Always the “art school” member of the band, Siobhan Fahey co-founded Bananarama with friends Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward in 1981, while still a student at the London College of Fashion. From recording their first demo, to working with the Fun Boy Three, and releasing their own top 5 single, took them less than 2 years.
Initially it was their street savvy, “just got out of bed, honestly” look, that won them admirers. Bananarama were easy to like, and were the sort of band that somehow appealed to both the budding post punkers as well as the more mainstream types. For the girls, who had just woken up to bands like Orange Juice, Altered Images and the B-52s, Bananarama became something of a fashion touchstone with their easy to copy ripped jeans, workers dungarees and cropped jackets. In 1982, their original look quickly became the go to for “alternative” teenage girls. While Toyah became the media’s acceptable face of post punk, Bananarama brewed up their own version of Punk’s influence, and fed it back into the future. The hair was much longer but still backcombed, the clothes were still vintage, ripped and surprisingly tough looking, and the footwear, yup, it was still black and chunky.
“Being an old punk, I believe in your right to look like an individual and express yourself in the way you look. I don’t spend a fortune on clothes – I’m not into the whole idea of wearing labels…” – Siobhan Fahey
Before Dave, Fahey was how they say…romantically involved with both with Jim Reilly the drummer from SLF, and Robert “Bobby” Hodgens of The Bluebells, a relationship that if nothing else, spawned the song “Young at Heart”, which Siobhan co-wrote with Bobby and that gave the Bluebells a UK No. 1 hit record, as well as appearing as a track on the first Bananarama album “Deep Sea Skiving”.
And all of these things might just make Siobhan Fahey the most 1980s person ever.
However, by the end of the decade Fahey also rejected much of what she’d become part of. Talking about her quitting the band in 1988, Siobhan has more recently opened up about some of the reasons behind her departure, she told Attitude in December 2017,
Being uncomfortable about leery, letchy comments, wanting a say in song choice and production and refusing to put up with this kind of creepy sexism, obviously fast-tracked the band and its members into the “difficult” category, or as Keren Woodward put it, “Difficult compared to other artists who just accepted songs, performed them and left.”
After 27 years, Shakespears Sister have recently recorded and released several new songs, including the track “All The Queen’s Horses”. The video, made by “Stay” director Sophie Muller features the very modern and current Siobhan and Marcella in the desert – (“the cultural desert” according to Siobhan), and also, rather touchingly, their alter-egos as they were in “Stay”. It’s clever.
Shakespears Sister tour dates autumn 2019