Vogue but they'd been around some time so didn't seem a logical choice.

The 4th all female act for me to own music by however almost seemed a perfect choice on paper. The act in question was Mis-Teeq. They broke through that same year and their album was just a few weeks old when I bought it. They were an R&B group who also did garage music, a genre I love. Why did I not move onto them?

Well as I look at the tracklist the only tracks I can hum to myself are the singles and "They'll Never Know". That shows how much I listened to the album. Then when they came back with their 2nd album I wasn't even keen on the singles.

With the Honeyz I can hum every track on their album and also every track on their unreleased 2nd album. It's rare for a music act to make a 2nd album anywhere near as good as their 1st but with the Honeyz I'd put the 2 albums on a par with each other.

Is the Honeyz music better than anything else I listen to? No.

Did they make better R&B than any other British act? possibly.

Are they the best female R&B act? absolutely.

Are they the best female act full stop? struggling to think of anyone better so yes.

The thing is when I look back upon my time as an Alisha's Attic fan I think silly me. The extensive Alisha's Attic collection I had along with fan club magazines etc has been sitting in a dark corner of my parents house somewhere for almost 25 years aside from the "Alisha Rules The World" album,

On the other hand I look back at the Honeyz and think yes they were good and still play their CDs to this very day.

Honeyz Return

A year ago there was an indication of the Honeyz doing something to mark 25 years since their breakthrough. Then nothing happened, until now. The Honeyz are back.

OK they never really went away. For the past few years they've been playing the likes of Butlins as a duo of ever present member Celena Cherry and Mariama Goodman, the former Solid HarmoniE singer who replaced Heavenli in 1999 and has been in and out of the group since.

This time Heavenli has returned to the group but Mariama has left again. They're back to being a trio, but no Naima hasn't rejoined the group. Instead Celena's sister Candace Cherry has joined the group. She previously joined the group when Naima decided not to be part of their first reunion which was before they appeared on The Big Reunion with a different line up.

Like Mariama, Candace was part of another female group of the 90s, Kleshay. They were very short lived with just 2 minor hits to their name and their line up included Leah Charles-King who's a presenter on A Place In The Sun these days.

It's fair to say this reunion has been pretty low key so far. I happened to stumble across it on a music forum I very occasionally visit. A new Instagram account has been set up containing a video of a new photoshoot and that's about it. Google "The Honeyz" and nothing about this reunion comes up.

Once again the question is what can we expect and will it be any different to what they've been doing for the bulk of the last 25 years i.e. Butlins or as part of a wider line up for a 90s night somewhere.

I'd like to see them do a gig in their own right, what's stopped me seeing them in the past is the fact I don't like anyone else on the line up and I'm conscious their set will be a very small part of the night.

We have to be realistic though, as far as I can tell they never did a proper tour in their heyday. They also only had one album released which didn't do as well as their singles. Is there demand to see them play anything other than the big hits?

I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

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.

Nothing Lasts Forever - The Honeyz

The general point made about most acts featured in this series so far is their career at the top was brief because they did generic rubbish to sell to the kids and then the kids grew up and moved on. Todays subject though were genuinely a good group and certainly left the spotlight prematurely in my opinion.

Like many, I first came across The Honeyz in 1998 towards the end of the summer when they debuted with their first single "Finally Found". With girl power still very much a thing at the time and the anti man attitude that came with it, it was good to hear a record from a female group which was more positive. At the time I found it a very soothing record and particularly liked it where Celena sang "its always been you" in the chorus.

They returned at the end of the year with their follow up single "End of the Line" which I also quite liked. It seemed like they were here to stay for a while. Then in March 1999 came the news that Honeyz member Heavenli had left the group prior to the release of their third single "Love of a Lifetime". In came Mariama from Solid HarmoniE who had their brief chart career the previous year. Again I thought this was quite a good song, but it didn't have the same impact as the previous two singles and I still hadn't felt the need to go out and buy their music yet.

In October of that year came their first single recorded with Mariama, "Never Let You Down". Again, I quite liked it but still thought the first two singles were the best ones. Then in March 2000 came single number 5 "Won't Take It Lying Down" which I first heard when they performed it on Top of the Pops. This was definitely my least favourite of the singles so far, but still not a bad song.

Following this I didn't hear anything of The Honeyz for a while and gradually started to forget about them having never bought any of their music.

Then in February 2001 I bought a compilation with "Finally Found" on it and it reminded me how much I liked it and their other hits. Then shortly after I went to a second hand record shop and found 2 albums of theirs and bought both of them. After leaving the shop I noticed that both albums were the same, one was the original "Wonder No 8" album and the other was the repackaged album with the two extra tracks recorded when Mariama joined.

Looking on the internet I found they only had the one album so far, but they had released a single called "Not Even Gonna Trip" in October 2000 which only reached number 24 and completely passed me by. I also discovered that Mariama had now departed and Heavenli had re-joined the group.

A few months later after regularly listening to their album and really getting into their music, I was flicking through the music channels and saw they were back with a song called "I Don't Know". There was also a feature on "The Box" where they were talking about their new video. I thought it was a great song and when it got released in August I was straight down the record shop to buy it. Unfortunately not too many other people did as it only reached number 27. I also read rumors on the internet they were on the verge of getting dropped by their label which seemed typical as I'd only really just started listening to them.

In September they played a gig at Newcastle University students union and I was living in Newcastle at the time. However, it was fresher's week and you needed to be a fresher at Newcastle University to go to it, which I wasn't so I missed out.

Shortly after though I came across the promo for their next single "Talk to the Hand" at a record shop in Newcastle which I bought. I also heard on the internet about their new album Harmony so thought they would at least release that before they got dropped. Sadly they didn't, there was no new single or album released. No official confirmation was given, but it was quite obvious they had been dropped.

Fortunately I did manage to acquire a copy of the unreleased "Harmony" album, firstly via somebody on a Honeyz forum copying it onto tape for me but then I managed to buy the CD on eBay sometime later. I also managed to buy the promo video for "Talk to the Hand" which is now the only VHS I still own. I can honestly say that "Harmony" is a fantastic album and its a shame it never got released.

There were many rumors going round on the internet as to whether The Honeyz would continue or not, many were false. Then in 2002 I read they were finished but were still contractually obliged to do a few more gigs, one of which was at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland. For a group that had been dropped by their label and even their biggest fans were unsure what had happened to them it sounded a bit unrealistic for them to be playing at a football stadium. However, as I lived up the road in Newcastle I went down to the ticket office at the Stadium of Light to find out if it was true. Turned out it was true, but they weren't doing a gig as such, just performing a couple of songs before the football match started, needless to say I didn't bother going.

After a few attempted comebacks with varying line ups over the years, they appeared on The Big Reunion along with several other bands that had chart success a  number of years ago. We never really got the true story of what had happened to them though as much of it was made up for good telly. The line up consisted of Celena, Mariama and Heavenli. Presumably because of this, the absent Naima was very much made the villain of the piece, that she was only in the group for her looks and couldn't sing and she was the one who created bad vibes in the group. Whether all that is true or not, one thing I will say is that on the unreleased "Harmony" album there is a track called "Love Is Strange" where Naima sings lead vocals and it sounds like she can very much sing on that. Furthermore, on the "Love of a Lifetime" single there is a version of "Finally Found" that only contains the backing vocals, and the harmonising you hear in that which is presumably Naima and Heavenli does not sound like that of someone who can't sing.

I didn't go to see them in concert though as they would tour with the rest of the groups on The Big Reunion so only do 2 or 3 songs, plus the rest of the groups from the show are quite frankly crap.

When I've brought up The Honeyz in conversations over the years, several people have dismissed them as pop music for young girls, but it really wasn't like that at all. Many of the people I spoke to on the forums at the time were grown men.

Also, I do remember a time when I was driving along listening to the "Wonder No 8" album back in 2001 and I was singing along to pretty much the whole album. I had 3 mates in the car, all grown men and when "End of the Line" came on they were all singing along too. Ok, admittedly it is perhaps a bit odd having four men in a car singing a love ballad, but the point is we all thought it was good music.

Despite "Finally Found" and "End of the Line" being the songs that appealed to me initially, after buying the album I found myself preferring "Love of a Lifetime" and "Never Let You Down". At the time, when me a flatmate were chatting whilst the album was on it became an unwritten rule that when it was the breakdown in "Never Let You Down" we would shut up and just listen to the harmonising.

Since the whole big reunion thing faded away, Heavenli has left the group again and they have carried on as a duo. They have played a number of gigs since then, but none in London to my knowledge, but if they do play in London some point in the future I may pop along.

So to conclude, The Honeyz glory days in the charts lasted just over 18 months, but their glory days on my CD player lasted much longer.