The long debut album now being released 35 years later on 10th October / Listen to first single ‘She Doesn’t Know’
Go back in your musical time machine if you will, to say around the late 80s early 90s. A time when ‘indie’ hadn’t really been fully defined as a genre, The Smiths, and their ilk were gone, and a new batch of small bands were vying for a piece of the pop music pie. With Acid House ‘larging it’ all over the country, guitar music was about to get a brand-new set of heroes. ‘The House of Love’ ‘My Bloody Valentine’ and ‘The Sundays’ were the coolest new kids on the block. Manchester, or Madchester was kicking off again with the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays, who along with ‘Primal Scream’ were about to launch the indie dance craze ‘baggy’. And a bunch of small venues with new promoters, new record labels and new journos were going to spread the word. Things were thriving.
Along with the aforementioned ‘baggy’ we got the Camden Lurch, Shoegaze, Fraggle and whatever else the music press decided to dream up, and nestled amongst the list of indie hopefuls were Blur and Suede (with Justine Frischmann later of Elastica on guitar). Big names now, but in those heady times before Britpop (1989 – 1992) just another couple of bands playing the indie circuit like everyone else and looking to get noticed. Blur did, though it would be a few years before Suede would. But in between were many who caught the eyes and ears, some would live on, and some would burn bright before fizzling out. Though it could be argued that every one of them helped create what was to come.
One of those shining brightly but briefly was ‘Honey Smugglers’. A band whose place in that crazy but pivotal time before Britpop is slowly being revealed thanks to a series of extensive compilations of that era by Cherry Red Records. They’ve featured in 6 of them. Honey Smugglers rubbed shoulders with the likes of Blur, Suede, Dodgy and Levitation (Ex House of Love guitarist Terry Bickers’ new band) without sounding like any of them. An uber tight organ driven music machine that mixed pop, groove and a lot of psychedelia into a bunch of catchy, inventive, eclectic and very English songs, they were un-pigeonholable at a time when everyone was looking for a pigeon to hole.
However, they did enjoy rave press reviews and copious airplay from the likes of John Peel and Gary Crowley, and were a band more than capable of taking their place on the stages of the dozens of indie venues which thrived across the UK at the turn of the 90’s. And they had their fans too. “The Honey Smugglers were such an important band when Dodgy were getting our shit together. They were dead cool and in the scene that we wanted to be in”. Mathew Priest/Dodgy
I loved the Honey Smugglers, that awesome groove and organ swirl. Saw them many times from London to Brighton and Paris. Great nights, wonderful music”. Jo Bartlett/It’s Jo and Danny/Co-Founder Green Man Festival
“It was a sonic kind of honey being imbibed by audiences during the halcyon days of the early 90’s, and if the creators cannot be here in person, then let this comfort you…listen, it’s not the sound of dying”. Tara Milton/5:30
“A melange of great tunes, oddball words and perfectly in sync with the prevailing zeitgeist of swirling organ and shuffling drums. What grabbed me most was Chris Spence’s voice – at once both fragile and powerful, unique yet utterly listenable”. Ben Wardle/Warner Bros. A&R/Author
The Smugglers released a couple of EPs, but sadly never delivered an album. Now, 35 years later we finally have ‘So Far’. The long-lost debut album by Honey Smugglers.
This is the summation of the 3 years writing, rehearsing, recording and gigging that they did between 1988-1991, and many of the songs will be familiar to anyone who saw one or more of the 125 gigs they performed at this time. They split before the LP could be released but are still fondly remembered as stalwarts of a vibrant indie scene.
The 12 tracks on ‘So Far’ were carefully chosen and sequenced by the band as the best representation of their achievements, and what comes across is the sheer diversity of their songwriting and performance. There’s the pure slice of melodic English guitar pop of lead track `She Doesn’t Know’, ‘Greatest Lovers’ with its fragile verses and psychedelic freakout ending. You have the dream pop of ‘Good Afternoon’ and ‘Stay’ rubbing shoulders with the skewed psychedelia of ‘Shake Free’ ‘Rocking Horse’ and ‘No’. ‘Sad Parade’ ‘Mrs C’ ‘Apple Tree’ and ‘Blind’ are vivid urban stories worthy of Ray Davies, years before Blur would hitch a ride on that particular wagon.
And of course, their best-known song, the 6-minute indie dancefloor filler ‘Listen’ (heard here for the first time in its original and definitive version). The album is without doubt a richly rewarding listen.
With one foot firmly in the Pop scene (they knew how to write a good tune) and the other in a more musically expansive world, thanks to their collective musicianship and singer/guitarist Chris’s singular lyrics and melodies, the Smugglers were of their time but in many ways ahead of it too, as the arrival of Britpop a few years later would testify.
So, like anything worthwhile it is never too late to lend it an ear, even if it has taken 35 years to get to yours!
First single ‘She Doesn’t Know’ was originally recorded as part of a demo session for Warners East/West instigated by A&R team Cally Calloman (previously Julian Cope’s manager) and Ben Wardle, who were big fans of the band. Ben in particular had seen the band many times, often with his mate, fellow scout Mike Smith from MCA publishing (who would go on to sign Blur in fact). Cally had the idea to have an offshoot label, called One Big Guitar operating outside of the Warners loop, but funded by Warners. Here they could test out some of the indie bands they loved outside of the corporate machine, An indie label within a major if you like. The idea was to put the Honey Smugglers on One Big Guitar alongside another cool band they had just found who were as yet unknown. They were called Ride. ‘She Doesn’t Know’ was part of three songs the Smugglers recorded, and it was never released, it appears on ‘So Far’ for the first time, newly remixed for 2025. Bassist Ged Murphy comments,
“When this song was written in 1989, the La’s were singing ‘There She Goes’, the Stone Roses were jangling through Elephant Stone, and indie kids of a certain persuasion were in the thrall of the Fab Four, the Byrds and Psychedelic vibes. These were the times when the Sundays were ‘it’ and Primal Scream were ‘shit’. So this song is sonically a product of that I guess, a perfect little guitar pop nugget with a fab melody and lyrics that only Chris could dream up.
I have absolutely no recollection of how it came about, but I am amazed that I played on such a little gem of a song.”
Listen now:
Honey Smugglers were/are
Chris Spence: Vocals, guitar
Ged Murphy: Bass
Steve Cox: Keyboards
Steve Dinsdale: Drums
Released by UltraMarine Recordings on vinyl, CD and Digital on October 10th 2025. The tracks were recorded between 1989 and 1991 at various studios (Raezor Studios, Bark Studio & Protocol Studio. The album has been remastered by Pete Maher.
Pre-order now:
Digital – https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/honey-smugglers/1415779947
CD – https://honeysmugglers.bandcamp.com/album/so-far
Vinyl – https://elasticstage.com/honeysmugglers/releases/so-far-album
