Career
The group was founded as an amateur band by Martin Murray in November 1963. [1] [2] Its members were Murray (a hairdresser), his salon assistant Anne "Honey" Lantree, [8] her brother John, and two friends. [1] Originally, they called themselves the Sheratons. [9]
The group played dates in the West End of London, and at the Mildmay Tavern, [10] a North London pub. [2] Among those attending a February 1964 performance by the band were aspiring songwriters Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley. [1] Howard and Blaikley would become a prolific British songwriting team, but in 1964, they had just started their career. [11] They got into conversation with the group, who appeared interested in a few songs the duo had just written. [1] The group had already arranged an audition with indie record producer Joe Meek, [1] which resulted in a recording of Howard and Blaikley's "Have I the Right?" [12] Meek himself provided the B-side, "Please Don't Pretend Again".
Meek used his apartment, at 304 Holloway Road, Islington, as a recording studio. Three UK No. 1 hits were produced there: "Johnny Remember Me" by John Leyton, "Telstar" by The Tornados, and "Have I the Right?" [12]
Conspicuous in "Have I the Right?" is the prominence of the drums, whose effect was enhanced by members of the group stamping their feet on the wooden stairs to the studio. Meek recorded the effect with five microphones fixed to the banisters with bicycle clips. [1] For the finishing touch, someone beat a tambourine directly onto a microphone. The recording was also somewhat sped up. [13]
"Have I the Right?" was released on 26 June 1964 on the Pye record label. Louis Benjamin, later Pye's chairman, [14] renamed the group as "The Honeycombs", a pun on the drummer's name and her job as a hairdresser's assistant. [15] The sales started slowly, but by the end of July, the record started to climb the UK Singles Chart. [1] Honey Lantree's status as a female drummer in a top band was as unusual then as it is now, and some questioned whether she was just a visual novelty, despite her genuine drumming ability. [16] At the end of August, the record reached No. 1. [17] "Have I the Right?" was also a big success outside the UK, hitting No. 1 in Australia and Canada, [18] No. 3 in Ireland, No. 5 in the US, [19] and No. 2 in the Netherlands. [20] Overall sales of the record reached a million. [2] The Honeycombs also recorded a German version of the song: "Hab ich das Recht?" Both the English and the German versions reached No. 21 in the German charts: the English one in October, the German one in November 1964. [21]
From then on, Howard and Blaikley acted as the group's managers and also wrote their next singles, "Is It Because" and "Eyes", which did not sell well. This also applied to their fourth single, "Something Better Beginning", written by Ray Davies from the Kinks.
Soon after their first record had become a hit, the Honeycombs went on tour to the Far East and Australia, and were not able to promote their new records at home. [8] The tour gained them a long-lasting popularity in Japan, however. [1] Especially for the Japanese market, the group produced a live album and a single, "Love in Tokyo". [1] The group also made a lasting impression in Sweden, where they scored two No. 1 singles. [22]
The Honeycombs made many appearances on music television shows such as Top of the Pops , Ready Steady Go! (UK), Shindig! (US), and Beat-Club (Germany). [23] The group also appeared in the 1965 film Pop Gear , miming "Have I the Right?" and "Eyes". [24]
In July 1965, British music magazine NME reported that it had been agreed in the London High Court that "Have I the Right?" was the work of Howard and Blaikley. Composer Geoff Goddard agreed to drop allegations that he, not they, had written the song. [25]
In August 1965, the group released "That's the Way", with Honey Lantree sharing vocals with D'Ell (when on tour, Viv Prince of The Pretty Things took over the drumming). [26] This record became their fourth British hit and reached No. 12. Its successor, "This Year Next Year", again with Lantree and D'Ell sharing vocals, did not reach the UK chart.
D'Ell sang on all but the last single the group recorded. "Who Is Sylvia?" was an adaptation of Franz Schubert's song "An Sylvia". [27] "It's So Hard" was also recorded by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich as "Hard to Love You".
In April 1966, Denis D'Ell, Allan Ward, and Peter Pye left the group. [28]
In 1999, the original lineup (except Martin Murray) reformed to work with cult record producer Russell C. Brennan, who they likened to Joe Meek. He produced a new version of "Live and Let Die" for the band, which featured on the Future Legend Records release Cult Themes From the 70s Vol. 2 album. To promote the song, they did their first live gig together in 30 years at Madame Jo Jo's in London before disbanding once more. This stands as the original lineup's last recording. The track was also featured on a special James Bond compilation, The Themes Bond... James Bond (The Alternative James Bond Themes). [29] [30]
The (new) Honeycombs and afterwards
The group went on, with a new lead singer, guitarist and keyboardist:
- Colin Boyd (born Colin Nicholas Nicol, 4 June 1946, Combe, near Bath, Somerset) – guitar and vocals. Later, he formed Honeybus and changed his name to Colin Hare.
- Rod Butler (born Rodney Butler, 27 May 1944, Mill Hill, London) – lead guitar and vocals. Later, he played with the Lemmings and then The College Boys, formed by ex-Honeycomb Martin Murray. Butler later joined forces with D'Ell to form Zarabanda and played in Violinski with Mik Kaminski of ELO.
- Eddy Spence – keyboards and vocals.
- John Lantree – bass guitar.
- Honey Lantree – drums and vocals.
This line-up released the group's last single, "That Loving Feeling", a group original penned by new lead singer Colin Boyd. It failed to chart.
Late in the year, the Honeycombs toured Japan and recorded a live LP in Tokyo. The original vinyl LP is hard to locate these days, as is the 1990s CD re-issue by Repertoire Records (Rep 4180-WZ). [28] The full tracklist is:
- "Colour Slide" / "I'll Go Crazy" / "She's About a Mover" / "There's Always Me" / "Wipe Out" / "Lucille" / "If You Should" / "Have I the Right?" / "Goldfinger" / "Kansas City" / "My Prayer" / "What'd I Say"
A few of these tracks have made their way onto video streaming sites, including an extremely rare Japanese-only Christmas single recorded during their tour of that country, coupling "Santa Claus Is Back in Town" with "Silent Night".
On 3 February 1967, Joe Meek committed suicide at his recording studio/flat on Holloway Road, after an altercation with his landlady, who also died. After this, the Honeycombs had no more records issued and the band broke up. [1]
In 1972, Peter Pye, using an alteration of his middle name Frank, started a brief solo career as Peter Franc, with a single for Blue Mountain label, though both compositions were credited to Peter F. Pye. It was followed by two albums and three singles for the Dawn label, the latest being a 1975 non-album single.
In the 1990s, founding member Martin Murray toured the cabaret circuit with a group called Martin Murray's Honeycombs. [1] Another line-up, including Honey Lantree, Peter Pye, and Denis D'Ell, also successfully toured from 1991 onwards; [1] John Lantree later rejoined this line-up. In 1999, record producer Russell C. Brennan asked D'Ell, the Lantrees, and Pye to record "Live and Let Die", on the Future Legend Records compilation, Cult Themes from the '70s Vol. 2. This compilation also featured Glenda Collins, another Joe Meek artist.
Singer Dennis D'Ell died on 6 July 2005, at the age of 61. The drummer, Honey Lantree, died on 23 December 2018, aged 75.
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Heinz Burt was a German-born British rock and roll bassist and singer who performed under the stage name Heinz. He was also known as a member of the instrumental group the Tornados.
Kenneth Charles Howard is an English songwriter, lyricist, author and television director.
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Geoffrey Goddard was an English songwriter, singer and instrumentalist. Working for Joe Meek in the early 1960s, he wrote songs for Heinz, Mike Berry, Gerry Temple, The Tornados, Kenny Hollywood, The Outlaws, Freddie Starr, Screaming Lord Sutch, The Ramblers and John Leyton. His song for Leyton, "Johnny Remember Me", reached number 1 in the UK Singles Chart.
"Have I the Right?" was the debut single and biggest hit of British band The Honeycombs. It was composed by Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley, who had made contact with The Honeycombs, a London-based group, then playing under the name of The Sheratons, in the Mildmay Tavern in the Balls Pond Road in Islington, where they played a date. Howard and Blaikley were impressed by the group's lead vocalist, Dennis D'Ell, and the fact that they had a female drummer, Anne (‘Honey’) Lantree. The group were looking for material to play for an audition with record producer Joe Meek, and they played the songs Howard and Blaikley had just given them. Meek decided to record one of them, "Have I the Right?", there and then. Meek himself provided the B-side, "Please Don’t Pretend Again".
Greatest Hits from the Beginning is a compilation double LP by The Miracles released in 1965. This was the first double album ever released by the Motown Record Corporation. It covers most of the group's hits from their pre-1965 albums, such as "Shop Around", "Who's Lovin’ You", "You've Really Got A Hold On Me" and "Mickey's Monkey", as well as the non-album singles from 1964: "I Like It Like That" and "That's What Love Is Made Of". The album was a success, reaching #21 on the Billboard Pop Album Chart. It was also the first Miracles album to chart on the Billboard R&B Album chart, where it was an even bigger success, peaking at #2.
Alan Tudor Blaikley was an English songwriter and composer, best known for writing a series of international hits in the 1960s and 1970s in collaboration with Ken Howard, including the UK number ones "Have I the Right?" and "The Legend of Xanadu". Together with Howard, he also wrote two West End musicals and a number of TV themes, including the theme music for the BBC's long-running series of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple.
Alan Charles Klein is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He wrote the soundtrack for the stage play and film, What a Crazy World (1963). In 1964, he released his only solo album, Well at Least It's British, that was re-released in 2008 by RPM Records.
A Life in the Death of Joe Meek is a 2013 American independent documentary film about the British record producer Joe Meek. The film is produced and directed by Howard S. Berger and Susan Stahman.
The Motor City Collection is a box set by Australian pop vocal group Human Nature, which was issued on 19 April 2008 and peaked at No. 18 on the ARIA Albums Chart. It comprises three CDs of cover versions by the band of Motown artists' material and a live DVD.
David John Harman, known professionally as Dave Dee, was an English singer-songwriter, musician, A&R manager, fundraiser and businessman. He was the frontman for the 1960s pop band Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich.
The World's Greatest International Hits is the third album released by Petula Clark in the United States and was the first not to include original material by Tony Hatch. It includes cover songs of other British Invasion groups such as The Beatles and The Honeycombs. Roland Bianchini was credited with the cover photography and Ed Thrasher with art direction.
Soul Train: The Dance Years is a series of compilation albums released by Rhino Records in 1999 and 2000, and spun off from the long-running syndicated television series Soul Train.
"You Make It Move" is a song by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, released as a single in November 1965. It was the group's first charting single, peaking at number 26 on the UK Singles Chart.
