Wednesday, March 7, 2012

The Story of Bananarama: 1982 – 2012

Yesterday, I posted a documentary on girl groups and then I remembered the Smash documentary about my favourite group ... Bananarama.

Sara and Keren: Bananarama

Here it is in 3 small parts. This is why I love Bananarama so much. Enjoy!~

Part 1: The early years ...




Part 2: The big change in music style ...



Part 3: Siobhan leaves. Jacquie joins. And then Duo.




The documentary does leave out quite a bit. After Jacquie joined the group, they had very successful Greatest Hits album in 1988 as well as a world tour in 1989. The group also recorded the one and only studio album with Jacquie in 1991 called "Pop Life." It featured the amazing songs "Preacher Man", "Long Train Running" and "Tripping On Your Love."

For the record, their next album as a duo "Please Yourself" in 1992 was NOT the Nana's third album as the documentary says. That was their sixth studio album! And it had two nice hits: "Movin' On" and "More, More, More"

In 1995, Bananarama released a Eurodance album called "Ultra Violet" that had two singles that were pretty big club hits: "Every Shade Of Blue" and "Take Me To Your Heart"

In 2001, they released an album in France only called "Exotica." It contained some remade versions of some of their earlier hits.

In 2002, they had their 20th Anniversary Show at G-A-Y in London, where the Smash documentary ends. Yes, I was there! Front row, center stage! And I first met them back stage after the show! It was my teenage dream come true! They were all so nice!

Keren, Davearama, Sara and Siobhan!

In 2005, Bananarama came back with their "Drama" album which spawned the hits "Move In My Direction" and "Look On The Floor (Hypnotic Tango)"

While promoting "Drama" in the US in 2006, I met Keren and Sara again in L.A. My husband and I met them at a CD signing in Long Beach. Keren and Sara saw me and said, "Hello Davearama! We recognize you from your Christmas cards!" We had a good laugh.


Keren, Davearama and Sara


We met up with them the next night at a gay nightclub in West Hollywood. They were signing autographs on stage and invited me to come up and sit with them.

Sitting on stage with Bananarama!

After the signing, they invited us out to go drinking with them! What a blast!



Davearama and Keren after a night of cocktails!

The duo's last album was "Viva" in 2009 with the singles "Love Comes" and "Love Don't Live Here"

2012 is Bananarama's 30th anniversary! Hard to believe. Their music has become the soundtrack of my life. Their music has seen me through middle school, high school, college, good times, bad times, heartbreaks, and I even danced to Bananarama at my wedding. I truly hope that there is more to come from this wonderful group that have brought me so much joy!

Long live Bananarama!

Cheers then,
—Davearama

P.S. Read my interviews with Bananarama here ....

Interview with Keren

Interview with Sara

Interview with Jacquie

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