BANANARAMA

IT’S BEEN 40 YEARS SINCE BANANARAMA’S DEBUT ALBUM, BUT KEREN WOODWARD AND SARA DALLIN’S FRIENDSHIP SINCE THEY WERE TEENAGERS IN BRISTOL GOES BACK EVEN FURTHER. AS NEW BEST OF COMPILATION GLORIOUS CELEBRATES DECADES OF IMPERIOUS POP, THE DUO TELL US HOW THEY HAVE OVERCOME EVERYTHING THE INDUSTRY COULD THROW AT THEM – AND WHY IT’S NEVER A GOOD IDEA TO TRY TO DRESS LIKE BANANARAMA AT AN 80s PARTY…

JOHN EARLS

Pop Life: It’s been 40 glorious years since Bananarama’s debut album Deep Sea Skiving made the UK Top 10

© Mark Mattock

Oh, come on, have a lager!” As Bananarama order some post-lunch coffees at a busy deli in Kings Cross, Keren Woodward invites Classic Pop to fully join in their mischief.

We’re halfway through an interview where Keren and Sara Dallin have been going deep on how they’ve shone for 40 years in a music industry that’s thrown endless obstacles in their path as pioneering women in pop. It’s only in recent years that Keren and Sara have realised just how influential Bananarama were in surviving and thriving, while offering up classics in a hugely diverse yet always poptivist array of styles.

Having triumphed since launching their own record label In Synk for 2019’s In Stereo album, plus a new Best Of collection showcasing what Bananarama have stood for these past 40 years, the duo are as close to relaxing as pop warriors ever get. And yet... it’s a giddy enough experience to spend 90 minutes in Bananarama’s company, without the need for any daytime refreshment. Just a water, please.

Bananarama hold the Guinness world record for the most charting singles for an all-female band

© Getty

“We wanted this to be a unique collection, a celebration of all the twists and turns in our career,” says Sara of their new 40-track compilation

© Mark Mattock

“We were singing about our experiences. Anyone could be apop star at that time. It didn’t matter where you were from or who you were.

SARA DALLIN

Realising that we mean business, Sara and Keren return to analysing exactly what it is that Bananarama have represented since they released debut LP Deep Sea Skiving in 1983 with Siobhan Fahey. “Determination. Freedom,” considers Dallin of the essence of Bananarama. “We’ve always been ourselves, always natural. But then, we’re incapable of not being ourselves. We had to be natural.” Woodward adds: “Bananarama started out just as something that we loved: music. We learned how to write songs, and I loved that. Since then, we’ve toured the world and experienced different cultures. That’s fed into what we do, we’ve been lucky to experience that.”

Sara is right that Bananarama are always absolutely Bananarama. Whether choosing to go ultra-pop with Stock, Aitken Waterman, experimenting with The Verve producer Youth or rediscovering their love of pop with Swedish machinetooled hitmakers Murlyn, Bananarama nearly always know what they should do next. But it’s only ever been on their terms. Don’t try to get Sara or Keren to play the game, there’s no point.

“We didn’t have the capacity to fit in,” insists Dallin. “It’s not natural for us to suddenly switch it on.” Woodward admits: “We struggled to be sincere. In the early days, every time we’d do an ident, we’d be (adopts wooden monotone): ‘Er, hello...’” Keren throws a look to her bandmate who, as happens a lot over lunch with Bananarama, is trying hard to keep her composure.

“She’s the worst. Sara would sound really wooden, then go to the other extreme: ‘Hi!!! SARA HERE!!!’ We’ve learned to ignore what we’re supposed to say, and just say something in the way we’d get the message across.”

Three of a kind: Bananarama in 1984 – Keren, Siobhan Fahey and Sara

© Getty

AU NATUREL

A common theme in past Bananarama interviews is their joint mortification at how awkward they looked in their early Top Of The Pops appearances. They didn’t know which camera to perform to.