Bananarama: 'It says a lot that we’re still here'

Back in 1981 when she, Sara Dallin and Siobhan Fahey cut a demo of what turned out to be their first single, Aie a Mwana, the excitement of being in a recording studio with their friend who had played drums in the Sex Pistols was, she says, enough in itself. “It was Paul Cook who produced it, he got someone to pay for us to go and do a demo,” remembers Woodward, now 62. “I don’t know what we thought then.”

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The “turning point” for the group, she says, came when Terry Hall, who’d formed the Fun Boy Three after leaving The Specials, heard the song and saw a picture of the trio in the magazine The Face, immediately thinking “that we looked like we’d all get on” because of a shared fondness for moccasins and moody expressions. Hall’s hunch proved correct, and led to the collaborative singles, It Ain’t What You Do (It’s the Way That You Do It) and Really Saying Something, which were top five hits.

“It kind of went from there, but I don’t know at what point we started taking it seriously as a long-term thing,” Woodward says. “It was from one day to the next initially, and just the sheer excitement and adrenaline of suddenly being on Top of the Pops and travelling – all of the things that we’d never really done.

“We used to just take a cassette to clubs and put it on and sing live over the top and dance around, and who knew?” she chuckles. “Although there’s a point where you sort of think if we’d known it was going to last that long we might have chosen a different name.”

Of all the records they’ve made, Woodward cites her favourite as their 2022 album Masquerade. “As a whole album, I think it’s the one that I like the most,” she says, “although if I look back, I think the Wow album was probably the first properly cohesive album that had a sound that ran all the way through it, and obviously it had some massive hits (such as Love in the First Degree and I Hear a Rumour) on it. It was a very exciting time for us.”

As “brilliant” as the 80s were for the group, she feels they were so busy that “you almost don’t take it in, then you have periods which everyone has, I think, where you can’t sustain the same levels for that long a period of time of popularity, tastes change, people change”.

“To come back around, the last ten years have been just joyous,” she says. “From doing a world tour in ’89 and then not really doing live work, to building up the live thing particularly, which Sara and I started about 20 years ago, creeping back onstage and doing shows and taking it all over the place, to where we are now...it’s just joyous to be headlining festivals and playing at the London Palladium, and releasing albums on our own label.

“Forty years down the line we’ve finally got complete control over every aspect, which is fabulous.”

Woodward and Dallin – who have been friends since childhood and took over at the helm of Bananarama 30 years ago following the departures of Fahey, to form Shakespears Sister, and then her replacement Jacquie O’Sullivan – curated their new compilation themselves.

“We’re working with London (Records) on this compilation because they own a certain amount of back catalogue and they’ve been amazing,” Woodward says, adding that the accompanying hardback book is “fabulous”.

“We loved doing that. I kept some stuff but luckily Sara kept loads, so there’s loads of stuff in it that means a lot to us. It’s almost like a pictorial journey through our fashions and our experiences along with the 40 tracks that we picked that really are our favourites. We just wanted to feel the joy, feel the love on it, it’s great.”

Despite all their achievements, including 25 UK top 40 singles, a US number one with Venus, and a million-selling Greatest Hits collection and a packed performance at Glastonbury, Woodward feels that Bananarama have not always been given their due. “It was tough in the 80s, there weren’t many females in the charts, and it was almost like you had to break new ground,” she reflects. “We’ve done it really all the way through with just sheer determination and strength of character.

“I think as a group, as opposed to a solo artist, we had each other’s backs. I think that was hugely important. I imagine if I was a solo artist, I’d have probably crumbled at some point or other because there were some tricky moments.

“You can bleat on about feeling overlooked for things or not getting the credit or the respect you deserve, but it says a lot that we’re still here. I think things have massively changed for women. Even a few years back there were no headliners at festivals that were females and now the charts are swamped with female artists and female artists are touring and it’s fantastic to see, but it’s taken some time. I hope in some small way we contributed to the success of females or even inspired some of them.

“One of the most satisfying things when we go out, even doing interviews, you’ll meet women who say, ‘Do you know what, if it wasn’t for you I probably wouldn’t even have had the guts to get up and do what I’m doing now’. It was almost like we captured some sort of spirit and passed it on to people, which I’m quite proud of, really, especially as we did it wearing dungarees and Dr Martens. Not your regular pin-ups.”

Nowadays Woodward and Dallin find themselves “not caring about chart positions any more” and revelling in their live shows. They have full control over their releases and have managed themselves for years. “We have people we can ask advice but when you’ve been doing it for as long as us you feel like you kind of know as much as anyone around you,” Woodward explains. “My thinking was why would you have a manager as a go-between to phone you up and ask will you do something when someone can phone you direct? It just seems pointless, so we make all the decisions.”

In July, there will be a fresh challenge when they headline the 80s Classical concert in Millennium Square accompanied by the Orchestra of Opera North. “We were approached last year and we had another show and we couldn’t do it, but desperately wanted to,” Woodward ​​​​​​​says. “We’ve never really played with an orchestra and I’m really excited to hear the songs played with an orchestra​​​​​​​. I mean​​​​​​​ amazing, who knows, it might be the way to go​​​​​​​,” she laughs again. “I couldn’t be more excited just because ​​​​​​​after doing it for this long there’s very rarely something comes along which you think we’ve never done that before – and there it is.”

Glorious is out now. Bananarama play at 80s Classical in Millennium Square, Leeds on July 20. https://www.bananarama.co.uk/