Who wouldn't want a Face magazine t-shirt as modelled by Siobhan Fahey from Bananarama? I'm half tempted to print out the cut out slip and send it off to the address and see what happens (I'd have to put a postal order in I think).
Bananarama have reformed recently. They kept appearing on the Top Of The Pops reruns (not the 1985 ones showing at the moment but last year's 1983 repeats). Cruel Summer sounded very good all these years later, a slightly off kilter pop song about love in oppressive summer heat in the city. The home-made dancing is refreshing too, a time when female pop stars weren't drilled to within an inch of their lives. And maybe some of us were suddenly reminded why Bananarama being on Top Of The Pops week in, week out when we were 13 years old was something of a visual treat...
They first hit the chart due to their backing vocals on the Fun Boy Three's 1982 hit single, It Ain't What You Do (It's The Way That You Do It), which came about because Terry Hall saw an article on them in The Face and liked their look. They switched around for Bananarama's next single Really Saying Something with Terry, Lynval and Neville singing backing for Siobhan, Sara and Keren.
It Ain't What You Do (It's The Way That You Do It)
The song was originally written in 1939 by jazz musicians Melvin 'Sy' Oliver and James 'Trummy' Young. It says something about the Fun Boy Three's talents that they took an old jazz tune and turned it into a pop ska song, and then to number 4 in the charts (probably selling hundreds of thousands of copies).
Bananarama were a great pop band. Even when they joined up with the Lords of Evil (SAW), they didn't lose all their sparkle.
ReplyDeleteThe home-made dancing isn't the only thing that distances from today's girl group - the fact that they wore ordinary clothes (or ANY clothes) is obviously noticeable. But it makes them more real too. I'd like to see Rhianna wear a nice pear of dungarees for a change.
Ahh Siobhan!
ReplyDeleteYes, totally refreshing. I didn't even think about it at the time, but now it's just so obvious how lovely and natural they were/are.
ReplyDeletePostal order! I'd forgotten about those!
I agree with Rol about the clothing. RiRi in dungarees and possibly a donkey jacket, I would pay good money to see her in more clothes.
ReplyDeleteKeren was the one for me.
I agree completely re; RiRi and dungarees & donkey jacket.
ReplyDeleteNo bullshittin'.....there's an ICA in the pipeline!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to it JC.
ReplyDeleteI put together a Bananarama post about a year ago with thoughts of being crucified. I was pleasantly surprised by the response from our group. Those early years were wonderful.
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