IT'S ALL OVER BAR THE SINGING
Sunday December 11, 2005
The Observer

A happy drunk who loves crashing discos? Polly Vernon becomes an honorary member of Bananarama

What are you doing?
Me? Oh, just hanging out with my new mates Keren and Sarah.

Are you trying to become the third member of Bananarama?
Maybe.

You're not qualified.
Why not?

You can't sing.
No, but I can drink, and apparently, booze is a quick way to their hearts. So I figured I could ply them with the stuff and then get them to sign something. Also, the first time I ever got drunk, it was to Bananarama, so I thought it would be nice to get drunk with them, two decades later. I arranged to meet them in Cecconi's, a veritable institution of a London restaurant, which has been rendered très fashionable by the unfailingly cool Soho House/ Babington House people, who took it over 18 months ago.

Bananarama like a cocktail, then?
'Vodka and tonic is the signature Bananarama drink,' Sarah says, (V&T is borderline cocktail in my book. A gateway cocktail, if you like.) 'We don't like tequila. Tequila can make you a bit punchy and slappy, a bit physical.' Banarama have been drinking V&Ts for years, ever since they first began getting stuff for free, 'and I can't tell you how exciting that was', says Keren. 'We've always been very fun drunks too. Fun drunks at parties. Never morose or staggering and slurring. It's all about the dancing, you see? We love to crash a disco.'

Did they have a lovely time getting drunk and being famous in the Eighties?
Very fun, by all accounts. 'I can remember the shock of our first cocktail party,' says Keren. 'It was at a club in London, Elton John threw it. So we were 18, drinking these drinks that tasted like fruit and it was all very exciting, and the next thing we knew, we'd fallen up the stairs... And I thought, how ridiculous! I've only had four or five.' Oh, how I wish I'd been a pop star! 'We used to have Sunday afternoon Margarita parties,' adds Sarah. 'Oh, the delights of a blender and a video camera.'

And now?
Now, apparently, it's less about clubs and more about local pubs, and parties at Keren and (her husband, and early lust object for the Cocktail Girl) Andrew Ridgeley's house. 'We like the bar at the Sanderson hotel [Berners Street, London W1],' says Sarah. 'I love a drink in Tokyo,' says Keren. 'The Japanese businessmen get really drunk, put down their briefcases, throw up.' Sarah's local is the St John in North London, and Keren's is a small pub in Cornwall. She bought the house next door to it when she and Andrew first moved to the South West. 'I was pregnant, and I was getting my priorities straight.'

And what of the house parties?
'Andrew does the cooking,' says Keren. 'I get tipsy, we argue, and it all ends up in a manic disco. Do I end up singing and doing a routine? Of course I do. And the splits.'

Are you jealous?
Like you wouldn't believe.