QUIZMASTER Ian Usher
BANANARAMA ATTITUDE

They were the feisty first girls of pop who paved the way for everyone from the Spice Girls to the Sugababes. Now they're back and it's like they've never been away. Keren and Sarah talk dildos, Robert De Niro, and beating up fellow pop stars...

Keren and Sarah from Bananarama enter the room at 10am looking like they've just stepped off the set of Desperate Housewives. Quite how they have managed to look this good after all these years remains a mystery, especially when you notice that their foreheads do actually move when they speak. Can a diet of booze, fags and laughter really be the simple answer to such a vibrant and long-lasting glow? In an age of scripted robotic pop stars, meeting Bananarama and watching them chain smoke, using a half-empty cup of coffee as an ashtray, laughing hysterically at things they shouldn't really do without the watchful eye of some mafia-like management and finishing each others sentences with true sisterly love almost brings a tear to the eye. Bananarama were not just a girl band, they were the definitive girl band.

A fun loving three-girl gang that came together via the route of friendship, rather than the corridor of an audition hall; who fell into the world of pop as easily as they fell over drunk. As the most successful girl group ever, they have become the industry blueprint for
a gaggle of groups from the Spice Giris to Girls Aloud. As original Banana Siobhan Fahey went off to explore the darker side of pop, and replacement Jacqui 'O Sullivan, learnt the hard way that three really is a crowd, Sarah and Keren have since remained a tight unit, personally and professionally. Now set to return to the UK charts for the first time in eons, with : not only an ace new single, Move In My Direction, but ; also by way of the Solasso vs Bananarama's crossover bootleg Really Saying Something the girls are back in business. Rachel Stevens, watch and learn..

I heard a rumour (sorry!!!) that you were to appear on the Pet Shop Boys 'Where The Streets Have No Name - any truth in It? And Sarah, Is It true that you once tried to seduce Neil Tennant?
David Grubb, Paignton

S: No I did not! [looks horrified]
K: We saw them yesterday, actually, for lunch. They've written a song for us, but we haven't heard it, so we don't know if we like it yet.
S: Chris was like "Y'know, don't feel you can't tell us if you don't like it," and I said "I won't!" [Laughs]
K: I've forgotten the question now. Oh yes, apparently they were going to ask us to sing the “I love you baby" bits. We see them every so often for gossipy dinners. With Janet (Street-Porter). It's very amusing.

How would you revive the ailing fortunes of Eastenders?
Sammy Jones, Barry

K: It is quite painful at the moment.
S: We don’t really watch it anymore, it’s all about Emmerdale now. We LOVE Patsy (Kensit), she’s great.
K: Plus nobody seems to have any relationships anymore in EastEnders.
S: Whereas Emmerdale, they're up to all sorts, it's far more intriguing.

Which of your albums would you say was your
Sgt Peppers?
Johnny Johnson, Manchester

S: Poplife. I think we'd learnt our craft on that album and we had total freedom to do whatever we liked.
K: I have to say I think the Wow! album was a bit of a peak for me. 'Cause that whole period was so much fun. It was when we'd started to use dancers and we'd really come into ourselves as an act, and dare I say it... S: We'd grown up.

According to my Smash Hits annual 1983, all three of you - when Siobhan was also a Narn - lived in a council block together in central London. Do you remember those days fondly? Were there ever any lesbian activities?
Donn, Netherlands

S: Yeah, very fondly. We all had Irish boyfriends at the time. We did everything together. Shane from The Pogues was always around our place. We were always down the pub every night, then gangs of us would go off clubbing, we had no worries.
K: And, we could walk home afterwards. Well, stumble. S: They were really great times. So much so that when we did eventually get a bit of money, we bought three houses next to each other in Kentish Town. We even knocked our gardens through at one point, took the fence down to be closer.
K: We had Lloyd Grossman, when he did that Whose Garden bit, or whatever it was, come round and say it looked like a couple of cows lived there cos the lawn was that long and it was all
covered in dog shit We never took up gardening.
K: As for the lesbian bit-absolutely not I'm afraid.
S: However, we do still share a bed on occasion.

Hazell Dean has previously complained in interviews that you were very rude to her In the late 80s. Who was to blame?
Jan, Capetown

[Both break into fits of laughter at the mention of Hazel's name]
S: Siobhan. It must have been.
K: I don't ever remember meeting her.
S: We probably did, but didn't know who she was and she probably took that as us being ignorant We were probably drunk at the time.
K: We'd never knowingly be rude to her... [hysterics]
K: You see we always got on with everyone. Whether it be The Cure, Def Leppard or Duran Duran...
S: Chas & Dave... Out of that whole PWL bunch, we liked Pete Burns. We'd go the pub after
recording and he'd be telling us all about the surgery he'd had.
K: He told us once that he was asleep and his cheek implant had moved during the night and we were like "OH MY GOD!!" We were quite naive.

If I asked you now, on the spot, to sing Aie A Mwana (the girls punk, Swahili-sung debut
single), start to finish, could you do it?
Kenny Bryan, Liverpool

K: Yes. [Both look worried as Keren launches into the opening line, with Sarah joining on the second. They complete two verses perfectly, before messing up and breaking into hysterics.]
S: I think the answer may be "No".

Your perfomances of the late 80s, backed by a tribe of musclebound, half-naked male dancers, are quite legendary, and were one of the first great acts of Girl Power In pop music. Who takes the credit for that and, just out of Interest, were any of the dancers gay by any chance?
Jason via email

S: Oh that was my idea. Definitely [laughs].
K: The dancers thing came about 'cause we'd started to make up our own routines and then someone suggested a choreographer, because ours were just crap, and he suggested we use his mate and his boyfriend. And it escalated from there really to 25 naked men dancing behind us. All of the dancers were gay. Not surprisingly. Apart from the black dancers we had. Which is just as well really, as Sarah had a baby with one of them.

Are you aware you are the subject of Jaime Clarke's novel, We're So Famous? If so, have you read the book?
Colin Sedaris, Cambridge

K: Yes. We have it. I don't think I've read it from cover to cover though.
S: I just flicked to the pages where I saw my name.

If you were stuck on a desert island and could choose between taking Jacqui or Siobhan, who would you take and why?
Simon Jones via email

K: With Jacqui, it was quite sad, cos when Siobhan left, we didn't really want anyone else, but we were kind of persuaded that Bananarama was all about three. And we knew Jacqui from clubs and that she sang, and we did get on very well.
S: Jacqui did the world tour with us, and we'd never toured before, so that was a fantastic time. But for her to step into Siobhan's shoes was really difficult. Plus our time was kinda slowing down, if you
K: That's really tough. We'd have to take Siobhan, 'cause we still see her and it goes back so far with us, to like, teenagers. And we had such a complete breakdown with her, she's mental.
S: She's like family. It was a different kind of friendship to what we ever had with Jacqui
like, and we just decided we'd rather continue as a duo.
K: Also when we were doing interviews, no one would speak to her, which must have been hard.
S: And in the studio we'd sort of carry on as usual, so it was very hard for her to become a full, equal partner. So when it became apparent that that wasn't gonna happen, we had a chat with her. Well, Keren did.
K: Ex-cuse me!! [Laughs]
S: We haven’t spoken in a long time. The last we heard she'd gone to live in Thailand.

SAW had a huge amount of hits. Which hit song of theirs would you have liked to have taken for yourselves? Any regrets about turning dow both Mel & Kim's Respectable and Donna
Summer's This Time I Know It’s for Real?
Paul COLLINS, Plymouth

S: Respectable we never turned down.
K: Better The Devil You Know is one of my absolutefavourites. Apart from that, I think / Heard A Rumourwas the best song they ever did, which I still love.
S: We're not sure if they played us the backing track to the Donna Summer song, but it wouldn't have been the full song, as we always co-wrote every song with them, and I still don't think people believe that.
K: I think after a while, they got so busy, they thought they could get away with just giving us songs, so they'd call us in and try palming one off on us and we were like, "No thanks”, so they were like "Well fine, Donna Summer or Sinitta will have it" That was when it all went a bit wrong for us. The whole thing with SAW was that when we'd gone to them it was all new and exciting, and then they very much started churning out the songs like a little production line and we just didn't wanna work in those circumstances.
S: The turning point was when we were on the road travelling, and the intro to what we thought was our new song came on, so we turned it up, all very excited and it turned out to be Sinitta, and we were like, "Shit!"
S: We went through that stage where we wanted to develop, so we made a choice to leave and go work with Youth on the PopLife album.
K: I mean, we'd been doing the same thing for so long and it was like when Kylie has had enough and just wants to go off and try something different. So with Youth, all the songs were based around guitars and written and worked in a different way. However, at the end of it all, I had a bit of a crisis and...
S: …wanted to leave the group and leave me on my own [shoots evil glances].
K: And then she [meaning Sarah] got pregnant and couldn't be arsed to work. Whereas, of course, I worked through my whole pregnancy. I'd reached a point where I thought I just can't do this anymore. It was the start of Britpop and there just wasn't space for a group like Bananarama anymore, and I just felt, what's the point? Only for a moment, mind.

Is it true the group could have came back as the original line-up, only Siobhan did not want to release a ballad, and wanted to work with someone "cutting edge" like Richard X Instead? If so, why did you both not agree with her?
Robin Guthrie, Essex

S: No, that's not true. I mean, when Siobhan left, she did so in a way that she cut herself off from her past and went on to do her own thing.
K: And that's fine, but there was never a question of her wanting to come back and certainly not for us to become three again.
S: Obviously, we've reunited for Song For Eurotrash and the 20th anniversary, and we had such a great time doing so, but I think we all realise that it could never work on a permanent basis.
K: Thing is, Siobhan never toured with us and got to do that whole live experience with us, and I think that was very sad.
S: Maybe she'll return for a couple of songs again on the 25th anniversary.

What’s was the real story with the three of you meeting Robert De Nlro In '84? Is there any
truth to the rumour that you were all so nervous about meeting him, and consequently drank too much beforehand, got terribly smashed, and that you, Keren, vomited at his feet?
Paul Webb, Melbourne, Aus.

K: No, I did not vomit on his feet.
S: That story has followed us everywhere. My friend
David Thomas that made it up as a joke.
K: However, we did drink a fair bit though. We were a little nervous. He phoned us up in our council flat in Holborn and none of us really wanted to speak to him 'cause what do you say?
S: We were watching Corrie and my boyfriend said
"Oh, Bob De Niro's on the phone? and we were like "Yeah, right; and when we realised it was him, we were like "Siobhan, you speak to him, you're the oldest".
K: He was filming Brazil at the time, and we actually met him in Kettners in Soho. But he didn't arrive till very late, by which time the bar was closed and there was this man stood outside with a little bobble hat on, tapping on the window to get in and we had no idea who he was. We were pretty legless, but we're old . hands; I certainly never threw up.
S: I've no idea what we spoke to him about, but he did have a very sexy smile... and we'll leave it there.

You are the most successful fruits in pop I know of. Can you name five other fruits in pop?
Ian, Muswell Hill

S: George Michael, Boy George. The list is endless!
K: No, really. Hmm. There’s Jason Orange.
S: Wild Cherry.
K: Strawberry Switchblade.
K: Black Grape
S: Banana Splitz. Does that count? Well it does now.

Someone told me that Siobhan's new single Pulsatron is named after a dildo that one of you possesses. Please say this is true!
Andrew Wilson, Cardiff
S: Yep. Very true. It was Keren's.
K: We were talking about this recently over lunch.
S: Don't look at me Keren, it's your story.
K: I still have it. It still works! [Laughs]

There's a rumour that Malcolm McLaren once wrote you a song called Don’t You Touch Me down There Daddy. Is this true and if so, why on earth did you not record it?
Ben Harris, Watford
S: Yes it is. We were looking for a manager at the time and we went to him and it was like going to see the headmaster. We all sat in a row like naughty school girls, giggling and not really knowing what to say.
K: And I drifted off at one point and he roared at me you, on the end, what did I just say?" I was petrified.
S: And he was like, "Listen, do you wanna be Bucks Fizz or The Slits?" He told us he had a song called Don’t You Touch Me Down There Daddy and we were like, er, we don't really wanna sing that.
K: We weren't really sexual by then, we looked like little boys, still wearing little monkey boots, and we hadn't really grown up. The thought of singing something like that horrified us.
S: Whereas now, it'd be like the most natural thing in the world... [laughs]

Have you ever bumped into Marcella Detroit post Shakespeare's Sister and had a right good bitch about Siobhan?
Harold Evans, Dublin
S: Ooh, we'd never bitch about Siobhan. She's a sister.
K: I know they had a bit of a falling out [bursts of sarcastic laughter] and we have bumped into Marcella since then, but we certainly wouldn't have bitched about Siobhan. That just wouldn't happen.

What do you think of post "Nanas girl groups Like Sugababes, Atomic Kitten and Girls Aloud? Which do you most identify with?
Mike Scully, Worksop

K: I like the Sugababes, personally. I love their songs, and they're a bit sulky aren't they?
S: Very like us then.
K: Girls Aloud are just so different from us in terms of how they came about, with the whole TV show.
S: With Sugababes, well, with two of them at least, they've been best mates for ages and they have that similar clubby thing to us. People find that threatening. K: I don't know why people were scared of us [sniggers]. We were very shy, all three of us, so it was more a safety in numbers thing. When we were in a situation where we felt uncomfortable, like interviews, we'd huddle together, and it's quite hard to approach three young girls when it looks like they're talking behind their hands and laughing at you, which we probably were [laughs].
S: And then one of us would go, "I need to go to the toilet," so we'd be like, "Well if she's going, we'll all go," 'cause we didn't want to be apart. We were quite inseparable and that is hard for people to understand. Even now, people find us hard to approach; Boy George is always wary of Keren.
K: That's such rubbish. He REALLY loves me... [cackles]
S: We knew him years before he was in Culture Club and we'd bump into him at some disco or other and he'd be like, "Hey you bitches, you watch, I'm gonna be up there next year, don't you worry". And he was.
K: He did used to be quite vile to us.

Is it true you flattened D:Ream's Peter Cunnah in a club for insulting your chart success?
Alan Budd, Oxford
K&S:Yes!
S: I pushed him really hard in the face [mimics said push with scary look on her face - you wouldn't wanna mess with these girls] and Keren gave him a dead leg.
K: On the way down to the floor.
S: He was SO obnoxious. We were at some do and he said, "Talk to me when you've written a hit song," and he was just really in your face, so I just grabbed
his face and pushed him really forcefully.
K: And he was going over, so I just finished him off.
S: We're not proud of it [both collapse with laughter].

What 'Nana song are you most proud of and what 'Nana song are you still hiding from?
S: My favourite is Robert De Niro. And Venus, 'cause it was so massive all over the world.
K: Mine has to be / Heard A Rumour. I don't know what it is about that song but even now, when I hear the intro, it makes me very, very happy and proud. As far as hiding from, we're not so keen on / Want You Back, but that's only really because it's got such a hideous dance routine.
S: There are some B-sides best forgotten. Girl About Town was an absolute blinder.
K: He's Got Tact, also. "He's got tact and he knows how to use it/I fell for him when I first saw him cruising.'' [Shrieks of laughter]
S: Yes. That was a very poor song.

Did you get on with Dave Stewart (Siobhan's ex hubby)? I remember a Smash Hits article In which you referred to him as Rolf (as In Rolf Harris).
Julian Clarke, Brighton

[Laughs for an eternity]
S: Siobhan had just secretly started seeing him and we were in MTV in New York and there was picture on the wall of him, and he did look like Rolf Harris. So she went and bloody told him, and he was so offended. I mean, it was joke for God's sake.
K: He has this big old beard... [more laughter]
S: As far as getting on with him goes, we didn't really see him.
K: And y'know, we all have different tastes in men. It wasn't out of character for Siobhan, so we didn't really think anything of it. You should have seen her previous boyfriend! [More laughter]

Vodka: Sara, Keren, Siobhan, Jacqui. Who could drink the others under the table?
Donald Greene, Bradford

S: Jacqui.
K: Siobhan was the worst Jacqui wasn't good on whiskey. I had to have quite a few words with her on tour, "Lay off the whiskey will ya love?" [Laughs]
S: Yes, there could be a little bit of a violent turn there.
K: Siobhan was a crap drinker, she would always throw up. You'd always find her face down in a shag pile in hotel rooms, in a pool of vomit.
S: You'd know when she'd gone home early because you'd see a trail of sick down the hotel corridor.
K: She won't like you saying that.
S: Oh, she wont mind. She's still the same now! [Laughs] *


Banararama's new single Move In My Direction is out
12 July on A&G Productions

EXTRA QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS NOT PUBLISHED

Who in god's name did your hair on the Deep Sea Skiving cover?

(Both crack up laughing).
K: No one. That’s just how we looked.
S: We’re fully responsible. Half the time we used to just wear hats to cover it up. I remember this awful Harrods felt hat that could go into any shape. Horrendous.

What was the best argument you ever had with Pete Waterman?

S: We never argued massively, like people think. We’d argue about things he’d said in the press.
K: Like “I was lying in the bath and I thought, ‘Love In The First Degree’”, and it’s like, you weren’t even there. (Laughs) His stories were so hysterical. I’ve always had a huge soft spot for Pete, just because he was such a massive music fan. And as much as he was never fully involved with the writing side, he’d always pop his head round the door with that one great idea to make the track amazing.
S: I think he once said we were his favourite pop act ever. Which was lovely.

Were you asked to do Hit Me Baby One More Time? What was your immediate reaction? Have you seen it?

K: I don’t know if we were asked actually, but if so, it would have most definitely been a no.
S: We’ve been asked on so many of those nostalgic things, we’ve always said no. Not for us.
K: I saw the Shakey one (Sniggers)
S: However, we have done the Butlin’s gigs, but only because we heard that people like Jamelia and Blue had all played there, so we thought we’d give it a go.
K: We went down on a really rainy weekend to Bognor Regis and we thought, who on earth is gonna go to this. Then when we arrived we couldn’t park the car cos it was just heaving there. We went on stage and the crowd was just amazing. It was a right old laugh, great fun, drunken nude men jumping on stage, the lot. Not bad really.

Many years ago, I was in a Banananara tribute act called Mananarama. Do you know of any other cross dressing tribute acts out there?

K: We’ve seen quite a few actually. There’s one in Thailand I remember, and one that used to play Madame Jo Jo’s, they’re quite hilarious. I love all that.
S: Didn’t the one who used to be you always end up in tears and storming off the stage?
K: Yes, I’ve no idea what that was all about, but they were fabulous.

What were your thoughts and feelings on the amazing scene in the film Rita, Sue and Bob Too, where Rita and Sue are dancing to More Than Physical. Do you get excited by things like that?

S: We were SO thrilled when we saw that.
K: But even now, it’s so amazing to see yourself referenced in a programme or film, you still get really excited.
S: I think there was something in Corrie recently, apparently the gay guy said something like “Let’s go home and listen to some Bananarama”, which is just amazing.
K: I love it. I always remember when I first heard our song being played in the caf’ on Eastenders, I thought ‘We’ve made it’.

Why was Melanie O' Brien never a full time proper member? I always wondered why she was not first choice after Siobhan left.

K: Oh poor Mel.
S: Did she send that in herself? (Laughs)
K: Mel was part of us when we originally started doing back up vocals for people. Then we some guy who wanted to manage us, but she had a shaved head and he didn’t think she looked right.
S: She had it coloured the West Ham colours too, as they were her team.
K: So she went in the end. But then he didn’t end up managing us anyway cos he wanted us to go underground and learn our trade, and we were like “What!? We wanna be on Top Of The Pops next week, not next year”, so he went too.
S: He was one of the many would be managers that bit the dust early on for trying to tell us what to do.

Bananarama was the first and best gig I ever went to. What is your fav gig?

K: Mine was The Prodigy, When they supported Oasis at Knebworth. I ended up on stage on with them, absolutely off my face. I got dragged up on stage by one of them, I think it was Keith, and there I was throwing myself around in my flip flops, and then I just thought “What are you doing you silly cow?”. That was a great gig.

Will you ever release a DVD?

K: Well, I imagine if this all goes well with the new single and album there will be some sort of repackaging of older stuff. However, the last time they put out a greatest hits we were really pissed off. They just slung it out without thinking around the time of the 20th anniversary. When we got wind of it, we contacted them and said look we’ve got a few anniversary things on the go, plus there’s some new stuff we could add to the Greatest Hits and we suggested we work together on it and make it a really great package. But they were like 'it’s all planned now and it’s going out'. Y’know, they didn’t involve us in any of it, the artwork, nothing. And it’d be good to have a full DVD with extras like the Brits Award performance of Love In The First Degree.
S: And the French & Saunders thing. I’d love to see that again, I haven’t seen it for ages.