Sunshine Hit Me

PIAS Recordings Catalogue is thrilled to announce a brand-new reissue of Sunshine Hit Me, the debut album by The Bees on 22nd September 2023. Newly remastered, the long out of print album will be available on coloured vinyl, expanded CD & all digital formats.

Released originally by Wall of Sound sublabel We Love You in 2002, the album was recorded and produced by founding members Paul Butler and Aaron Fletcher in a home garden studio - aka The Shed - on the Isle of Wight, and went on to receive a nomination for the Mercury Music Prize, 2003. Singles from the album include “No Trophy”, “Punchbag”, and a cover of Os Mutantes’ “A Minha Menina”.

When we were writing Sunshine Hit Me, it would have been difficult for us to think that twenty plus years later, we would get to celebrate it once again. We took our inspiration from multiple genres and pioneering artists. Jamaican roots, Brazilian Tropicalia, Afrobeat, James Bond soundtracks, sun drenched soul, psychedelia and under the stars around the campfire folk music. There’s no question that the golden periods of the 1960’s and early 1970’s informed our sound. Globally blending, Sunshine Hit Me is the mixtape that reflected all our treasured finds.

While the shore gentle lapped in and out - we didn’t notice the tides, we had made a space so innocent to create in, that the music was just allowed to happen. Our friends, families, and the circles we spent time in all truthfully shaped this record. Equally exploring the styles of producers, engineers and studio techniques sculptured the sonics and the sound. Lyrically it was always about clear positive expression. You’ve got to project to collect.

But let’s not forget, that this record was recorded and produced in a shed(!) in a valley that runs from the side of the downs on the Isle of Wight. If you let them, there would be cows who would pop their heads in the window. It was a joy, a period of two blissful years at the turn of the century. It’s timeless and it’s ever so grateful. The sun always shone and now we are delighted that this record has been reissued.