Voice of the Beehive and really really really enjoying a gig

[Keebleman]

Voice Of The Beehive were a high-spirited if not exactly sophisticated band who had a few good tunes. But their gig at Cardiff Uni thirty years ago today (or to put it more precisely THIRTY BLOODY YEARS AGO TODAY DEAR GOD - THIRTY - AAAAAGGGHHHH!!!!) was the best, the most ecstatic, I have ever seen.  I was on a high for days afterwards, and the exhilaration felt similar to when you're in the early stages of love.  Even at the time I was puzzled by the intensity of my reaction: I was twenty years old which I actually considered a little long in the tooth to be getting excited about silly stuff like pop music, but of course it's still a good age to see bands and get ridiculously thrilled by them (at 20 it's very likely that you're younger than all the performers; shan't be so for much longer).  That I had a crush on Tracey (the blonde) probably had a lot to do with it too.

As I say, considered objectively they were nothing special - raucous power-pop with a sense of fun - so the cliche is true: you really had to be there, preferably right up the front, being crushed against the barriers, as I and my mates were, with the divine Tracey within touching distance and occasionally making eye contact.

For some reason, that epochal Cardiff gig - which took place on the eighth anniversary of John Lennon's death, the day after Roy Orbison passed and the very day that, for the first time, one of my mates from school became a parent - was not filmed for posterity but here is a recording from earlier in that year of the glory that was VOTB.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wrcKln1hFA

[sevendaughters]

yeah sometimes the mood is just right, one of the best gigs i was at was some no mark US garage rock band in a pub in Bolton, their records are completely missable but that night they played like it was for the greatest record deal in history and the 25 people in the pub were waving contracts in their faces. i wasn't pissed either, they just wrecked it.

gonna watch this vid, never heard a note of VOTB.

[jobotic]

Stereolab at the old Scala cinema.
Th' Faith Healers at Phoenix Festival
Jon Spencer in the Princess Charlotte in Leicester.
Terminal cheesecake at The Venue in New Cross.

Not necessarily the best and I'm a bit embarrassed about what a fanboy I was of Jon Spencer but yeah, at that moment nothing could have been better.

I was young for all of those which is probably significant. I don't lose myself like I did then.

[Absorb the anus burn]

VOTB were excellent live... I saw them a handful of times just before the first LP came out. They didn't have a huge amount of material so played 'I Walk The Earth', 'Don't Call Me Baby' and 'I Say Nothing' twice each. I swear the audience learned the songs during the gig and were able to join in the reprises. The second LP was a bit of a stinker, and I lost interest, but 'I Think I Love You' was a canny cover version that gave them a minor hit along with 'Monsters And Angels'.

I feel old.

[holyzombiejesus]

I bought their first single because I think Woody and Bedders from madness were on it. Can't remember anything about it though.

[the science eel]

'I Walk The Earth' was a GREAT tune - especially the choruses, the way you get those layered backing vox towards the end, then the fade.

And I can absolutely see where the OP is coming from - they were definitely a band to fall in love with/to.

[Brundle-Fly]

VOTB Let It Bee was chock full of tunes!  What I like in that link is how liberated Woody the ex-drummer from Madness appears after spending ten years of playing One Step Beyond and Baggy Trousers etc to finally rawk out! 

[The Culture Bunker]

The drop off in quality from first (excellent) to second (very poor) albums did for Voice of the Beehive. Shame, as "I Say Nothing" was a brilliant single.

I saw British Sea Power in Sheffield (Leadmill, maybe?), must have been about February 2004, and they were bloody amazing. I probably saw them five or six times after that and they were always a good night out, but that particular show they managed to touch the sublime to a level I've not seen from any band since.

[MiddleRabbit]

VOTB were great.  Well, as others have said, Let It Bee was great.  '88, for a brief post Smith period, was largely about the Blonde thing: The Primitives had the best album (as far as I'm concerned) with Lovely, which I still listen to.  Andrea out of The Darling Buds was the best looking, even though she was Welsh.  Wendy James tried too hard but VOTB were charming and their songs were perfect guitar pop.  Not quite Blondie maybe, but not far off.  They covered In The Flesh, didn't they?  In fact I know they did, it was on a b side.  I never saw them live, and that clip shows that it was my loss.

Oddly, Cast - before they were signed - were a great band.  From the first note of their first single, they were shit - apart from Flying, which I retain a soft spot for - but they played the Hul Adelphi about every month for at least a year in about '93-94.  They had a great sound and were a great (revolving) set of lads. 

The Stone Roses at The Adelphi weren't 'really really really enjoyable, they seemed like a far bigger deal than mere enjoyment.  Tight but loose (mainly accidentally, I would have thought) and meticulous, which set them apart.  The songs sounded like they'd had a lot of thought out into them, which was unusual in the indie world.  More impressive than enjoyable, oddly.