BBC WEBWISE INTERVIEW

Keren Woodward from Bananarama popped into WebWise to tell us how she uses the internet.

How did you learn about the internet?

I'm a real dork when it comes to using the computer. I shied away from using a computer because my son has one in his room and that's a bit horrible and smelly in a teenage way!
My husband Andrew (Ridgeley) has one in his office and I don't want to sit in an office in front of a computer.

So now I've got a little old Mac laptop up and running and I'm really getting into it. In fact I've set 'my office' up on the kitchen table, and I've got space to explore and learn.
Now I can do all the things everyone has been moaning on at me to do for ages, like answer e-mails.

Did you find it easy?

Yes I found it reasonably easy to use, once you get going. However I have to say I can't use a PC as I only use a Mac.

I'm sure it's pretty much the same, but I haven't got a clue.

And I'm quite lucky there's always someone around to ask if I get stuck. If I get really stuck I'll ask my son to do stuff for me, like printing or scanning things.

I'm a bit pathetic, and Andrew and my son get a bit frustrated with me. But I can do as much as I want to, so I'm quite happy.

What are your main activities online?

I'm always on my Google, looking stuff up. I haven't really had time to do much surfing recently as I've been quite busy.

I had to go to a wedding and I found loads of great clothes sites, and started mass ordering from sites like, Shopbop, Yoox and Bluefly.

Of course I ended up sending most of it back, but it was quite nice to sit in your own home, and get your clothes delivered to your door.

And let's not forget the shoes! The Gina site is fabulous for shoes.

Because I live in Cornwall I find the internet really useful for keeping up to date with stuff because it's not like living in London where you can just pop in to Harvey Nicks, although their site can be a good source of inspiration.

I think that's when designer shopping at home is fantastic, whereas the high street stuff is easily accessible to everyone.

For e-mail, we've got our own personal address which is linked to BT Internet.

Before I got set up with my laptop, everyone kept moaning that I wasn't keeping in touch, so I feel a bit more with it now.

What other kinds of shopping do you do online?

Fuelling my shoe obsession, I definitely buy lots of shoes and toiletries. I've had a bit of a window shop on eBay, but I haven't actually delved any deeper as yet, but I'm sure it will just take the right pair of shoes to lure me!

Satin boutique is a cool site for shoes and bags, Sergio Rossi and of course the king of shoes Manolo Blahnik.

As I said before being based in Cornwall means that I can't always get the things I need locally. So it's great that I can still buy great cosmetics and toiletries at sites like Space NK.

I'm addicted to a Laura Mercier bubble bath so I'm a regular visitor to their site too.

My son who's 18 reads ridiculous amounts, and he tends to read series of books by the same author, and that's when Amazon comes in really handy.

Would you ever use the internet for news?

On the whole I'll say no, I'm more likely to have the TV on instead, but if something major is happening and I want to find out more, then I'll log on and take at look at the BBC website or Sky.

Sometime I listen to Radio Four online, does that count?

What would you say is your favourite site?

Net-a-Porter, they have a new arrivals thing, so every few days I log on to see what's new and check there's nothing I'm missing out on! Sod's law by the time I've gotten around to ordering something, they never have my size left.

I quite like getdeli as well; they do lots of great specialty food, which is yummy.

If you had a friend who was logging on for the first time, which site would you recommend they visited?

Well that would depend on the friend, I think I would say to start with Google, just because if you're a bit unsure it's so simple and easy.

You've had a large break, what have you been up to since we last saw you?

Well, I've had a son, moved to Cornwall. We did take some time off; it was essential for us to have a little break. After a while we started to do bits and pieces again.

We never really stopped doing the music thing, performing, writing songs, that kind of thing. When we decided to get back into music properly, we couldn't get a deal in this country.
So we went off and did stuff in the rest of the world, we were a bit left out over here. We're very pleased that the opportunity has come up and we can do something here.

It was quite frustrating, but the British charts have changed so much. They don't seem to have songs climbing the charts and then dropping, now singles go in and out, and it's all very quick fix.

I don't think people saw us fitting in with what was going on.

What does the future hold?

We're bringing an album out at the end of September, we've just got to find the time to go in and finish it. Unfortunately we haven't got a title yet, and we'd love to tour off the back of it. A proper live tour like we did before.

Are you going to stay a two, or are you going to recruit a third member?

No, two is good. We've known each other since we were four, we never argue, and we never fall out over things, so it's the perfect combination really.