Bananarama - Classic Or Dud

They claim they invented Madonna - or her dress sense, at least.

everything else pretty dud I'd say

Utterly, totally correct. It's a grueling, grinding mess that is a prime counterargument to Waterman's self-belief that he's a flawless master of perfect pop. It just isn't so.

I was going to make that comparison but I thought that might be too cruel.

the early stuff is the best ("shy boy" is my favourite), but even when they started shedding members* they were still could churn out good singles ("preacher man", cover of "long train running" i'm thinking of in particular)

*haha at one point i thought they might get down to 0 and still release records in an electric prunes kinda way!

I like Dramarama though.

Y'all on crack? You're not paining me on that front!

I also liked their post SAW single, the one with the woooh wooohs on it.

I'm glad someone has pointed out that they were WAY better than Shakespeare's Sister. It was always amusing how Siobhan Fahey left the Narns because she wanted to make "serious" music and instead just made SHITE.

mmmm, Bananarama.

Bananarama Makes Comeback
http://www.arjanwrites.com/arjanwrites/2005/07/bananarama_make.html

Didn't matter.

ok it's "can't get you out of my head" redux and the tax bill probably came through the post, but i find it rather a fetching single and wouldn't mind if it became their first (!) number one.

Second single off new album "Look On The Floor" is really rather good. It's based around 80s Itali-disco classic "Hypnotic Tango" (well, I hear it's a classic. I'm actually only familiar with the recent Master Blaster cover version from 2003). Gasp, I might even be looking forward to "Drama" now...

http://www.almightyisis.com/images/bbimages/bananarama.jpg

i love cruel summer.

with one guitar, a bottle of whisky and a broken heart, you could own that song.

IN AT THE DEEP END (1982-4)
BBC

DULL THAT'S LIFERS CHRIS SERLE and PAUL HEINEY attempt to "do" various "glamour" jobs - photographer, auctioneer, fashion designer etc. Best ones - Heiney conceives and directs that awful video for Bananarama's "Trick of the Night" (helping it reach the giddy heights of number 32) and Serle gives Jilly Cooper an "adventurous" new hairstyle for an awards ceremony (she looked like utter shit.) Titles, puzzlingly, evoked the "swimming pool orgy" scene from THE STUD. A mixed bag, but all in all a much preferable 'Life spin-off than THE BIG TIME.

The 'Rama show is ingrained in my memory for no reason.

This is the song Rita and Sue dance to in front of the TV in "Rita Sue and Bob Too" :)

whatever next !

Mail on Sunday to give away Bananarama's greatest hits

http://tinyurl.com/ywac78

They're one of the greatest girl bands in British pop history ... and next week you'll get their latest album - featuring 15 of their original studio recordings of their greatest hits - FREE inside The Mail on Sunday.

if they'd done this a year ago i would've bought it ha

I always thought that they looked like Lambeth Council's Gender Equality Unit indulging in a bizarre attempt to look glam.

They were good pop music in the same way that Sainsburys is a good supermarket.

there was an article about this in the daily mail the other day

I picked up a reissue of Deep Sea Skiving in Paris. I'm not sure what to think of it. They didn't really "do" tunes at that stage, did they?

You don't think so? That's their best studio album!

I'm not saying it's bad!

I think I'm just surprised by it because my knowledge of their early stuff was basically limited to "Venus" and the Fun Boy 3 collab-o.

have you heard the other 1986 stuff? "A Trick of the Night" is something special. One of these days I have to write something about this.

the only group i own 20 singles by. wait, maybe that's not true. it's possible i own 20 madonna singles. i'll have to check...

Better than the Beatles.

IN AT THE DEEP END (1982-4)
BBC

(...)

The 'Rama show is ingrained in my memory for no reason.

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Friday, 28 April 2006 00:19 (2 years ago)

I remember this as well. Especially Heiney's earlier practice video with a typical lol80's pop/rock band, of which all I can remember is that the lyrics mentioned "burning" or "I'm on fire" or something, and Heiney cut to a red spotlight. His mentor later appraised the finished video with the words "er, that's... interesting" clearly meaning "er, that's shit..."

TS: Bananarama's Jolley & Swain years vs. Bananarama's Stock/Aitken/Waterman years.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/apr/24/people-wet-knickers-bananarama-80s-trio-return

wtf at the link name

WTF at the comments!

ChrisD58 7h ago

It must be my age but personally I think they're better looking now than back then!!

Andrew Jones ChrisD58 6h ago

Whilst they do look damn good for their age (unlike me) I have to disagree. 80's Keren Woodward was a living goddess. Back then I would have slaughtered my entire family in return for a few hours in her company. Nowadays I'd only slaughter my sister in law.

Happy birthday, Siobhan!

https://youtu.be/8kjy1W4Gk_s