The Hee Bee Gee Bees
The Hee Bee Gee Bees was a fictitious pop group which parodied pop groups and performers in the early 1980s, consisting of Angus Deayton, Michael Fenton Stevens, and Philip Pope of the UK radio series Radio [Active (radio series)|Radio Active].
Their first single was "Meaningless Songs " by the Hee Bee Gee Bees, a parody of the Bee Gees. The 'band' consisted of the three Cribb brothers; Garry, Norris and Dobbin, performed respectively by Deayton, Fenton Stevens, and Pope. It was written by Pope and Richard Curtis, was released by Original Records in 1980, reached number two in the Australian singles chart and made an appearance on the UK Indie Charts.
Two albums were subsequently released under the Hee Bee Gee Bees name, featuring parodies of pop groups which had originally been featured on Radio Active. Tracks included spoofs of Supertramp, Michael Jackson, Status Quo, The Police, David Bowie, Gary Numan and others. The first album was recorded in the Strawberry Studios in Stockport, and featured 10cc and Sad Café studio musicians. The second album was recorded in and mixed at Silo Studios in London, with Les Davidson Steve Shone and Dave Early. The music was written by Pope, with lyrics by Deayton and other Radio Active scriptwriters.
Fenton Stevens and Pope later collaborated on the Spitting Image parody track "The [Chicken Song]", which reached number 1 in the UK in 1986.