The Honeyz were Heavenly Abdi, Naima Belkhiati and Celena Francine Alexandra Cherry. They arrived in 1998 clutching the coat-tails of the Spice Girls and struck gold with the catchy pop hit "Finally Found". In 1999 Celena commented of one of her bandmates, "If you hear a bang, you know that Naima's picked something up". Presumably, she wasn't referring to a sexual disease.

"Finally Found" sold half a million copies and reached #4 in the UK charts. "End of the Line", it's follow-up was also a big hit, but the group struggled to push the "Wonder No. 8" album. Perhaps because it was overlong and had a rubbish title, it struggled to claw its way up the charts. It wasn't for want of trying though.

In March 1999 the group suffered the first of many confusing member shifts. Naimi and Celena discovered that Heavenli had decided to leave. "It was a big shock," they said. Luckily, Solid HarmoniE singer Mariama Christina N'Dure Goodman, icon and habitual band-swapper, was on hand to be roped in (she'd already left Solid HarmoniE twice). Enter the Mariama!

The problem was, resting on the back of one (at a push, two) decent songs, the Honeyz were always a Third Division girl band in an overcrowded market. By the end of 1999, they were supporting Five and appearing at Cadbury's sponsored roadshows.

Desperately, the Honeyz then repackaged "Wonder No. 8" in yet another last ditch attempt to propel it up the charts. "Never Let You Down" (with fresh Mariama vocals) made a welcome Top 10 new entry, as did "Won't Take It Lying Down". But then bloody Heavenli came back, and Mariama left again, no doubt in pursuit of joining All Saints.

A new single "Not Even Gonna Trip" (from "Nutty Professor II", didn't we all) missed the Top 20 and the second album "Harmony" was never released. The Great British public would never taste the splendour of its 17 (ouch!) tracks.

Still about, unbelievably. In January of 2005, the Honeyz appeared on "Grief Never Grows Old", a Tsunami relief single with Sir Cliff Richard (LOST!). They also featured on "Hit Me Baby One More Time", but didn't win their heat.

Also last year, Naima left, perhaps realising that the tradition of a member leaving every two years needed to be fulfilled. Celena's cousin, Candii Cherry (don't any of these girls have sensible names?) replaced her. Meanwhile Naima turned to acting, appearing in the hit film "Alien Autopsy".

Last year Celena Cherry released a solo album featuring three shameless re-recordings of "Honeyz" numbers - it costs £4.99p from her website, approximately the cost of two Tesco's trifles (and not the Finest ones). She also appeared on "Hollyoaks" and "Doctors" and dislikes "Spiders and two-faced people", bless her.

A new Honeyz album is threatened for this year... VIA THE INTERNET!.

"Wonder No. 8" is now £1.49p on Amazon. I'm actually really tempted. Almost.

www.celenacherry.co.uk, giving details about her recent appearance on the Virgin Breakfast Show - "guess which one is me!" she challenges, linking to a photo of her and two beardy bloke presenters.

honeyz.com has bitten the dust, now providing links only to sites about female masturbation.

Celena Cherry

Mariama (on left) today.