George Michael’s death made us say yes to reunion, reveal Bananarama… as stars talk fame, fallouts and Keren’s secret break-up
EIGHTIES superstars BANANARAMA have revealed the heartache that led to their reunion – the devastating loss of their great friend George Michael.
Keren Woodward, Sara Dallin and Siobhan Fahey soared to fame in the same decade as pop icon George and say his tragic death on Christmas day convinced them to “do it while we can”.
Keren explains: “Our best friend from the era was obviously George Michael, who sadly now isn’t here.
“It was so shocking. Horrific. I remember the moment I found out, in a phone call from another close friend on Christmas Day.”
For more than 25 years Keren lived with George’s former Wham! bandmate Andrew Ridgeley.
We can today reveal the pair have now quietly split — but remain close friends and both still live in Cornwall after quitting London for a quieter life.
Keren, 56, adds: “He was such a huge part of our lives.
"I’d only just lost a cousin too who was my age, and George’s death was the instigating factor really for saying yes to doing this now.
“Before George’s death the fact my cousin had passed away had already got me thinking along those lines too - the fact that they were both around my age, that just makes you think ‘Life’s too bloody short’.
“You’ve got to do whatever you can, you don’t know what’s going to happen, and all those things made me think ‘It’s now or never’.”
Today the three-piece gather at Fascination Records in north London — the company behind big names including Girls Aloud, The Saturdays and Steps — and any hint of the feud that drove them apart after their final performance at 1988’s Brit Awards is long gone.
MOST READ IN BIZARRE
The rendition of their hit Love In The First Degree would prove to be their last, as tensions between the women reached a head and Siobhan walked away — something they now admit was “a painful divorce”.
Keren and Sara, 55, later confessed they had felt “betrayed” as Siobhan formed rival act Shakespeare’s Sister and wed Eurythmics guitarist Dave Stewart.
Recalling the dispute now, Siobhan, 58, says that when the girlband formed in 1979, Keren and Sara had been best friends since they started secondary school.
“I met Sara at college but they’d been firm friends for many years, and I totally understood that.
“But there were times, if there was tension, obviously it came up. And feeling like a rat running on a wheel all became too much.”
Keren adds: “When you’re so young it all seemed like such a massive deal.
"I look back now and I think about some of the rows, she left a pizza on the floor and there was a cockroach, and I wonder how that became such a big deal. The sulking was even worse than the rows.”
And explaining the final disputes, Sara recalls: “In the end it was little things like Siobhan taking 15 minutes too long to come down and get into a taxi which was waiting, and we’d all fall out over it.
“It’s really because we were emotionally immature — whereas nowadays we’d just talk about it and deal with things properly.
"But instead we just went off in a huff, and didn’t speak to each other, and it caused all those issues.
“We just should have spoken to each other properly, but I didn’t get to that point until I was in my 30s, and that’s how it happened.
“Those moments really were few and far between for most of our time together. It was right at the end that it became a big issue and Siobhan walked away — until then we’d had so much fun together.”
Those great times saw the trio bag a legion of fans with huge hits including It Ain’t What You Do, Cruel Summer and Robert De Niro’s Waiting — and an accolade in the Guinness Book of World Records as the UK’s best-selling girl group.
The band sold 40million records and also featured, amid a sea of male popstars, on the groundbreaking 1984 Band Aid charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas?
BEST SELLING BRIT GIRL BANDS
1. Spice Girls - 85 million
2. Bananarama - 40 million
3. All Saints - 12 million
4. Atomic Kitten - 10 million
5. Little Mix - 9 million
They were pop royalty — but it was their lust for life and infectious personalities that made them cult icons.
The girls tore up the rule book for young women of the era — hanging out with Boy George, Paul Weller and The Cure at London’s edgiest clubs, forming a band and brimming with determination. As Keren recalls, “anything was possible”.
They’re proud to have taken control of their own careers — and had even dismissed input from industry bigwigs.
Sex Pistols’ manager Malcolm McLaren had wanted to launch them as a grungy rock act with a track called Don’t Touch Me Down There.
They wisely declined.
Today they are bullish at having been labelled “stroppy” by record executives.
Keren explains: “We were just women who have an opinion on something. Pete Waterman said ‘They had an opinion on everything’, but why wouldn’t we?
“I was always brought up to work and have a job and not think I was any less than a man.
“I don’t think we ever even thought about it really. For us it was being in control of our own destiny, but for other people that made us ‘awkward’ or ‘difficult’.
“It’s just that times have changed. It’s just the way it was at that time. We were never cajoled into doing anything we didn’t want to do.
“Nothing about the group was ever contrived. So that sort of thing was slightly irritating. It was a pain in the a**e.
“The Spice Girls had that spirit which I loved, and I think people really embraced it by then — not so much with us.
"Perhaps real people did — just probably not the old fogeys in the music business.
“The people who grew up with us, some who we’ve seen today even, they absolutely saw the spirit of what we were doing and adored that.
"I hope we set a good example by being like that, and not doing as everyone told us.”
Siobhan added: “If we’d been guys it wouldn’t have been mentioned — we know a lot of stroppy guys who are treated with adulation. They’re labelled ‘driven’.
“We were the prototype for women taking control.”
And Sara recalled: “Also, the music business now is full of women — but it just wasn’t the case at the time. We were just about the only girls on that Live Aid single. It was almost all men.
“Our image was totally genuine, totally us. We never had stylists.
“We’d resist people telling us what to do. We made our own clothes, and we lived together so we probably influenced each other’s tastes, as friends do.
“Some of the things that were said about us back then were very cruel and rude — and we took everything to heart.”
With tickets for their reunion on sale tomorrow, the band admit they’re still uncertain on how the shows will turn out, though their greatest hits will take centre stage.
With ten top ten singles to their name there will be no shortage of material, but they admit the uncertainty brings nerves.
BANANARAMA’S BIGGEST HITS
1. Robert De Niro’s Waiting (1984) #3
2. Love In The First Degree (1987) #3
3. Help! (1989) #3
4. It Ain’t What You Do (It’s The Way That You Do It) (1982) #4
5. Shy Boy (1982) #4
6. Really Saying Something (1982) #5
7. Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye (1983) #5
8. I Want You Back, (1988) #5
9. Cruel Summer, (1983) #8
10. Venus (1986) #8
In fact, the plan “snowballed” so quickly, tour dates had been booked before all three had even formally agreed to perform.
Keren adds: “We haven’t been into the rehearsal studio at all yet — that’s tomorrow.
"We’re only rehearsing one song initially for a television performance, but the tour itself isn’t until November, so that’s going to need another discussion to really finalise what we’re going to do.
“So unless we make all of our hits 12 minutes long we’re going to have to do something a bit different too, which could be some new material, or could be some covers — either way it’s quite exciting.
“Being able to talk about doing a really long set and not just the hits is just as exciting as performing the hits themselves.”
Tickets go on sale on Wednesday from