Bananarama Young Guns Go for It

# Young guns having some fun

# Young guns having some fun

# Young guns, go for it

# Young guns, go for it Young guns! #

INTRO TO: "Venus"

# Goddess on the mountain top Burning like a silver flame... #

We never took ourselves too seriously. We never said we were great singers or dancers.

We just said, "Take it or leave it."

# ..She's got it... #

Their success was beyond anybody's wildest dreams. They became the biggest girl group in the world

and had the most hit records in the world.

They were white, bolshy. They had bits of punk rock attached to them.

Girls looking to be tough, sexual, fashion, beasts.

# I heard a rumour

# Yes, I did... #

They were impossible - a brick wall.

You could not... If they didn't want to do it, they didn't do it.

In the aftermath of punk,

three girls with no obvious qualifications decided upon a career in pop music.

They spent the next seven years taking on the music industry.

One of the most successful British girl groups ever,

they almost lost their friendship in the process.

This is the story of Bananarama.

We were in girl gangs when we were 12 or 13 and, one by one, each of us was broken friends with.

There was a point when no-one was speaking to Keren. I liked her,

-so I went up to your house...

-In secret.

-Yeah, in secret.

We made a pact that we'd be friends for ever.

As soon as I left school, I left home because I wanted to start living.

I really felt like I was living in this suburban, grey kind of tomb.

I'm an adventurer, really. I wanted to start having adventures.

The great thing about London is

it is the refuge of the misfit. So when I moved to London, I met kindred spirits.

I spotted Siobhan across the room.

She looked very similar to me. She had long, black crimped hair.

So I thought, "There's the girl that's gonna be my friend."

I wanted to come to London and I had no idea what I was going to do,

so I phoned up the BBC and asked them for a job...

And she went all dressed up to the interview and they said, "We've got a right cracker starting!"

-And then I had my hair cropped...

-And dyed purple.

-..and didn't look a cracker again for a long time!

So I came up with my mum to find somewhere to live. My mum had phoned up the YWCA

and got me a space in a shared room there.

I got Sara a place when she moved up about a month later to go to college.

I phoned up the BBC because I thought it sounded glamorous.

When I got here, I found it was with the finance department, having been impressed with my maths results.

They invited me to join the pensions department, which really wasn't what I had in mind.

Unfortunately, my career in television never took off.

# I am an Antichrist

# I am an anarchist... #

Keren and I bumped into Paul Cook in a club.

We were living at the YWCA and, one Sunday morning, we got this message over the Tannoy...

-As you did!

-Glamorous(!)

..saying Paul Cook's in Reception.

"Paul Cook from the Sex Pistols?" Being ex-punks, we were SO excited!

We ran downstairs, and there he was.

When we got thrown out of there, he had a rehearsal room in Denmark Street and said we could live there.

-Very smart! Very swish now!

-Even the courtyard's cleared up!

It's so different.

-The rehearsal room.

-This was all cobbles.

Hang on. Hang on, it's still here.

It's still here!

But look how clean it is now.

-We lived here for a year and...

-This was all we had.

-It didn't flush.

-You can imagine how attractive that was.

-That's more information than we needed to know.

-This was the rehearsal room.

-There were no windows here.

-No windows.

It was just a black, padded cell, originally, I think.

I'd given them a place to nestle, a place to live in the heart of Soho.

I answered an ad in the Melody Maker in those days,

for a place for the Sex Pistols to camp out and practise,

a place like a Dickensian rabbit hole.

When the Pistols split up, Paul Cook and Steve Jones formed a band called the Professionals.

They used to rehearse in there, and we'd rehearse with them.

They'd allow us to do backing vocals and taught us a few guitar chords

so we could play along with a couple of the tracks that they did.

That's where we got the idea of Bananarama from - just doing backing vocals.

Paul suggested we get a group together.

So that's what we did.

# Aie a nwana

# Dina quela que tu... #

It was Aie A Nwana, which is an old Swahili song sung by a group called Black Blood.

-That's really where it all started.

-Paul came and produced it for us.

Yes, bless him! But he refused to be in this film!

It wasn't long before they came to the attention of Terry Hall

who emerged from the ruins of the Specials in 1980 to form the Fun Boy Three.

I was looking at the Face magazine

and saw a tiny photo of three girls

who looked scruffy and said they were a band. They didn't look like a band. They looked scruffy.

I tracked them down and we met up.

He's cripplingly shy. So were we.

So we sat there like that, and he sat there like that.

And, um, he said... We said, "We're not singers or anything."

And he said, "Yeah, I know." "That's all right, then." "OK."

They'd made a record, I think, with Paul Cook - Aie A Mwana.

I've never said that right, ever. Maybe it's right now.

I thought the record was quite good. I don't know...

At a similar time, bands like...

Malcolm McLaren was doing stuff and Bow Wow Wow were doing stuff with African influences,

either with clothes or drumbeats.

They just seemed appealing because they didn't seem like they could do it.

But we felt the same. We were... We didn't think we could do it either.

We start off with the Fun Boy Three and Bananarama with It Ain't What You Do, It's The Way That You Do It.

They were very funny and they were very nervous and...

they couldn't sing.

They just couldn't sing.

It was pretty much two days...

Every time we'd start the track, they knew where they had to come in, but they just started laughing.

# It ain't what you do It's the way that you do it

# It ain't what you do It's the way that you do it

# That's what gets results

# It ain't what you do It's the time that you do it

# That's what gets results

# You can try hard Don't mean a thing

# Take it easy... #

He liked the look of us. Our shoes.

Yes, he liked our moccasins.

Style's an important factor for pop groups.

-Keren had a root perm.

-I DID have a root perm.

# De-doo-doop, doo-doop, doo-doop De-de-doo-doop, doo-doop... #

He said, "What are you doing for your next single?" "Don't know."

And they said, "We'll do it with you. What song do you want to do?"

We'd rehearsed Really Saying Something in the studio we'd been living in...

And so, that's how we came to cut that with them.

The next thing, those two singles are released and they're top five!

And we're suddenly in every pop magazine every week and...

you know, on Top Of The Pops all the time, but we're still on the dole

and, er...you know...

but very recognisable and having to don headscarves to go and sign on. It was funny.

# He walked me to my door

-# I agreed to see him once more

-Oh, yeah

-# Lady like it may not be

-Doo waddy wah

# But he moved me tremendously

# Although he was bold My heart he stole

# He was really saying something... #

This is Babington Court where we lived in the early '80s for three years.

The scene of the writing of our first album and the start of our career, almost.

When we hit the big time.

Yeah, we'd fly off club class to America, stay in fancy hotels and come back here.

We ran our fan club from our front room, managed ourselves

and we were still signing on because we hadn't got any money!

# It's a cruel, cruel summer

# Leaving me here on my own... #

We used to go there... We would sometimes go to them

and we'd knock on the door... And they'd be in bed!

They'd be totally shocked. "What are you doing here?!"

"We've come to write songs as we agreed." And they'd go, "Oh!"

Nick said one day, "Malcolm McLaren wants a meeting with you."

We went, "Oh, brilliant. OK." Cos we were a fan of the Pistols.

I think I asked them the question, "What is it you wanna be?

-"Do you want to be like The Slits?

-# Typical boy... #

-"Or Bucks Fizz?" They were number 1 then.

-# Making your mind up! #

When he finished this great long chat to us, he said, "Oi! You on the end," pointing to Keren,

-"What did I just say?" It was so embarrassing!

-I felt like a stupid schoolgirl who hadn't been listening.

I'd been drifting off, gazing out of the window.

And I had to say. "I'm sorry, I wasn't listening." I was mortified.

I had this sense that they were bolshy.

At times, you looked at them, they weren't very attractive.

They almost looked like boys, or one of them did - a girl you wouldn't want to mess around with.

He wanted us to record a song which he'd written, or was going to write.

Don't Touch Me Down There, Daddy.

-I just thought, "I don't think so."

-We were horrified!

I could never sing something like that in front of my mother!

In hindsight, that was brilliant as well. We just didn't want to be somebody else's product.

We were doing what we wanted to do. We didn't need other people's ideas.

It wasn't only Malcolm McLaren's advice they didn't take.

A complete nightmare. They could never agree about anything.

They would argue about everything.

They would get all sultry and look at each other, but they wouldn't actually argue out loud.

They'd disagree and then, somehow or other, one of them would assert their authority - usually Siobhan -

and carry the day. The other two would then grumble for the next day.

Photographs were just a nightmare.

We used to do all these photo sessions.

They'd spend hours and hours looking through these photographs

and, invariably, they'd pick different photographs - and ALWAYS the worst photographs!

Come on.

KNOCK ON DOOR Oh, it's open!

-My bedroom!

-Keren's bedroom.

If your guests wanted the toilet, you had to get your toilet roll out.

# Are never what they seem... #

We had a shelf each in the cupboard and a shelf each in the fridge.

-And no cooker.

-Woe betide anyone who picked food off the wrong shelf. You weren't allowed.

That's where our payphone was that Robert De Niro phoned us on.

# Robert De Niro's waiting Talking Italian

# Robert De Niro's waiting

# Talking Italian

# Robert De Niro's waiting Talking Italian... #

We met him in... He knocked on the window, and we didn't know who it was.

Bobble hat and glasses on. He looked like Benny from Crossroads -

if that's not dating me.

# Don't come any closer I don't wanna feel

# Your breathing, your touching

# But nothing's for free

# I never want this to happen to me Don't try to change me

# You're wasting your time

# Now I got something... #

At that time, we'd go in and do a single,

and, within a week, it was in the charts. That was the way in the '80s.

That's cos we knew what we were doing in the '80s!

You know, it seemed so easy.

The way they sounded like Bananarama was the three voices blended together.

You took one out, it wasn't the same. They just had this magical sound.

People have tried to do it since, and failed.

It was a sing-along. They had attitude, though. You could hear some strength in there.

There was a sense, that they always had, of keeping control of their own destiny.

They never wanted to be styled or told what to do.

So the arguments with the record company created a tension. But it was never, "You will do this!"

Nowadays, you get the impression that groups do what they're told.

They're put together by managers.

Bananarama were nothing like that. They came out of the do-it-yourself punk ethos

and were determined to keep control over what they did. And they did that.

By 1984, Bananarama had had six consecutive hits.

But their next three records didn't make it into the top 20. It was time for a change of direction.

Everybody here was, "We don't want to do Bananarama!"

For me, it was bread from heaven. It would be like producing The Supremes. They were my favourite girl group.

The whole point... The reason they'd come to us,

which did not become apparent till we'd made their first record,

was because we'd made Spin Me Round for Dead Or Alive.

# You spin me right round... #

And they were huge club fans by the time we started producing Bananarama.

They were never seen as a club band before,

but, certainly, by the time that they came,

we were underground record producers at that time in the gay club scene.

-The Dead Or Alive one.

-That was high-energy, and we'd never done that.

We loved it! I had this massive adrenaline rush.

# She's got it

# Yeah, baby, she's got it

# I'm your Venus... #

They wanted it to sound like Dead Or Alive.

You're adding campness to campness cos it's about the goddess of love.

So they appear in a video as the devil in red leather... The archetypal gay video of all time!

They appeared in a video in brides' dresses and leather...

You're into the realms of pseudomasochism.

# She's got it Yeah, baby, she's got it... #

We did it for our own amusement. And it caught on in a big way, particularly in the gay clubs.

# ..Your desire Well, I'm your Venus ... #

We forged dance routines that every gay man all over the world knows in their sleep.

We'd always done it. We were always going round in huge, dramatic style, acting out the song.

Of course, wherever you go in the world,

it is the gay friends we'll meet that are very, very affected by what we did

and really excited to meet us. It's really flattering.

# ..Well, I'm your Venus

# I'm your fire At your desire. #

This is Kentish Town, where we lived after Babington Court.

We bought three houses next door to each other.

Rags to riches. Finally, we were getting paid for what we were doing.

-Were you getting on at this time?

-Kind of and not really. It was the beginning of the end.

No, it was the last resort.

We always used to drink round the pub, the Malden Arms, every night. That was a bit of a ritual.

And then, um, I think I started breaking up with my boyfriend,

and he was best friends with Keren's boyfriend. ..And the rot set in.

Stock, Aitken and Waterman became THE sound of the mid-'80s with a production line of acts

including Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and Rick Astley.

Bananarama battled to retain their identity, but cracks began to show in their personal relationships

and, increasingly, between the girls and their famous producers.

When you made a track with them, they would tell you what they didn't want before you started.

"We don't want any of that Stock, Aitken, Waterman stuff."

You'd go, "Right. You're working with them, but it's the last thing you want." Fine!

"We don't want to mention the word love." YOU try and write a song that's not got the word love!

Instantly, you dry up! We spent...

I'll never forget, it was a Sunday, we spent all day trying to write a song without the word love in it!

It's impossible! And Siobhan, "I'm not going to sing the word love."

So you're trying to write about molecules. There's not a lot you can write. So you go back the next day,

and we say, "You can't do this!"

We agreed not to write the word love, but we could, sort of, intimate love.

That loosens it up and, before you know it, you're writing songs about love - Love In The First Degree.

For some unknown reason, Siobhan looked the other way.

# Of love in the first degree... #

I took it very hard - the whole way that Waterman, Stock and Aitken's egos had...

got to the point where they were quite insultingly naked about...

um...diminishing our role in our own records.

That really bothered me.

Also, we were living round the corner in three houses in a row after coming from Babington Court.

We'd lived together, we'd managed ourselves, we'd been best mates...

There were tensions that were starting to emerge within us.

When we lived in a row... those tensions didn't go away.

When you're in a band, it's like being married in the sense that, not only are you emotionally involved,

but you're creatively involved and you're financially involved.

Sara and Keren were my whole world and had been for years and years. And I was theirs.

So it caused...us all to sort of...

spontaneously combust, in a way.

Us being the personalities we were,

we never had screaming rows, we froze each other out. It stopped being fun.

It had become really painful, you know, for all of us.

Particularly for me, because those two have been friends from when they were five.

And, um, it was inevitable, really, and had to happen.

# Can't you see that I'm lonely... #

We were up for an award at the BPI awards and we performed.

I thought it'd be a good farewell. We did this really camp performance

with an army of greased-up musclemen behind us

in stockings and knickers, which was very funny. And that was my fond farewell.

# ..Accused Of love in the first degree

# Guilty! Of love in the first degree

# Guilty! Of love

# Guilty! Of love... #

We considered continuing as a duo, which we do now.

-But I think the record company, they saw...

-They panicked!

The whole visual thing was three people, and they wanted a third person.

# Nathan Jones You've been gone too long

# Nathan Jones You've been gone too long

# If a woman

# Could die of tears... #

I went into it totally unthinking and threw myself into it.

It was very difficult, in retrospect,

to replace Siobhan, in the first place.

She was a lot of people's favourite Banana,

and, um, I didn't know that.

Every interview, wherever you were in the world,

would be about Siobhan and how I felt about joining the group.

I was always the new girl right up until the very last day.

I was the new girl in the group. I could never get over that hurdle.

I always felt tacked on the end.

# ..You never wrote me... #

Siobhan formed the successful Shakespears Sister in 1989.

They had three top 10 hits, including a number 1, before disbanding in 1995.

Jacquie O'Sullivan stayed with Bananarama for three years, leaving for a career as a casting director.

Keren and Sara have continued recording together as Bananarama and have plans for a new album.

# What you gonna do when the love runs out... #

# At Waterloo... #

The three original Bananas were reunited in 1997

for a television recording of the Alternative Eurovision Song Contest.

# ..In quite a similar way The history book on the shelf... #

-It took seven years to resolve.

-It did.

-It's our anniversary today.

-It's a year ago today we started talking again.

That's so weird! Yes, it was a year ago.

Well, it's my birthday today and, a year ago, I finally, finally felt...

It was time to let us back in to your life!

..it was time to reunite as best mates,

if not musical partners.

# ..Woh, woh, woh, Waterloo

# Finally facing my Waterloo

# My, my! I tried to hold you back But you were stronger

# Oh, yes

# And now it seems my only chance Is giving up the fight

# And how could I ever refuse?

# I feel like I win when I lose Waterloo

# I was defeated You won the war... #