Bananarama On Menopause, Grieving And Girls’ Nights Outs
It happens sometimes when I’m grabbing groceries. I’m wandering the aisles, trying to work out where they have moved the soy sauce to this week, and I find myself singing along to a song I didn’t even realise was playing in the background. More often than not, that song is something by Bananarama, one of the bands which helped define ’80s pop – and, incidentally, chalked up more chart hits than any other girl group in history.
From early hits like the boppy Shy Boy – the era in which they teamed over-teased hair with dungarees – to more polished chart-toppers like Venus, Love In the First Degree and Robert De Niro’s Waiting (when their styling went somewhat sleeker), Keren Woodward and Sara Dallin – along with Siobhan Fahey, who left the band in 1988 – were part of the soundtrack of my teens. Decades later, I still know all the words to their songs. So when their new memoir, Really Saying Something, landed on my desk – in advance of the 40th anniversary of the band’s founding, and their upcoming 60th birthdays – I was eager to dive in.
I was expecting some juicy behind-the-scenes gossip, and famous friends like George Michael and Duran Duran do make appearances in the book, but what drives this story is the relationship between Sara and Keren, best friends since schooldays. Really Saying Something recounts how the pair founded a band almost on a lark and steered it to unprecedented success, navigating their way through everything from unplanned pregnancies to losing loved ones along the way. There are poignant moments, inspiring moments and lots of laughs. Here are some of the most memorable revelations.
MENOPAUSE
Like many women, Keren says she was blindsided by menopause. She writes of feeling “sorted, calm, content” in her 40s, until she started gaining weight – she jokes about the “Tubby Australian Tour” – and losing her hair. After an initial freak-out, she decided to roll with it. “I thought, if it gets any worse, I’ll just wear a hat. Or a wig. Or both.” Sara says that that the ability to laugh together was a lifesaver for both of them. “Of course, there’s nothing funny about insomnia, anxiety or mental fatigue to name but a few symptoms, but laughing about not being able to get your top done up before going on stage, your shoes being too tight or your hair taking a turn for the worse is what gets us through it.”
GIRLS’ NIGHTS OUTS
There is no age limit on having a good time, no matter what your children may think. One of my favourite stories concerns a trip to LA with their respective children, Tom and Alice. When the kids went clubbing one night, Sara and Keren decided to have a nightcap in the hotel bar before turning in – which was followed by another, and then another. “Tom and Alice were heading back to their rooms at around 4am when they spotted us in the still-crowded bar and burst out laughing,” Sara remembers. “I suspect that if they hadn’t extricated us and taken us back to our rooms, we’d still have been there at breakfast time.”
SOLDIERING ON
Most of us have been through times when the bad news just keeps coming. For Keren, 2016 left her reeling. She lost not just a dear friend but also her mother, her aunt and her cousin Helen, with whom she had been very close. On Christmas Day that year, as she was celebrating with Helen’s family, she received a call telling her that another good friend, George Michael, had died. Her response was typically female. “I stayed in the garden for a while, had a bit of a cry, then went back inside to be with the family and carry on with the evening. I didn’t know what else I could do. Helen’s family had been through so much, and I didn’t want to make it all about me and my sadness.”
RELATIONSHIPS
Now happily single after ending her long-term relationship with ex-Wham guitarist Andrew Ridgeley, Keren says that she has outgrown the feeling of “need(ing) to be in love because the feel of it made me love myself a little more.” Despite press reports the couple are back together, Keren says she is living on her own for the first time and loving it. “I can’t imagine living with somebody else, with all the compromise that entails.”
Words_ Ute Junker
Photos_ Sourced