"I wanted to try something different," Croft says. "We'd been touring pretty intensely over a few years - me and four smelly boys in a Holden HG. I wanted to try something poppy. It wasn't a big blow up."With Catherine Wheel, Croft was able to hone her pop skills and meet Matt Handley, with whom she would form yet another seminal indie-rock band, Pollyanna.
Croft's stint with Pollyanna also ended before the band rose to prominence; today Handley is most remembered as Pollyanna's vocalist. "In the end I just came home to Perth where all my family is," Croft says. "I'm a little boomerang - I always come back home." Croft and Suzie Higgie (Falling Joys) recorded an EP in 1991 called 'Splinter'.
Croft has since got on with a regular "boring day job" life. Then, out of the blue, about 16 years later, the phone rang. "Bruce gave me a call one day and said that he and Grant were working on some new songs," she says. "They sent me some CDs with their ideas. A couple had lyrics, a couple without."
It was decided that the Honeys, dead in the water for far longer than they were ever together, would give it another try. Flying to Sydney, Croft spent four days laying down vocals in Shanahan's home studio in Spencer, on the Hawkesbury River. "It's a beautiful place," Croft says. "All around you is nature."
Those sessions have now been released as the Star Baby album. There are no more four-month tours on their agenda but the band has committed to doing the odd show, inviting old friends Greg Atkinson (Big Heavy Stuff) and Jodi Phillis (The Clouds) to support. Croft says it feels "terrific" to be onstage again. "Grant cracks me up," she says, "And I give Bruce a lot of stick. "We always have a great time. Singing the new songs is great, singing the old ones even better."
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