A few fascinating facts about one of our favourite all-female bands
Bananarama’s first demo tape was in Swahili, a cover of Black Blood’s Aie A Mwana.
The name ‘Bananarama’ was inspired by the Roxy Music song Pyjamarama - and bananas, because they felt they were exotic.
The first flat Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward shared was above the Sex Pistols’ rehearsal rooms in Denmark Street, London. The walls were covered in Johnny Rotten’s murals of Sid and Nancy, so Sara and Keren added their own names to the image, too.
When Jacquie O’Sullivan replaced Siobhan Fahey, she rerecorded her vocals on I Want You Back and Nathan Jones.
Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward have been friends since they were four and growing up together in Bristol.
After finding fame fast, they now admit they kitted out their first flats stealing sheets and towels from hotel rooms while they were touring.
Keren Woodward is a classically trained pianist.
And finally, a Simple Things/Banarama fun fact: Siobhan Fahey’s sister, Maire, was the editor of Prima magazine, a title also once held by TST editor Lisa Sykes. See we’re much less than six degrees of Kevin Bacon away from our eighties idols?!
We were inspired to find out more about Bananarama after reading the Looking Back feature on girl bands in our July issue. The issue also has a rather wonderful girl bands playlist in it, too, which we thoroughly recommend.
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