Twenty years ago I would have been the envy of my classmates. Who would have thought that I would have Keren Woodward’s home phone number? Who, you ask? Well, some of us will remember her as being one-third or rather the attractive one in 1980s girl group Bananarama.
Yes, way before Mambo Jumbo nights, it used to be about tea dances and house parties. Those were the days before the Sugarbabes or Pussycat Dolls. Long before they emerged there were the three who kept Robert De Niro waiting, and were guilty of love in the first degree.
In a decade that was all about fun, the Bananarama bunch – Keren Woodward, Sara Dallin and Siobhan Fahey were the babes of the 1980s. They actually managed to make having fun a career, belting out upbeat tunes while flanked by scantily clad men.
Well, those of you who lusted after them will be freaked out to know that Woodward and Dallin are now 44 and 43, with children in their late teens. But apart from that, things haven’t changed all that much. Three is now down to two. Fahey left the group in the late-1980s after marrying Dave Stewart (of the Eurythmics) and forming Shakespeare’s Sister.
She was replaced by Jacqui O’Sullivan. But the Bananarama of today is just Woodward and Dallin, and they’re back with a brand new album.
“Well, it just became too much of a job,” said Woodward about Bananarama's absence from the music scene. It stopped being fun and we needed a break,” she added in a phone interview from her home in London.
They never really stopped writing songs, though. It was the question of getting the timing right to return to the studio. The result is the just released album Drama.
“Going back to the studio wasn’t hard at all. Everything just came naturally.”
Part of the condition of recording a new album was for them to have control of the process. They selected the producers and decided the direction of the album. Despite being the poster girls for 1980s pop music, Woodward said they always had creative control, even during their days with Stock, Aitken and Waterman.
The new album contains 16 tracks including remixes of their previous hits Venus and Really Saying Something. The first single Move in my Direction debuted on the Brit singles chart at number 14 in July 2005, long before the album was released.
The formula for the album is reminiscent of “old” Bananarama, but there is a tinge of electro-pop that gives it a more current feel. By updating their songs, the duo hope to attract new fans whilst also rewarding their loyal fans by staying true to their roots.
“We do have a core group of fans but we hope the album will appeal to a mix of old and new.”
In promoting the new album, Bananarama has performed at various festivals throughout Britain. To their surprise, the crowd has been familiar with many of their old hits although many of them probably weren’t even born when the songs were out.
“The young kids were singing and dancing, they know the songs,” she said.
Among them was Woodward's son who is currently at university.
“He was quite taken aback at how wild the crowd was. And we when did Top of the Pops, it was the first time in 10 years and it was quite exciting for Sara’s daughter who’s experiencing the whole thing for the first time.”
They were pretty nervous doing the show after such a long time but like before , they decided to just have fun with it. That has after all always been their formula and they have no problem acknowledging it.
“What you see is what you get,” she noted. “We have no formula and no master plan but that was part of the fun.”
In today’s “manufactured” industry, she added, no record company would have been willing to take a chance on them.
“The industry has changed massively. Had we started out the way we had today, nobody would have taken us seriously.”
Which would be shame. Bananarama has sold millions of records, had number one hits all over the world and can boast 25 top 40 hits in Britain.
Will this album signal the re-emergence of one of the most popular girl groups of all time?
“It would depend on how well this one does,” she said. “We have no plans yet.”
Well, the formula has worked for them so far.