Teen Today Interview

Last week your probing teentoday.co.uk interviewer met the lovely Sara and Keren ‘off of’ Bananarama to discuss lots of fundamental and life-affecting issues. Like the ethics of being gunged. And invitations to George Michael’s house for dinner. And Des Lynam. Here’s what happened…

Let’s start with the new single. It’s called Look On The Floor (Hypnotic Tango). That’s quite a cryptic title, isn’t it?
Keren: Well, we had to put the 'Hypnotic Tango' in because the chorus is from an Italian house track.
Sara: 'Hypnotic Tango' was the name of the group who did the original song.
Keren: And we called it Look On The Floor because the original lyrics just confused us. People kept saying to us “You can’t call your song Look On The Floor!” but we just thought “Why not?”

And the new album (Drama) is out now. What can we expect from that?
Sara: There’s no certain style on it, but it’s very melodic. That’s sort of our trademark.

'Middle Of Nowhere' from the album is a choooon!
Keren: Well, we did it years ago with Brian Higgins and we’ve always liked it.
Sara: It’s very Bacharach.
Keren: I like that one. And I’d love to do it live.

Which brings me to my next question: do you have any plans to tour?
Keren: We’d love to.
Sara: I don’t see why we wouldn’t. The first single did very well and I think the album will probably do quite well.
Keren: The great thing is, although we haven’t had much luck with things like radio play, people are still going out and buying the music. We’ve got a really good core of loyal fans, which is wonderful.

My mum saw you on This Morning and couldn’t believe how young you both look. How do you do it?
Keren: She obviously didn’t see the close ups!
Sara: It’s our choice of hair and clothes. I mean, it’s a very young industry to be in, and although that doesn’t mean we have to dress as teenagers, just because we’re in our forties we don’t have to wear tweed and brogue shoes.
Keren: And we don’t want facelifts because we wouldn’t look like ourselves. I think we aim to look natural.

If you could choose anyone to be a 3rd member of Bananarama, just for a day, who would you pick?
Keren: Charlotte Church. Love her!

Have you ever considered having a male member of Bananarama, hint hint?
Sara: Err, I don’t really think it would work.

OK.
Sara: Well, Andre 3000 would work. (WTF??!!- Ed.)

I heard a rumour (ho ho ho- Ed.) that you often go round to George Michael’s house for dinner. Is there any chance I could tag along next time you get an invite?
Keren: He doesn’t like strangers…

Well, if I were the third member of Bananarama I wouldn’t be a stranger. George would just think “Oh it’s that Nanas lot again…”
Sara: He doesn’t like people just turning up.
Keren: And I don’t suppose you would either! Well, no.
Keren: Unless it was us of course!

So, moving on, do you still stay in touch with (former Nana) Siobhan?
Sara: We didn’t speak for seven years. She kinda got married and went to live in LA.
And wore lots of white make up.
Keren: Yeah.

I was on a Bananarama messageboard the other day and one of your fans reckons he saw (Siobhan’s replacement) Jacqui O working at a petrol station in Basingstoke. Is this true?
Keren: That cannot be true! She was always very glamorous. The last thing I heard was that she was working in advertising and had gone off to live in Thailand for a while.
So it’s definitely not true?
Sara: No way. (Oh dear- Ed.)

Pete Waterman, is he mad?
Keren: Yeah! But I love him. Peter has always told very tall tales, and they change all the time. He said that he wrote Love In The First Degree lying in the bath.
Sara: And we know that’s not true. We nicked the title from a Country and Western song.
Keren: He does tell very tall tales but I’ve got a real soft spot for Peter. He’s a massive music fan and he’s in it for all the right reasons. There’s nothing cynical about him.
Have you seen the new Stock Aitken Waterman box set? 'Venus' and 'Love In The First Degree' are on there but 'I Heard A Rumour is absent'. I think this is a grave injustice!
Keren: That’s because Stock Aitken Waterman were sued for it.
Sued? Keren: Yeah, for ripping off an Italian house track.
No! (Get over it!- Ed.)
Sara: Not our bit! We did the lyric.

Bad boys! Did they do that sort of thing a lot?
Keren: Well I don’t know. If they were ripping off European songs, how would we know?

Would you be tempted to work with the reformed Stock Aitken Waterman hitmaking machine?
Keren: No.
Sara: Well, it depends on what sort of music they’re doing. I mean, Mike Stock’s a great songwriter and I’d be interested in seeing what sort of music they’re coming up with. They’re certainly very talented.

Time for a major issue in pop today: Why is Rachel Stevens having so much trouble selling records?
Sara: You just want us to say something bitchy!
Guilty as charged!
Sara: Well, to be honest, I don’t actually know anything about her. I never get a sense of what her personality is.
Keren: Maybe she needs to be a bit involved in the music side of things, so that a bit more of it comes from her. Unless you’re involved in every aspect, I don’t know that people identify with you properly.
Sara: As much as we’ve done the odd cover version, we’ve always been involved in the creative process.

Are you pissed off that on the Gillette advert they’ve used a rip-off version of 'Venus'?
Sara: Only because we don’t get paid for it! At first it sounds like you, but it’s sort of like the extra light mayonnaise version. Sara: Yeah.

Like the no-carb Kit Kat version or something.
Keren: Yeah, it’s been blanded out a bit.

Like a decaff soya milk latte.
Sara: Err, yeah.
(Move on! -Ed.)

You recently played a gig with the Scissor Sisters. Are you mates with them now?
Keren: They’re fabulous. A couple of them came to see us at G.A.Y. for our 20th anniversary show.
Sara: And after the secret gig a couple of them came into our dressing room and we were like “who are all these people?!” It was really good fun.

Would you like to work with them on a track?
Sara: Yeah, definitely.
Keren: They’re a fabulous group. I definitely would.

Des Lynam on Countdown: is this a good thing?
Keren: I actually caught it, and I thought he was really good. He was almost, well, bumbling like Richard Whiteley.

I think he’s a bit intimidated.
Sara: By Carol!
Keren: I’ve always thought Des Lynam was lovely.

Would you ever appear on Dick And Dom In ‘Da’ Bungalow?
Sara: What’s that?
It’s a kids’ TV show. All gunging and stuff.
Keren: I’m not that into being gunged. Why spend all that time on hair and make up just to be gunged? I wouldn’t have a problem going on but I wouldn’t want to be gunged.
Sara: We probably would have enjoyed being gunged back in the day.


Well, on that note, thank you very much Bananarama!