Honey Bane

b. Donna Tracy, England. Honey Bane was previously the young singer in the Fatal Microbes, who released an EP, Violence Grows, and shared a 12-inch single release with the Poison Girls. She started her solo career in 1979 after escaping from a reform centre where she had been admitted for alcohol abuse. ‘You Can Be You’, on the Crass label, was recorded in a single day. Her backing band was the Kebabs, actually a pseudonym for Crass, although the three ‘anarcho-punk’ songs still retained the spirit of Fatal Microbes. It was almost a year before the follow-up, ‘Guilty’, was released on Honey’s own label, and it stirred up enough interest to secure a contract with EMI Records subsidiary Zonophone. With the help of Peter Godwin from Metro and Jimmy Pursey from Sham 69, they tried to manufacture a pop star. In January 1981 ‘Turn Me On, Turn Me Off’ peaked at number 37. Her provocative ‘naughty girl’ image had short-lived appeal and after one further glimpse at the charts with a cover version of the Supremes’ ‘Baby Love’, her popularity saw a rapid decline. Successive singles ‘Jimmy... (Listen To Me)’, ‘Wish I Could Be Me’ and ‘Dizzy Dreamers’ passed unnoticed, prompting Honey to concentrate on her acting career.