FRUITS OF THEIR LABOUTES

Bananarama had their first Top 3 hit in 1984, Robert De Niro's Waiting. Rob Hughes meets lifelong friends and bandmates Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward as they look back on their career, album by album

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We know where we’ve come from and what we’ve done together,” says Sara Dallin of her lifelong friendship with Bananarama bandmate Keren Woodward. “It’s very rare to actually go to school together, leave home together, work together and still be friends.”

Now in their early sixties, Dallin and Woodward have known each other since they were seven-year-olds. This afternoon, Record Collector finds them pouring tea in their London hotel room, presiding over an extraordinary career that’s seen them rack up sales of over 30 million and earn a spot in the Guinness Book Of World Records as the most commercially successful female band of all time.

Bananarama’s journey to global superstardom began in earnest when they were invited to back Fun Boy Three on 1982’s It Ain’t What You Do (It’s The Way That You Do It). The following year’s debut, Deep Sea Skiving, scrambled preconceived ideas of what an all-girl band could be: post-punks with a pop vision and strong DIY aesthetic.

“We were making our own career, writing our own music and managing ourselves,” explains Dallin. “Onstage, we were exactly as we would’ve been if we were in a club or anywhere else. I think that’s why young girls could relate to us.”

The hits kept coming throughout the 80s, during which time Dallin, Woodward and fellow co-founder Siobhan Fahey transitioned into sophisticated dance-pop. And while chart success became more sporadic in subsequent years, Bananarama – with Dallin and Woodward as the core duo – have lost little of their appeal.

A new self-curated compilation, Glorious - The Ultimate Collection, toasts over 40 years in the industry.