BAUHAUS
(UK, one top 40 hit, three Top 40 albums)

Much more an album band, Bauhaus 'reworked' Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust" and very little else occurred before or after. Bowie declined their counter-offer to recreate "Kick In The Eye".

Biggest Hit: "Ziggy Stardust", No.15, 1982
Defining Moment: Just about everyone had heard of them, but few ever saw photographic evidence of their being - until now...

BEASTIE BOYS
(US, four Top 40 singles, one Top 40 album)

Now respected and massively-influential on the American rap-rock crossover scene, the Beasties started out as sneering, cursing Yank vandals who wore nicked Volkswagen badges and had stupid 'rad' nicknames which were sooo '87. Mike D, Ad-Rock and MCA gatecrashed what had so far been a peacefully uncontroversial year with the shouty, multi-bracketed "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)" which put twenty more vowels in 'party' than required and scared the hell out of literally everyone. The tabloids decided to preach against their alleged immorality (ie, wanting to have fun and meet members of the opposite sex - send for Beelzebub) by slagging them off as best they could with a number of nastily-fictional tales, including the infamous non-moment when the trio had supposedly insulted a group of cancer-ridden children. It was so vitriolic, but managed to create the usual reverse effect, with more people becoming interested in this triumvirate of image-laden nutters who gleefully exploited the mass hype with three more Top 40 hits before getting bored and concentrating on their home country. Several albums later, they are seen as only semi-rebellious, but still produce uncompromising, educational and brilliantly loud noises for all who care to listen, and swear less in interviews.

Biggest Hit: "She's On It", No.10, 1987
Defining Moment: The number of Volkswagen-related crimes quadrupled overnight.

BEATMASTERS
(UK, four Top 40 hits, one Top 40 album)

House part-pioneers of the late decade, mainly recalled for inflicting Betty Boo on a waiting world with her indelicate tones adding the rap on "Hey DJ (I Can't Dance To That Music You're Playing") which heralded a short but spectacular, award-laden start to the 90s for the former Alison Clarkson. Previous bunk-ups included "Rok Da House" with Cookie Crew.

Biggest Hit: "Rok Da House", No.5, 1988
Defining Moment: That Boo woman and her leather...

BEAUTIFUL SOUTH
(UK, three Top 40 hits, one Top 40 album)

Now firmly instilled in pub jukeboxes and radio A-lists all over the country, it's quite hard to believe that pop's foremost social commentators of the last decade have actually done 11 years on the job. We can be nothing but grateful, however, as a world without Paul Heaton's incisive, sharp songwriting is scary to imagine now. Two years after the Housemartins were dissolved, Heaton re- emerged with co-'Martins vocalist and drummer Dave Hemingway and teamed up with multi-instrumentalist Dave Rotheray to resume his take on the world's social and political issues, kicking off with the inspiringly original "Song For Whoever", mainly sung by Hemingway and aimed at uncreative lyricists who earn the dough by using girls' names in their work ("oh Jackie, oh Alison, oh Philippa, oh Sue, you made me so much money I wrote this song for you") and following it up with the story of a hateful relationship in "You Keep It All In" ("just like that murder in '73, just like that robbery in '62") featuring university band singer Brianna Corrigan in triple-tandem with Heaton and Hemingway. Heaton did the voice himself on their third and final single of the decade, the aromatic "I'll Sail This Ship Alone" which almost bombed, before the 90s came along, and Heaton filled them with stories of dead relationships, alcoholics, oversized women and domestic violence, all with unequivocal open-mouthed perfection, which even earned him a spot on "Question Time" sitting next to Virginia Bottomley.

Biggest Hit: "Song For Whoever", No.2, 1989
Defining Moment: The first line in said tune "I love you from the bottom of my pencil case" and everyone thought "What the...?"

ROBIN BECK
(US, one top 40 hit, no Top 40 albums)

That sickly school-dance Coca Cola ad theme "First Time" was sung by this unknown and went straight to No.1 in 1988, with just one lyric change - the line "let's share a Coke" was unsurprisingly replaced. Beck did her bit, then became an unknown again.

Biggest Hit: "First Time", No.1, 1988
Defining Moment: How come every girl who was approached to dance on the ad accepted? Wish they'd gone to my school...

BEGGAR & CO
(UK, one Top 40 hit, no Top 40 albums)

LESS-THAN-INFLUENTIAL one-hit wonders whose solitary hit "Somebody Help Me Out" (with the words "me out" sounding like a cat in agony) made it on to many a cut-price compilation album. They came from the same Britfunk scene that spawned Level 42, but unlike their contemporaries, this group's personnel and image is wiped from the memory.

Biggest Hit: "Somebody Help Me Out", No.15, 1981 

Defining Moment: "K-Tel is proud to present Chartblasters 81, featuring Beggar And Co!"

BELLE AND THE DEVOTIONS
(UK, one Top 40 hit, no Top 40 albums)

Yet another victim of the British policy of introducing unknowns to the Eurovision Song Contest, this trio of multi-ribboned, polka dotted girly vocalists came nowhere with their offering "Love Games" ("you were only playing love games, playing love games baby") but consoled themselves with a healthy No.11 placing on the chart. Needless to say, they were never heard of again.

Biggest Hit: "Love Games", No.11, 1984
Defining Moment: Their image paved the way for Strawberry Switchblade...

BELLESTARS                                                                                                         
(UK, three Top 40 hits, one Top 40 album)

All-female group, some of whom were bespectacled a la Deirdre Barlow, who caused many a snigger with their first hit "The Clapping Song" ("my mama told me if I was goody, that she would buy me a rubber dolly") with the words gleefully changed to resemble birth control by nine year olds everywhere. Their main smash was the magnificent "Sign Of The Times" ("time to be alone") but their 12 months of admirable semi-domination was at an end by the autumn of '83. Good fun though, and far more credible than Bananarama.

Biggest Hit: "Sign Of The Times", No.3, 1983
Defining Moment: The growl which the lead singer put into "My mama told me..."