Sunday Mirror Celebs Magazine Interview

Praise be - 80's icons Bananarama are back. They talk about when Robert De Niro really was waiting, their special Wham! connection and mostly being drunk!
Bananarama are the original girl group. They've written 28 hit singles (and counting) and were strutting their legwarmer-clad stuff before the Spice Girls could even gurgle 'Girl Power'. In fact, they're the stuff of legend. Which is perhaps why, when we meet them, they seem so scary.

If we didn't know better, we'd say they were pissed off about the whole meeting-journalists-and-doing-photo-shots-to-promote-their-new-album lark. Thankfully, it seems we really didn't know better. Because once we crack open the Sauvignon Blanc and the Marlboro Lights at the end of the day, a whole new Bananarama emerges...

"We just hate photo shoots, always have done," admits Keren Woodward.
Their dislike of photo shoots is in part beacuse, back in the day, the girls (along with fellow original member Siobhan Fahey) never had stylists or make-up artists. Pop was different in the 80s. "We always dressed ourselves - as you could tell - and when we did get stylists we'd be like , "I'm not wearing that"," says Sara Dallin.

"We dressed like blokes. But I think that's cool beacuse we made it without being sexy. These days, if you're not slim and attractive, you're not going to make it" says Keren.
"And now people get schooled on what to say in interviews. What's that all about?" Sara laughs. "Mind you, if you'd seen our early interviews, perhaps we should've been. They were appauling. I hid behind my hair and we had these hideous, fake Cockney accents. It was all like, "bovvered"."

Indeed, Bananarama were famous before the nation became obsessed with celebrity.
"We love writing songs, we're not in it for the fame," says Sara. Keren agrees, "Why would I want to stand on a red carpet, when I can watch a film at my local cinema, the Wadebridge Regal?". In fact, Keren has spent the past 12 years going to the Wadebridge Regal, as well as supping real ale, playing golf, wal,king the dogs and watching cows give birth on the farm she lives on in Cornwall with her boyfriend - fellow 80s legend, Andrew Ridgeley of Wham!. Her son Tom (whose father is model David Scott Evans) is 18 and has flown the nest to university.

"I woke up one day and I'd had enough of London. I felt like I was going mad. We'd been working full-on every day for the last 10 years" says Keren. "I love it. You can lie in the bath and look at sheep in the fields. We've got two dogs and three cats, and I want a pig next."

And despite remaining in north London with her 13-year-old daughter Alice, Sara who's been best mates with Keren since the pair were four, is a regular visitor. Especially now Keren has introduced her to her new fella, a South African, Cornwall-based restauranteur who, it seems, shall remain nameless. So now both members of Bananarama are happily loved up.

Keren and Andrew have been shacked up for 15 years after first meeting through George Michael in the mid-80s. "I remember doing a blind date for No 1 magazine and I was like, "I bet it's the one of Spandau Ballet" but they said it was Wham! so I thought, "Oh Good, it must be Andrew" because he was the good lookingone. But it was George! I'm like "Oh for God's sake!" And we both look really fat in the pictures."
Despite initially dating the wrong band member, Keren and Andrew did get it together and their move to the country saw him retreat from life i the media glare. So what the heck does he do these days? After all, the royalities from Careless Whisper - which he co-wrote - mean he never has to work again.

"He likes to go walking and he likes to drink beer. Mostly the beer actually" says Keren. "And he goes surfing, and plays golf. He's got a tip-top life."
So has Bananarama's return to pop made Andrew think about stuffing that shuttlecock back down his shorts for a Wham! revival?

"God no, he's never tempted by that. He does get asked to do every reality TV show going though, and the only one he's been tempted by is Strictly Come Dancing because he loves it. But he said, "I can't, I've spent all this time being anonymous and I can't throw myself back in there."

Indeed, Andrew is so anonymous, most of us don't have the foggiest what he looks like these days.

"Oh, he's grey and bald. He looks like Osama Bin Laden - that's his nickname at the golf course," laughs Keren.

Their cornish mates are protective of their famous neighbours' privacy. "I was so panicked they'd think, "OH here come the celebs", and would alienate us." says Keren, who, with the exception of a Hello! shoot many moons ago, has never been photographed with Andrew. "But the press only get on to us when George does stuff. When he got caught in the toilets, they came down and hounded us. But the locals threw them out of the pub."
Keren and Sara (and Andrew, of course) are still great mates with George, who flies down from London to visit in his helicopter and lands on the farm. He also lives two minutes away from Sara in north London.

"He gave us the code to get into his house, so we'll be in the pub, a bit drunk, and we think, "Oh let's go and see George!" And he's there in his pyjamas going, "Oh no, not you again"," Sara laughs.

As we crack open another bottle of vino there's no doubt - refreshingly - Bananarama love a good drink. And even more refreshingly, despite their penchant for a tipple and a fag, they look bloody fantastic. Both 44, they are slimmer and prettier than ever.

"I do bugger all to stay healthy. I have fish and chips once a week, I love a Sunday roast and I go to the pub every night," admits Kere. "Bit I just don't put on weight."

Sara admits being a touch more virtous. At times. "I do go to the gym, and I am aware of how I look. I don't sit there eating doughnuts all day. Mind you, I do binge drink."

The Bananas still look so great, men of a certain age go all a-quiver in their presence. "The kids at Tom's school took the piss out of him because the teachers were saying, "Oh God, his mum's in Bananarama!" I'd go to parents' evenings and they'd say, "Come and meet Mr So-and-So. He fancied you, he had your poster on his wall." I look back of the pictures of us in the 80s and think, "How could you think I was attractive? I'm in dungarees and monkey boots," Keren laughs.

But what do they make of the current crop of girls bands? "I'm happy when I see other girls make it," says Sara. "I really like the Sugababes. They're like us - they write their own songs, two of them are mates from school, and they've got the attitude."

But the strongest praise is reserved for fellow party girl Charlotte Church. "We love Char! We saw her at Party in the Park last summer. One minute she was doing her vocal exercises, the next she's all over the place with a beer and a fag. We thought "goog girl". She's just like we were".

Of course things have changed and these days, being both mums and pop starts, their lives are more about extremes.

"I like those extremes. I remember once I went for a holiday to Necker Island with George Michael on a private jet. The next week I was pushing a pram down Holloway Road in the rain" saya Sara.

So what has been the Bananas' most memorable experience?

"Meeting Robert De Niro was funny. We were sat in our council flat watching Brookside and the payphone rang (we didn't want to have arguments about the bill). My boyfriend answered it and said "Robert De Niro's on the phone! Quick!". We made Siobhan go because she was the oldest and most articulate. He said, "It's Bob De Niro, do you want to come for a drink?"" explains Sara. "He turned up late to Kettners in Soho adn knocked on the window wearing his bobble hat. We were like "Who's that? S**t, it's Robert De Niro". So what did he make of their song? "I have no idea. I was too drunk," says Keren.

And that wasn't their only surreal experience. "Band Aid was a bit of an embarrassment. We knew Bob Geldof and he asked us to come down, but we had no idea what was going on. My mum always points out I'm the only ones drinking coffee and smoking fags," says Keren. And Sara wasn't much better. "I had a hangovers and looked shocking in ripped jeans. We didn't know there'd be a film crew, or that all these people would be there."
Keren and Sara have had some rock 'n' roll mements. "We've flown from LA to New York for a Def Leppard party then flown straight to Germany to do a show, then to LA to do a video. We still had beer in our hair," laughs Keren. "And Siobhan was strip-searched at the airport!" Sara adds.

Siobhan left the band in 1988, and they fell out for seven years. "It was actually quite awful. She married Dave (Stewart of The Eurythmics), moved to LA, and left her past behind. We didn't talk for a long time. But she's come back to the fold. When you've known someone for so long, you never lose that friendship." Far closer though, is the bond between Sara and Keren. Incredible, they've never had a row.

"It's like a marriage, not even boyfirends come as close as us," says Sara. "We'll never fall out," Keren agrees. "I stay with Sara when I'm in London and we're like teenagers. We got out, get drunk, come home at 4am, crash in her bed and phone stupid people. We've never grown out of it." And let's hope they never do. Long live Bananarama.
Bananarama's album Drama is out now.