Bananarama on their ‘fiercely loyal’ LGBTQ fanbase: ‘a community we feel we’ve been part of since the 80s’

Words: Simon Button: pictures: provided

With reviews like “Masquerade may well be the best album they’ve done as a duo,” Bananarama is still producing solid tunes and going strong 40 years in.

Released three years after 2019’s In Stereo, the album expands on the dance and electronica elements of its predecessor.

Elsewhere in his review for Attitude, Darren Scott writes: “This collection of ethereal synth-pop dancefloor tracks weaves a wonderful blend of melancholia to a beat, with thundering anthems about broken hearts and not needing another disappointing lover.”

With the album out now, Simon Button talks to Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward about the reaction to Masquerade, the band’s connection to the LGBTQ community, and what’s next for Bananarama.

As you celebrate 40 years in the business, reviewers are hailing the new album as one of your best ever…

Sara: I tend to agree with that, to be honest. I think it really is one of our best albums.

Keren: We’ve had such great feedback about it. I’ve listened to the album quite a bit in the car and I definitely think it’s our best album probably ever. That’s not me blowing my own trumpet but [laughs] all the rest of them are crap.

I and all your fans would beg to differ, but it is a fantastic album. Didn’t it originally start life as an EP?

Sara: It did, yes. I’m not sure we knew whether we wanted to do another album. We thought ‘We’ll put some tracks out at Christmas and think about what we’ll do for our 40th’, then the lockdown came and we wrote more and more, and it ended up as an album. Because we wrote it in lockdown it was all written at the same time.

Keren: And I think that’s why it’s a better album because it was more concentrated and more intense. We should do it that way again.

Sara, your daughter Alice wrote opening track ‘Favourite’ for the album. It’s such a stonking song, you must be really proud of her?

Sara: It’s a track she released on a couple of EPs a few years ago and Keren and I loved it. Her version is very different, it’s kind of R&B, but we knew the melody was great, loved the lyrics, and suddenly thought ‘Why not record it ourselves?’

Keren: I played that song relentlessly when I first heard it. I played it to everyone and they all thought it was amazing. I watched Alice sing it live and I wept. We loved it so much that we just wanted to record it. She and Sara wrote some other songs when they were in a bubble at the beginning of lockdown and in some ways I’d say that was the kickstart for making it into an album as opposed to just dabbling. It brought a new energy.

‘Masquerade’ is another standout, both lyrically and musically…

Sara: It’s about conversations around diversity, inclusivity, gender issues and people not accepting you for who you are, as well as how everybody in one way or another presents themselves. Sometimes you have to wear masks to try and fit in and I thought ‘Why can’t people just be who they want to be without being attacked?’

You always seem to be performing live. Do you ever get fed up of singing the old hits?

Keren: I get fed up of the travelling and the hanging around but certainly not of the songs.

Sara: It’s good if we can put current stuff in there as well, which we do, as well as other stuff like ‘Look On The Floor’ and ‘Move In My Direction’.

Keren: We’ve been doing ‘Favourite’ and ‘Masquerade’ in the shows this year and they’ve gone down really well. There would never be a time where we wouldn’t enjoy doing the old hits because they’re the ones where you get the reaction from the crowd, but it’s great to put new stuff in.

Why do you think the LGBT+ community has always been drawn to you?

Sara: I don’t know if it’s that ‘strong women against adversity’ thing. Women are sometimes sidelined in the same way that the LGBT+ community is as well. They’ve had to fight for your rights, as have women. Maybe it’s that along with our sense of humour and self-deprecation.

Keren: It’s a community we feel we’ve been part of since the 80s.

Sara: And they’re fiercely loyal. They enjoy and celebrate everything we do, and that doesn’t go unnoticed. We are extremely grateful for it.

Those camp-tastic Stock Aitken Waterman songs certainly help. Do you have a favourite from that era?

Keren: ‘Love in the First Degree’ is always a bit of a corker and I’ve got a new-found love for ‘I Heard a Rumour’ actually. I don’t know why but this season it’s my favourite. As for SAW themselves, my favourite song they’ve done is ‘Better the Devil You Know’.

Is it true there’s a cover version of ABBA’s ‘Summer Night City’ somewhere in the vaults?

Sara: There is, yes. We absolutely loved but we weren’t sure if people knew who it was by originally. Someone said ‘Whose song is that?’ and we were like ‘How can you not know it’s ABBA?’

Keren: It’s a cracking version.

Sara: It absolutely is. I think it should go on something somewhere.

Keren: A bonus track maybe. We put so many more harmonies on it than ABBA. We got so carried away we had to reign it in at the end.

You’re pretty good movers. Have you ever thought of going on Strictly or Dancing On Ice?

Sara: We used to skate as kids and we were really good. We’d go every Saturday to dance to the chart songs.

Keren: We’d go off the ice, then something would come on that we loved like Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’ and we’d have to race back on. But those shows seem like such hard work.

Sara: I couldn’t do that thing where they swing you round by your feet, with your head just missing the ice.

Keren: Plus it’s like three months and we’re normally working. We never have three months off.

If there was one criticism of your joint autobiography it’s that it wasn’t bitchy or gossipy enough…

Keren: We deliberately made it un-bitchy.

Sara: You might be more bitchy when you’re younger and want to say horrible things about people. I don’t feel that way anymore. I don’t want to be vile about somebody or make them unhappy [laughs] certainly not in a book.

Keren: With a lot of things that happened, when you look back you think ‘It wasn’t a big deal’. Stuff that happens in the past is in the past.

Sara: We saw our stories for dinner parties.

Keren: It was only when we sat down to write the book that I really considered everything we’ve done and I ended up being incredibly proud of our achievements, going from being schoolgirls together to where we are now. And now is such a great time for us because we have our own label and we control everything, which is another thing to add to our armoury because we didn’t have it when we were younger.

Sara: I think it’s a great way to celebrate 40 years with a new album that we’re really proud of.

Keren: Each decade throws up a different style of music and getting to do something you love for 40 years is amazing.

Siobhan rejoined for a spell in 2017 and 2018. Might she return to the fold again?

Sara: It was a one-off for a tour. It was suggested to us and we said ‘Hell, why not?’ She’d never toured with us or sang those songs live on stage so it was just a really enjoyable thing to do. But it’s been almost 30 years as a duo and it feels like that’s who Bananarama are now.

You’re still going strong in your early 60s but do you think that would be even mentioned if you were blokes?

Keren: No, it wouldn’t. I think people’s obsession with age is ludicrous, to be honest. I don’t understand when you read an article and it says ‘So-and-so, 60’ and ‘So-and-so, 78’. What’s that got to do with anything? I’m not embarrassed about my age but some people think that if you’re 60 years old you’re a bit of a write-off. That’s just not the case.

Sara: But we’ve been almost a write-off to some people from the age of 26, when someone said ‘They’re pushing 30, they should retire’ simply because we were female. I don’t pay any attention to that anymore.

The album’s out now. What’s coming next for Bananarama?

Sara: We have other things planned but we’re not going to say what they are or it wouldn’t be a surprise, would it? We’re looking forward to the album launch shows at Lafayette in London [on 3 and 4 August].

Keren: We’ve got some more summer shows and in between those and the end of September we’re hoping to get a week off at some point. We had lots of plans for the whole year for the 40th and this album was going to be the beginning of the whole celebration year but because of all the delays, it’s come out six months later than we’d planned. Other stuff that we’d planned might have to go all the way through to next year but it’s going to be a real celebration of those 40 years.

The album Masquerade is out now. For more information and tour dates visit bananarama.co.uk