FEATURE LIST

As Voice ()fThe Beehive head to lidinhurgh forthe (NI) Benefit at lylcadowhank. Mah talks to

singers and sisters Tracey Bryn and Melissa Brook Bolland and. on the opposite page. outlines the other acts appearing.

With their single. ‘I Say Nothing. heating its way up the charts. it‘s prohahly ahout time that we all paid a hit of attention to Voice ()fThe Beehive. the hand based around two Californian sisters. Tracey Bryn and Melissa Brook Bolland. who gave their group its name. so Tracey remembers. after an evening of serious red wine ahuse. ‘Tylelissa said it and it just made me laugh. We wanted something with a little hit of colour. Like Bow Wow Wow. when you hear that you know the hands not serious or dark or w hatever.’ The sisters are serious enough to lend their support to (ND's hig henefit at Edinburgh‘s Meadowhank stadium on Saturday h. Only just at the stage of moving out of the small club circuit. Beehive are down the hill from Aswad and Aztec ('amera. but their recently-released dehut l.l’ shows that they have enough good tunes in them to he a serious challenge to the headliners. Let I! Bee has some great. unselfconscious sparkling pop lurking in its grooves. wrapped up. like its creators. in multi-coloured packaging you shouldn't risk gazing at without sunglasses. The girls' love of classic Sixties‘ groups fills their songs to overflowing with melodies and hooks that first spur memories. then comparisons. and finally take root. not to he easily dislodged. Voice Of The Beehive can pass through several British Invasions in the space ofa single song. tip the hat to the influence of West (‘oast new wave groups and still sound like no-one else. though since they started they‘ve been continually compared with The Bangles. Le! 1! Bee shows they can stand on their own two feet. ‘Well. this is my theory on this.‘ liegins'l'rzicey‘. the hlonde one. w hen the inevitahle name comes up. ‘When The Bangles first came out

they were compared all the time to

The Go-(ios. Every single interview and every single thing that was written ahout them mentioned The (io-(‘ios. and they got really fed up

with it when they prohahly liked The Cio-(ios in the

first place. ldont

6The List 5 l 1 August 1988

know if] like The Bangles or not heeause I can't get an ohiectiy e opinion on it. 'cause they 're always heing shoy'ed down our throat. And

we‘re also not an all-girl hand. Andl i

don‘t think The Bangles would he singing songs like Man III The .llomi and [Say .\'()r/u'ng.'

And \‘oice ()l'The Beehive (TUTTI need l’rince to write hits ( .llimii' .‘lImu/ay) for them. ‘Right. I never would haye covered that song. I don’t care who wrote it.‘

(ieniiine ('alifornia (iirls. ‘l‘racev and Melissa grew up in the ' now-notorious San l-‘ernando Valley. There's an apocryphal story that the parents ofthe soon-to-he-duhhed ‘\'alley (iirls' sent their kids to speech therapists until the specialists could take no more and cried. 'lt's not speech therapists these kids need. its shrinksl' Surely such reasonahle people as Tracey and Melissa couldn’t he typical ofthat scene'.’

‘.\'o. not really. heeause alotofthe kidsthat I went Oi to high school with w ere very well-off. They had a lot of money and cars and all the right clothes. and l itey‘ei‘ really felt part of that. [never felt l was cool enough. oi' whatever. to fit in with them. And l think they would mayhe make me feel that way on purpose sometimes. 50 I had my friends that were from anotherpart of town where the families weren’t as well-ofl. That's the way I preferred it. There wasn't

so much competition. y'know "'

ll stiltmls like the \';tlle\ (iil'l stereotype.

‘lixactly . That's w hat it dissolved into. It‘s funny. heeause it was such a phenomenon at the time I thought. When is somehody gonna liiid this package and write ahout it. or w hateyer'.’ And that's exactly w hat happened.‘

Starting a hand with Melissa had heen on the cards from early on.

‘We'd alwayssung together. when we put records on. and then we got separated. She went up to hoarding school and I went to Santa Barhara. and I got in a hand then. hecaiisel wanted to learn the guitar and try some writing and stuff. So that when Melissa and I got hack together again I would he ieady . My father was a musician too.‘

.~\h. the infamous clan patriarch w'lioenriched our lives hy deyising 'lilic I’I'H‘t’ ly Rig/II 'l ell tis ahout him. 'l‘racey.

‘lsn‘t it funny how that story gets twisted around" .\'o. it wasn't 'l‘lic

l’rici' /y Rig/ii. it was ,Vume ’l‘ltul lime. and lie/irmfia‘ci/ it for years. I don‘t think he in fact I know he didn’t invent The Price Is Rig/it. He did invent a few other game shows. hut I don‘t think you'd know them as they were never over here. Oh (iod. the game shows. That's one thing they have in America that they don't have here. They hayc a few game shows. hut on TV from ahout ten in the morning till five at night all they have is game shows and soap operas. only it's more the Dynasty kind of soaps.'

l)oes Tracey harhour amhitions to appear in a soap one day‘.’ Or at least think she might he good in one'.’

‘Yeah. cause they all overaet. I think it would he really fun. [could do it really corny. I could play the wicked y illain. the mistress or something. lt'd he really

appear in a soap opera. You don't have to worry ahout it.‘

The dreadful imports

don‘t do much to alleviate anti-.-\merican prejudice in

we get onT\'

cool. But I'm not gonna 3

Britain.