Before the rise of Britpop, Honey Smugglers were an indie band who shone brightly but also briefly. A band whose place in that crazy but pivotal time has slowly been revealed thanks to a series of extensive compilations of that era by Cherry Red Records. They’ve featured in six of them.
Honey Smugglers rubbed shoulders with the likes of Blur, Suede, Dodgy and Levitation. 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.
They released a couple of EPs but sadly never delivered an album. Now 35 years later they are set to release their long lost debut album So Far on 10th October, and ahead of that is the single ’She Doesn’t Know’ that you can check out here and via the video below.
Back in the day, Honey Smugglers 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 thriving across the UK at the turn of the 90s. And they had their fans too. “The Honey Smugglers were such an important band when Dodgy were getting our shit together, said Mathew Priest, one of those aforementioned fans. “They were dead cool and in the scene that we wanted to be in.”
So Far is the summation of the three 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 in the manner of Ray Davies, years before Blur would hitch a ride on that particular wagon.
Their best-known song, the six minute indie dancefloor filler ‘Listen’ will be heard here the first time in its original and definitive version.
With one foot firmly in the pop scene and the other in a more musically expansive world, thanks to their collective musicianship and singer/guitarist Chris Spence’s singular lyrics and melodies, the Honey 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. Wardle 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). Calloman 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 commented on the single, saying: “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.”
Released by UltraMarine Recordings on vinyl, CD and digitally on 10th October 10th 2025, featuring Chris Spence (Vocals, guitar), Ged Murphy (Bass), Steve Cox (Keyboards) and Steve Dinsdale (Drums), the album is available here.
