Formed way back in the swamps of time by Phil Butler, Nick Barber and Phil's lodger Dave Moreman, the Bees were almost called the "Mumbo Gumbos" until the Boat Band's Allison Parkes (who played accordion on our first E.P) threatened to have nothing to do with us if we called ourselves that.... Our first gig was a private booking at the King's Arms in Stoke, with the above line-up. Nick then taught himself the accordion and the three blokes busked at the Crewe Arms in Crewe and at the Meynell Arms in Shropshire before the line-up expanded to include Di Johnson on frottoir and percussion and Ian Campbell on various guitar shaped objects.This drummer-less line-up continued gigging until a gig at the Manchester Cajun Club, when we were joined by Tim Clarey. Thereafter we went through fiddle players like Spinal tap went through drummers - basically ; * none could play in the style we wanted *one had a pet rat which she kept under her hat *and another was an Anerican Sci-Fi writer.. Ian decided that Japan was the place for him and he toddled off to pastures new, while Dave Moreman went and got married to be replaced by the humungous (6 foot 8 inches tall) Craig Beverley. We sacked Tim due to "musical differences" and replaced him and Ian with Chris Moyden, near neighbour of Phil and drummer in prog band Final Conflict and primary school head, wit and raconteur, Phil Cummings. On Chris's days off we mustn't forget that we've been indebted to top drummer Chris Plimbley - a man who can rightfully claim to have played not only with Bryan Adams, but with Stoke-on-Trent's top zydeco kings ! This line-up flourished for nearly two years, supporting, amongst others, John Otway, Eliza Carthy and Fairport Convention, and Nick managed to guest with close friend of Paul McCartney, Chris Hall, and on Bourbon Street, New Orleans, with Mitch Cormier and the Can't Hardly Playboys. Pressures of work meant that Phil Cummings had to call it a day and yet another line-up changed ensued. That brought us on to our most recent line-up. Former "Grace" member and bassist Gary Hurlstone was briefly a member of the rhythm section until the curse of work took him to a farway place called "Shropshire". Jane Bailey stayed for a short while on fiddle before being replaced by Western swingist and Venom fan Chris Cartlidge....bass duties being shared around by depping wonders Stuart Duthie, Dave Moreman and Vernon Charles..then Chris Cartlidge, Di Johnson, Chris Moyden and Stu departed to be replaced by Vernon and John Warrington, along with Paul Asher - then Vern went aagain and Stu came back...and Chris Plimbley's playing a load of gigs with us...!