LET IT BEE

Oh dear. Classic Rock has just gone and mentioned the ‘B’ word (or in this case should that be the ‘Bee’ word?), and for the first time during an otherwise lively conference call with Touch’s Mark Mangold and Craig Brooks the atmosphere cools. We are recalling the potentially life-threatening moment in 1980 when, during their band’s performance at the inaugural Monsters Of Rock festival at Castle Donington, bass player Doug Howard took a swig from a bottle of beer, unaware that a bee had crawled into it. And of course it stung him on the tongue.

After a moment or two of a sudden and uncomfortable silence during our conversation, Mangold responds: “The reason we are for many years to reach that point, and here we are all these years later talking about that bloody bee.”