It’s not a pub quiz question that gets asked very regularly, but the answer to “What happened to Woody Woodgate and Mark Bedford after Madness broke up in 1986?” is one that presents some interesting artefacts to discover. Admittedly Bedford’s role was a minor one, but as the band’s drummer Woodgate went on to be a central part of Voice of the Beehive, along with Californian sisters Tracey and Melissa Belland, Martin Brett and Mike Jones.
Refugees from the ‘Sleazy’ music industry environment of LA, the siblings were hard to pigeonhole, neither C86 wallflowers or gigglesome teeny mannequins. Spiky and often brutally honest, their songwriting came from a distinctly female perspective (A rarity at the time), whether their lyrics handled relationships directly or the human fallout from them.
Their debut album Let It Bee was a surprise hit given this abstinence from trading in cheap thrills; opener The Beat of Love dealt with violent relationships, whilst top 20 hit I Say Nothing poked holes in conformity and Sorrow Floats tenderly handled alcohol abuse. If all of this was hard to reconcile with the ephemera of the charts, it helped that musically the guitar lines in particular were classic, clean and angular, the result being that thirty years plus on, it’s aged far better than many of it’s peers. So what did Woody Woodgate of Madness do when the band split up? Well, something pretty good, actually.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 
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