CityLife

Bananarama - girls who did it first

POP PIONEERS: Bananarama

LET there be no doubt, Bananarama are the greatest girl group of all time.

Formed in the Sex Pistols's rehearsal room, they set the template for modern girlbands such as Sugababes and Girls Aloud.

Yet there was always an edge and an attitude to the Nanas: they wrote their own songs and didn't suffer fools gladly.

What other pop act, for instance, would blithely tell punk-impresario Malcolm MacLaran to '**** off' after he offered to pen a song for them titled Don't Touch Me Down There Daddy?

Yet this feisty attitude is presumably why they're still going strong, and back with a fantastic new single, Love Comes, and attendant album, titled Viva (their first since 2005's Drama).

Originally, the project started as a self-financed LP of disco cover versions until demos of Ian Masterson (Danni Minogue, Pet Shop Boys)-produced new material reached the ears of Peter Lorraine, head of Fascination Records (pub quiz fact: he ran a Bananarama fanzine back in the day), Universal's home to the likes of Girls Aloud and The Saturdays.

"When you've been going for over 20 years, it's quite difficult to get a deal," says Sara Dallin who forms one half of the duo, alongside Keren Woodward (original member Siobhan Fahey and her replacement Jacquie O'Sullivan having fled the coop years ago).

Yet back in Bananarama's vodka-fuelled halcyon daze, they'd be more at home hanging around with rock bands such as The Cure than other acts on Stock, Aitken and Waterman's Hit Factory - the label responsible for the likes of I Heard a Rumour and Love In The First Degree.

When they shared a London council house, they'd even invite The Pogues around for parties - and regularly drink the Oirishmen under the table.

In fact, they even achieved what Robbie Williams would sell his grandmother on eBay for - a US number one, when Cruel Summer topped the charts. "I remember staying in LA and walking back to the hotel and Mike Tyson was sitting in his limo, and he started singing Cruel Summer at us," says Sara.

So what current music is Sara currently listening to? "I really like the La Roux stuff," she responds, before pausing in thought.

"Although I do think that it sounds as if it's come straight out of the '80s, so maybe it's just a familiar, comforting sound for me."

Bananrama play Pride's Big Weekend on Friday, August 28.