Adjacent Meridian Point,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow
A63 V1F8
The Honeydews took a long and peculiar road to channelling The Andrews Sisters.
Sometimes, it can take a few costume and key changes before an artist finds their true calling, as proven by the homegrown close-harmony trio The Honeydews – who are coming to The Whale on Saturday, October 19th with The Story of The Andrews Sisters…
When Fidelma Kelly was just knee high to a grasshopper, she found herself plonked in front of the TV, watching the old black and white musicals with her mother – who was music mad and thankfully passed that love of music on to her daughter.
Without realising or noticing it, Fidelma’s young brain was soaking up the style, the vibe, the music, the look and feel of the 1930s and 1940s.
Fast forward to December 31st 1983, and you’ll find Fidelma on RTÉ’s live broadcast marking the ringing in of the new year. What an absolutely magical opportunity for a young singer on the threshold of her career. And what an even better opportunity to sing the music that had been in her brain for so long, with a professional band of amazing musicians, broadcast live all over the nation. The song she sang was a Doris Day hit, The Lullaby of Broadway. Aided and abetted by two singing colleagues, and calling themselves Girl-Talk, she was in harmony heaven.
The appearance was considered a success all round, and then, lo and behold, just months later, at her parent’s house, Fidelma took a call from RTÉ luminary Tom McGrath, who informed her that Girl-Talk’s entry to that year’s Eurosong was the only one the jury had unanimously voted for. And so, Girl-Talk had their next live RTÉ broadcast date!
The song was called Problems, and it lived up to its name!! Let’s not discuss how many votes it got but suffice to say, Linda Martin won that year with Terminal Two and went on to come second in the Eurovision Song Contest. So, the best song definitely won!!!
Girl-Talk continued to work, getting just about every big corporate gig Dublin had to offer, and several TV and radio appearances, including three Late Late Shows, Gerry Ryan’s Secrets, Live at 3, Ronan Collins and Pat Kenny’s radio shows, and even an appearance on TG4!
As if that wasn’t enough, they then toured, no less, with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, in a show called Super Troupers, which brought an Irish trio singing Abba hits to Sweden (I kid you not!), Denmark and London, along with numerous appearances in the National Concert Hall and Farmleigh. Girl-Talk also sang for royalty, being chosen to sing at an event in the Berkeley Court Hotel at which the guest of honour was Princess Anne.
Things rolled along nicely for Girl-Talk but life eventually and inevitably got in the way. Between job changes, marriages and pregnancies it was hard to keep things going at their usual high standard, so in 2010, Girl-Talk was put out of its misery. And lo, out of the ashes, phoenix-like, emerged The Honeydews.
The Honeydews’ raison d’être was to be totally different to all the other corporate bands on the Irish music scene by singing material no one else was covering. So they sang the songs of Manhattan Transfer, Louis Jordan, Ella Fitzgerald, Puppini Sisters, and of course, The Andrews Sisters.
From the start, the focus wasn’t on commercial success but more a sense of artistic fulfilment and enjoyment.
The prospect of singing Waterloo or Simply the Best like every other band of the day was frankly not even up for discussion. This vintage material was like a whole new beginning.
Working on the harmony structures of songs by The Andrews Sisters and Manhattan Transfer was really challenging but also very rewarding. The problem with Manhattan Transfer was that their songs were arranged for 4 vocalists – two guys and two girls – so adapting that for three female vocalists certainly got the grey matter working. One of The Honeydews’ best-loved songs in the early days was one by Manhattan Transfer, from which they got their name. It’s called That Cat is High and the opening line is ‘Folks, I’m
mellow as a honeydew!’.
Around this time, The Puppini Sisters, an English harmony jazz trio, had just released their first album, and no one in Ireland had even heard of them. Except Fidelma, of course, their jazz harmony delights opening up a Pandora’s Box, as did the debut album by Dutch singer Carol Emerald.
The emphasis with The Honeydews was always on vocal harmony and so, even if a song they covered was a solo songs, they adapted it to fit their three voice vocal harmony style.
After several years of appearances at festivals, corporate functions and weddings, in 2022 The Honeydews decided to take on their biggest project to date. With a shared love of and fascination with The Andrews Sisters, Fidelma researched and wrote a show, telling the rarely heard and at times shocking story of the pioneering trio’s career; the highs and lows, the relationship problems, the feuds, the accusations, the poverty, the wealth – all
human life was in there.
Of course, Fidelma was totally indulging her own love for close harmony singing but thankfully found willing partners in her Honeydews colleagues. The dopamine hit of good harmony singing is hard to overestimate! Interspersed with 19 well-known Andrews Sisters hits, a few World War 2 big band instrumentals, a trumpet player who also croons Bing with a bang, plus a fabulous 5-piece band, and the 2-hour show The Story of The Andrews Sisters was born.
There’s so much to like about this show. It starts with the births of LaVerne Sophia, Maxene Anglyn and Patricia Marie and ends with their last breath on this earth.
Throughout their long and fascinating story are foot tapping songs that will transport the audience back to the very elegant and classy era of the 1930s and ’40s while also reminding us all of the realties of World War 2 and the grim existence for the American GIs serving overseas.
The show never stops as it guides the audience chronologically through the Andrews Sisters’ remarkable career.
The Honeydews are honoured and privileged to bring their story and songs to the music lovers of Greystones and to the intimate Whale Theatre on 19th October, 2024, 8pm to 10pm. Tickets here: https://whaletheatre.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/873648537