My son Adam Bell’s Brighton-based band Octopuses are releasing their new video today, Not The Bees, which is a witty, characteristically zany and rather beautiful song about, yes, bees. Behind the humour is a serious issues, the dramatic decline in our bee population. The song is a potent mix and one that has received support from Britain’s Green party leader Caroline Lucas and from the BBC’s popular natural historian, Chris Packham. For what it’s worth, I support them too – but don’t just take Wolfie’s word for it, take a look for yourselves:

Steve Janes, September 5, 2016

Former magazine editor of Dissident, Get Rhythm and Bullit magazines. Former Music PR and Radio Plugger. Now running With Guitars E-zine.

Hello there

I am writing in regards to the new single from Octopuses titled ‘Not The Bees’.

Octopuses are a psych-pop band from Brighton that have seen success in being played multiple times on BBC 6music by Tom Ravenscroft and Steve Lamacq. Last November they released their debut album ‘Yes Please’ on Lick Music.

The band have created a video for the single which highlights the modern plight of bees. The video has been backed with “overwhelming support” from Caroline Lucas and the Green Party. It is being shared on social media on 12th of September by lots of figure heads in conservation which include Caroline Lucas, BBC’sChris Packham, The Soil Association, Sussex Wildlife Trust and around 50 other environmental freelance journalists and organisations.

Before continuing to read this email, please spend 2 minutes 33 seconds watching our

We are writing to request review for the single and/or promotion of the campaign.

Click here to view the press release for the single release and details of the campaign we are running alongside it.

Important points:
Please don’t share this video now. The success of this campaign hinges on everyone sharing it at the same time.
If you have any questions at all about any of this, please feel free to ask.
The attached press release delves deeper into this idea and who we are, please read it if this interests you at all.
Photos of the band / Caroline Lucas are available on request.
Interviews are also available.

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I have a rock’n roll son called Adam Bell and, in case you’ve missed it, his band is called Octopuses and they have a new album, Yes Please, released this week… here it is, below,  on my desk and,  yes, I have to say, fatherly bias or no, I’m loving it.

Last night I was invited to the album launch in Brighton and, yes,  I said, yes please. So I went along and, yes, it was terrific to hear these songs live as well as on the addictive recording.

Here are a few smartphone photos that I took when I made my way, with maybe only a slight loss of cool,  to the front to capture the moment.  I may have focused a bit strongly on my son Adam but, yes, he is the guy on vocals just loving the microphone as well as the lime light but all the Octopuses are great musicians and none of them shrink from those lights. Yes, it was an inspirational night.

Here are videos of two of the songs from the album so, yes, please take a look at them to get some idea of their off-the-wall style and the musicality that is there under the humour:

You can listen to the whole album on Spotify if you follow the link below:

https://play.spotify.com/album/4lFB0tMeHUlLc91FffuwyM

You can also buy it as a CD or as a download from Amazon – if you want my advice say Yes, Please and get yourself a copy.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Octopuses+Yes+Please

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One of my sons, Adam the man from the band Octopuses is out there again with a new song. The gloriously eccentric Pogo was released on Monday and, if you haven’t heard it already, you really should… it’s not just a proud dad thing, honestly.

It’s not just me who likes it – even the BBC’s cool Radio 6 station likes it – Steve Lamacq, a man with some taste, has been playing it and recommending it on his show.

They’ve made another of their very silly videos for the occasion – I love their confidence in the absurd and, of course, underneath the eccentricity is serious music-making. Good luck with it Octopuses.

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