You Can Be You

Biography

Honey Bane (born Donna Tracy Boylan in 1964, London) is the stage name of the British singer and actress who is possibly best recalled for her 1981 UK Top 30 single "Turn Me On Turn Me Off". Honey Bane began her musical career at the age of 14 in 1978 when she formed the punk rock band the Fatal Microbes. The band released a split 12" record with anarcho-punk band Poison Girls the same year. The first single, "Violence Grows" garnered some press attention and was given positive reviews by the B...

Honey Bane (born Donna Tracy Boylan in 1964, London) is the stage name of the British singer and actress who is possibly best recalled for her 1981 UK Top 30 single "Turn Me On Turn Me Off".

Honey Bane began her musical career at the age of 14 in 1978 when she formed the punk rock band the Fatal Microbes. The band released a split 12" record with anarcho-punk band Poison Girls the same year. The first single, "Violence Grows" garnered some press attention and was given positive reviews by the British music paper Sounds.

After the 1979 breakup of the Fatal Microbes, and a stint in a juvenile detention facility that garnered more press attention, Honey Bane began a collaboration with the Essex-based anarcho-punk activist band Crass while she was on the run from the Social Services after serving a sentence at the St. Charles Youth Treatment Centre in Essex. Lending lead vocals and backed by the band under the name Donna and the Kebabs, Crass released the EP "You Can be You" in 1980. That same year, Honey Bane sang vocals for the post-punk band Killing Joke on a song entitled "What's the Matter" during a February 1980 gig at London's Venue club. The recording was later released as an inclusion on an album entitled "Killing Joke - Live At The Venue LP".

In 1980, she met Sham 69 vocalist Jimmy Pursey who began to manage her musical career. That year she was signed to EMI/Zonophone records for a five year contract. In 1981 the single "Turn Me On Turn Me Off" was released and climbed the British pop charts to Number 30 and Honey Bane subsequently appeared performing the single on Top of the Pops. "Turn Me On Turn Me Off" marked a musical departure of Honey Bane from the overtly punk rock material of her earlier releases to a decidedly more new wave sound.

Although she released several more singles, none charted well and her musical career floundered. In 1982 she appeared in a play opposite Richard Jobson of The Skids at London's Arts Theatre. In 1983 she gained a prominent role in the Mai Zetterling directed British film Scrubbers. Honey Bane played the role of "Holly" and the film centered on the lives of young women incarcerated in a British girls' borstal. The film also featured actors Amanda York, Kathy Burke, Pam St. Clement, Robbie Coltrane and Miriam Margolyes.

Honey Bane spent the remainder of the 1980s as a pin-up model for erotic magazines. During the 1990s, she fronted the band Dog's Tooth Violet. In 2006 she released a two track 7" single entitled "Down Thing/Got Me All Wrong".

She currently resides in London, United Kingdom and is a mother and grandmother.
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