Bananarama Appreciation Thread

I love them still and totally like their latest album. Fun pop music

The realization that it took 6 people to write I Heard a Rumour just adds to their magnificence.

Like Charlie’s Angels: stupid but the original 3 had something.

Despite their success, they were treated as a joke by the British music critics. To be fair, the girls didn't give a fuck, and even spoofed themselves several times.

Here's Tracey Ullman's take.

The newer songs they did, "Looking for Someone" and "On the Floor (Angel City mix)" were both very good pop songs in my opinion.

They were fun with catchy songs. They never took themselves too seriously. I saw them live at a benefit maybe ten years ago. They sang capably and were great with the audience.

I was there. Jealous, bitches? Sara is very witty.

Believe it or don't-they have an autobiography coming out in October. You can order signed copies online. (Waterstone's)

I love them! I was there as well R7! Jennifer Saunders says they were the inspiration for AbFab.

I met them during a Meet and Greet when they reunited a few years ago. I have to say I found Keren and Sara much friendlier. Siobhan has always been my favourite and she kind of lived up to her moody persona. Of course, I'm basing this on literally an under five minute meeting (M&G are awkward anyway). I think it's Siobhan's moodiness mixed with Keren and Sara's don't give two fucks but let's have fun attitude that makes the trio so fabulous. But meeting them I could see how Keren and Sara prefer to be a duo and it was no surprise that it was only a temporary reunion.

Their Greatest Hits collection is one of my all-time favourite collections, up there with Madonna, Bob Marley and the Wailers, The Supremes and ABBA Gold.

I love their cover of Venus. I also love their cover of The Doobie Brothers' "Long Train Running". The addition of the Gipsy Kings really makes it a distinct cover.

I think Trick of the Night is one of their most underrated songs.

Are they lesbians?

Are they located in the U.S. at all, or just strictly Australia?

I believe you mean England, darling.

Holland Park!

HEY!

HEY BOY!!!!

So Jacquie recently did a podcast - her first in I don't know how many years. She spills some good tea - for example, Sara apparently weaseled out of firing Jacquie, leaving Keren to give her the chop on her own. (Though I doubt Keren was really bothered.) Jacquie also confided that Siobhan reached out to her when she joined Bananarama - Siobhan advised her not to do it, that the other two would make it hard for her.

I also want to say that Siobhan's silence on this new Keren/Sara memoir is interesting. I'm sure they will be respectful towards her, but I wonder if she was even consulted or asked to contribute. I hope this means Siobhan will write her own book.

There appeal was catchy, joyous, danceable tunes. Plenty of pop stars aren't great singers.

I just recently discovered how much "I Heard a Rumor" shamelessly ripped off "Give Me Up" by Michael Fortunati. Those whores!

Don’t blame them, R18, blame Stock Aitken Waterman who produced it. I’ve heard the original and it is better by Bananarama, but it was a blatant “homage”.

I always mix them up with The Bangles.

One did a cover of Venus and one did a cover of Hazy Shade of Winter...I know that much.

The Bangles could actually write music . . . and play instruments . . . .and sing.

yeah, this is up a level or two

Let me "Oh, dear" myself.

"There" was supposed to be "Their."

R21 Bananarama wrote as well. Siobhan Fahey is an incredible writer - see her album, The MGA Sessions.

This 👆🏻 Is far better than anything the Bangles ever did. Other amazing Fahey songs, whether solo, Bananarama or Shakespear’s Sister: Young at Heart, Cruel Summer, Heroine, Break My Heart, Goodbye Cruel World, I Don’t Care, Hello, Electric Moon, Run Silent, Guilt Edged, Its a Trip, Was it Something I Said, A Christmas Number One, After All, The Older Sister, The Suppressed Trilogy, A Loaded Gun and The Darling Symphony.

The woman is a genius who never got her due.

Anyway, I know that this is a Bananarama appreciation thread, so here is their finest song!

I love watching the videos and Keren and Siobhan try to cover for Sara's lack of rhythm and dancing skills.

Watch some of their earlier videos - Sara is trying really hard to stay on beat and the other two just dance around her to distract. It's HILARIOUS! They finally worked it out by Venus.

The same bad sound over and over with soulless singing and Stepford-like members.

I love how Keren and Sara try so hard to make Bananarama a duo but Siobhan's shadow hangs over them everywhere they go. I'll admit Drama and Love in Stereo were decent albums, but their material is nowhere near as good as the stuff they did as a trio. Siobhan brought spark to the group. I think that it was Keren and Sara versus Siobhan is what made the group so good. Siobhan brought that little bit of crazy to give the group some personality.

I'm really curious what Keren and Sara will say in the book re: Siobhan. But I bet they are going to focus on '93 and forward when they became a duo. In other words, the years fans are less interested in.

The Bangles didn't write Manic Monday R22, Prince did

I wanted their clothes and their hair.

I’m looking forward to their memoir only if they reveal all the hot 80s guys they had...at the BandAid session alone, there were quite a few! There must’ve been some hookups...

How old were these ladies in the 80's? They look like mid 40 something hags in those vintage videos.

R33, in their 20s. In the When She Finds You clip above, Fahey is 61, not in her 40s.

I was always amazed that they never really harmonized..yet somehow they had a string of catchy hits

The most important thing about Bananarama was the sexy dancing guys in loincloths from the "Venus" video.

With Fun Boy 3 before all the hair gel and lip gloss.

I belong to a couple of Bananarama Facebook groups - Sara's daughter lurks there and swoops in if anyone dares to post a critical word against her mother and Auntie Keren.

Look on the Floor, cougar look

Lananeeneenoonoo is not Banarama, but just like them! French and Saunders and Kathy Burke

Love them.

I love some of their songs its too bad they weren’t given to people with actual talent though.

R38, there are MULTIPLE Bananarama Facebook groups? I think one would suffice.

Daniel LaRusso makes his kids a recipe something he calls ‘Bananarama pancakes’ in COBRA KAI.

The show also used a breathy, slowed-down Millennial version of ‘Cruel Summer’ as a soundtrack for the Season Two trailers.

R42 Well, since they wrote them (with the exception of covers like Venus and Na Na Hey Hey), why would they give them away? Other artists can just cover them. I’m sure I’ve heard Cruel Summer covered a couple of times...

R45 interesting. I thought Stock Aitken Waterman wrote all their songs, but apparently I was wrong, he just produced Venus

SAW is actually 3 people and they did far more than Venus with Bananarama. Woorking with them on the WOW album is one of the reasons Siobhan quit.

R46 Stock & Co didn’t involved until the 4th album, (except for one or two songs on their third). For me, Bananarama is their first two albums.

Siobhan Fahey hated SWA and rightly so. She particularly loathed the song Strike it Rich. The lyrics on the fourth album, Wow!, are pretty awful: “you’ve tried the rest, come on and try the best..” but there are some good moments like Come Back With My Heart, Once in a Lifetime, Nathan Jones and I Heard a Rumor. Even b-side Mr Sleaze.

Check out their original sound:

Fahey left after Wow! and started a new band, Shakespears Sister.

R47 i know they're 3 people, I just meant that I always assumed SAW did their other top hits in the US, I Heard A Rumour (which was co-written SAW with the girls), Cruel Summer, and Robert Deniro's Waiting, and was (happily) surprised to learn the 3 women wrote them themselves. Not familiar with their other songs.

Robert De Niro and Cruel Summer are from the second album and were produced by Tony Swain and Steve Jolley.

Why would you start a namedropping thread about Bananarama in a cruel summer and NOT play their appropriate song, OP?

It's your only shot at being relevant.

I saw them in Hawaii when I was a kid at a beauty pageant.

Even back then and do they were lip syncing. But I love their makeup and clothes. I told my mom if I ever was a girl I would want to dress like them. She promptly went to my dad and got a long lecture.

Why did your dad lecture your mom?

Talented gorgeous twats (well 2 out of 3 were gorgeous)

I'm very jealous, R53 that you got to see them. They mentioned this performance in the Greatest Hits liner notes ( "At this stage we'd do anything for money"). They did this song as well.

R55 which one wasn’t gorgeous?

I think they were all attractive. They still are. I did the Meet and Greet with them when the toured North America for the reunion and they all look fantastic. Madonna could never...

The one that looked like a clydesdale, R57. She had the longer blonde hair in the Venus video.

Daaaaamn, R59. You mean Sara(h) Dallin. I think she’s as attractive as the other two and certainly aged well.

R54 I meant "She promptly went to my dad and I got a long lecture."

I like this one, from 2019.

This one too.

R57 The one not named Siobhan or Keren.

Cruel Summer, live vocals.

Bumping this thread because of the Keren and Sara autobiography. Anyone here read it? I've heard mixed reviews because they barely mention the music or Siobhan Fahey. I guess we'll have to wait for Siobhan's memoirs to learn the true backstory of the group.

R66 I just read it last weekend! It's fun and dishy. I've been a big fan for years and lots of stuff in there I didn't know about. They were crazy punk rock girls squatting in the Sex Pistols old pad before they made it. Some sweet and funny stories about George Michael. Reading the book you realize they really were more of a duo their whole lives and Siobhan was just a chapter in their lives albeit a very important chapter. I love Siobhan but she seems unstable. I always thought Keren was the prettiest especially during the Gaultier-wearing years but all the guys (including DeNiro!) hit on Sara.

Sara is the horsey looking one but she was the most forward. I can see her appeal to straight men.

So many deals are made on the dancefloor (5:00 onwards).

Sara’s appeal to straight men is bleached hair and big tits.

None of them were serving big tits back in the day.

I loved The Wild Life song

R70 They looked big next to Siobhan and Keren.

I dont know what book R67 read, but it wasnt the Bananarama book. I read it and found it incredibly boring. Hardly anything in depth about the breakup with Siobahn, next to nothing about Keren's life with Andrew Ridgeley and about 2 lines about being at the historic Band Aid recording. There is only 1 truly interesting story (about security guards getting naked in their hotel room). But if you want to hear all about their kids, Kerens postpartum depression and problems with her hair, then this is the book for you.

R73 To each their own I suppose. Every I know who has read it loved it. It was precisely the escape I needed right now and I feel like the girls were quite honest. What exactly did you want to know about Band-Aid? They were obviously pissed to be one of the few girl groups there and don't have much to say about the sausage party. I get it.

Friends had an extra ticket to the Bananarama reunion show in Nyc so I went. I was surprised by how many of the songs I knew! Like the Robyn & Royksopp or Kylie Minogue Nyc concerts- it was wall to wall gays. They still couldn’t sing or dance or... or...and yet it was great fun & they won me over! Hope my reflections makes sense- on a gummi!

There was one for each of us!

The extended version of Hot Line To Heaven is fabulous.

I grew up in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, and everyone used to talk about the "punk" store in Georgetown (Commander Salamander). I remember I got a chance to look in and they were playing "Robert De Niro's Waiting". No idea how I figured out the artist in those pre-internet days, but when I did of course I was already familiar with "Cruel Summer".

"Walk Like an Egyptian" is the only song I remember.

[quote]"Walk Like an Egyptian" is the only song I remember.

Fail

To me, Bananarama will always be Siobhan, Keren and Sara. Keren and Sara are a duo now but the trio years will always be the best years.

^ Agreed. I've never cared for the output from the duo. Even the stuff with Jacquie was better. Apparently Siobhan has fallen out with the other two again.

r82 Yeah, I remember the last video they did together at the end of the tour. Siobhan made it clear that it was over and she wasn't coming back. I was hoping she was kidding because frankly, sometimes Bananarama likes to joke around, but she seemed quite serious.

I can only imagine how difficult it was for Siobhan. They had never really done a major tour even when they were together but Siobhan was joining Keren and Sara after many years. I get the impression Siobhan can be difficult but she is an extremely creative person and I think she is the spark to both Shakespear's Sister and Bananarama.

This undiscovered gem of disco bliss is one of my favorites, from their underrated SAW produced 1993 Please Yourself album, never released in the US

R83, apparently Sara pulled the plug on a new single from the trio - I think it was at that point Siobhan tapped out, and decided to reboot Shakespear's Sister with Marcy. Keren & Sara were stupid to not create something new with Siobhan and extend the tour.

Keren and Sara are so vanilla without Siobhan. Siobhan brings that extra something special.

But I guess Keren and Sara prefer just touring, playing the hits and going home, whereas Siobhan likes to create new music.

[quote] I get the impression Siobhan can be difficult but she is an extremely creative person.

It must have been difficult for her in Bananarama, stuck with two best friends, but the way she treated Marcy in Shakespear's Sister was appalling, She saw Marcy as the hired help, but with Stay Marcy became the main attraction.

After the success in 1992, they were nominated for countless Brits in 1993, winning Best Video which Marcy accepted by herself, failing to mention Siobhan in the speech. When Hormonally Yours won best collection of songs at the Ivor Novello Awards Marcy attended in person, with Siobhan's speech read by her publisher, announcing the end of the band, something that blindsided Marcy. Marcy went on to have a few hit singles and another Brit nomination.

The guy in the Stay video was also Keren's ex boyfriend, and the father of Keren's son, which must have gone down well in the Woodward house.

Everyone is responsible for Siobhan's problems except Siobhan

That F&S skit at R40 kills me.