Sometimes, you'll hear something and feel like you really stepped back in time. Before we had girl groups like Little Mix, Atomic Kitten, and The Spice Girls, there were other all girl pop groups that paved the way for them. I think UK girl group Bananarama was one of those predecessors. For me, growing up in the 80s, they defined a new and modern standard for the all girl groups to come. Before them, you had The Supremes, but to me they really felt like something from a different era and groups like that seemed extinct. Bananarama breathed new life into this concept by being fashionable (for those days), fun and easy to listen to.
At their start, they worked with Fun Boy Three and had two hits with them, "It Ain't What You Do It's The Way That You Do It" and "Really Saying Something". The girls had a bit of a punk look and released a very successful debut album.
Pretty quickly after, they started working with Stock, Aitken & Waterman and helped define a sound that would dominate the 80s, not just with Bananarama, but with every SAW produced artist that followed. The girls began to look a bit more like pop singers, but they never fully emerged in the PWL pop star template. Instead, they maintained their own image and fashion style.
It is in those days, the press started to think of them as mindless pop stars, who were fully directed by Stock, Aitken & Waterman. After all they were “the hit factory”. The girl group often spoke out against this in interviews, feeling the press was playing down their role in the songwriting of their own material, their control in their own image and their singing capabilities. The group made the decision to sing in union rather than harmonize, which wasn't really done before by girl groups.
The girls had a pretty good idea what Bananarama was supposed to be and, to me, it was quite a surprise when Siobhan left and came back solo with a more gothic look in a duo called Shakespeare's Sister, who, BTW, had some really good songs. She was clearly not supporting the Bananarama concept anymore and to me, it looked like she had said goodbye forever.
Then, recently, I started picking up the news that she had rejoined Bananarama with the intent to tour for two months at the end of this year. Apparently, the last time she rejoined the group was for a one time only gig at G.A.Y., back in 2002. I could imagine how that would happen, like doing it just for the laughs and for old time's sake, but now, it appears she's really back.
I always think it's great news to hear a group is returning to the lineup it had, when they had the most success. It's like it's the way it's meant to be, but I'm also a bit reluctant to believe it's a good idea, especially when someone made such an effort to break away from the restrictions of the band's image. It's like that boyfriend you know you shouldn't return to, because you know it doesn't work, but you just can't help it. It's very rare, that there won't be a moment where you get reminded why it didn't work out in the first place.
Let's just hope everyone's older and wiser, and I never got the impression there was any bad blood between the girls. And now, they are even talking about new music with this lineup. So, so far, it's looking good.
