Bananarama has remained active for over 20 years. Its member Sara Dallin is flattered at being referred to as one of “pop’s pretty aunties”.
They once lived above the Sex Pistols’ rehearsing studio and had backing from ex-Specials member Terry Hall. In 1988, they were crowned Britain’s best-selling girl group, though they had to relinquish that title to the Spice Girls in the 1900s.
And if song titles like Cruel Summer, Love In The First Degree and Venus ring a bell, you will know that the group we are referring to is Bananarama. The group which has sold over 40 million albums was founded in London in 1981 by fiends Siobhan Fahey, Keren Woodward and Sara Dallin (the latter two were friends from age 13). In 1988, Fahey left the group after marrying Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart and the girls added Jacquie O’Sullivan to the line-up. O’Sullivan left in 1991.
Though surviving members Dallin and Woodward remained active, touring and releasing the occasional album, including 2001’s Exotica – an album of mostly older hits – they largely kept a low profile. Until last year.
Their new album Drama has yielded hits like Move In My Direction and Look On The Floor (Hypnotic Tango).
Life! Caught up with Dallin, 44, on the phone to talk about beef and onion sandwiches, girl groups today and what it is like to be one of pop’s older women.
Certain critics have said you’re trying to cash in on the current electronic pop trend. How do you feel about that?
I think if you’re honest and are aware of what’s going on at the time musically, you have to take certain influences. Consciously or subconsciously, you hear stuff and think “I really like that sound, I’m going to make something that uses that”. We wrote the album over the past two years and we couldn’t help but include certain influences. I don’t think certain artistes today are particularly popularising the electronic sound. It goes way back - Prince, T-Rex, they’ve done it. But technology has moved on so much since we were popular in the 1980s that it sounds so different from what we used to do, which I think is a good thing.
Speaking of your older stuff, which Bananarama hit do you secretly sing to yourself in the bathroom?
I do love Robert De Niro’s Waiting. Everyone used to sing it to us if we ran into people on the street or at a bar. I have always loved Venus as well, it was our first hit in the United States.
The Gillette ad ripped off Venus and you didn’t get royalties, I read.
Yes, well, we didn’t write that song, unfortunately. But we did meet the guy who wrote it. (Laughs). He sort of got down on his hands and knees and kissed our hands, saying: “Thank you for making me a multi-millionaire.”
Did you use the razors?
Yes I do. They’re quite good. I love anything pink.
Is it true that when you guys were with Siobhan, her burps smelled of beef and onion crisps, and Keren insisted on a separate recording booth?
Siobhan loved beef and onion sandwiches and we used to sing around the same microphone. Sometimes it got a bit much, it’s true.
But what does Keren actually burp up, since she was the complainer?
She doesn’t, she‘s fine. Very lucky.
You guys are in a very young industry. Does that ever scare you?
It doesn’t really bother me. Each person has a moment to shine and if someone can last as long as we have, it’s fantastic. I don’t feel jealous or anything. I know how much we’ve achieved. A lot of stuff now doesn’t have longevity.
One website referred to you as “pop’s pretty aunties”. What do you think of that?
(Laughs) Better than grandmothers., I suppose. It’s flattering, I guess. They don’t accuse males of it, you know. There’s no ageism there. I remember when we were 28, they were saying “Oh, they’re pushing 30.” I’m very supportive of girl groups, it’s so much harder to be taken seriously. They always try and tell you you’re not supposed to be doing it. But I feel passionate about it and if there’s a market out there, I’m going to continue doing it.
What girl groups do you champion today?
I really like the Sugababes. They were very young when they started, write their own stuff and they’re all friends. In that respect, they’ve very similar to Bananarama. They’ve got their own style and are very street-y, they’re kind cool. I like their look. I’d be in their group if I wasn’t in Bananarama.
When you approached Malcolm McLaren to be your manager when you were first starting out, he wanted you to sing a song called Don’t Touch Me Down there, Daddy. If you guys had agreed to it, what sort of group would you have ended up being?
Once we met him, we weren’t interested at all. He would have been quite militant about everything, I think. I can’t imagine it would have worked out. We were wild kids and party girls, we certainly couldn’t have had anyone like him telling us how to sing and dress. Everything about Bananarama, good and bad, came from us; it was all our invention.