Reproduced from Hit CD, 1993

No indeed, hence the abrupt vanishing act performed with such virtuosity by former member Jaquie.

"Had Jacquie become more involved as we hoped she would at the beginning, then it would have changed. The fact was tht she didn't, so it didn't. Jacquie sang and danced with us for those years, but you don't give someone a third of your business for that. It was a business decision." says Keren.

Keren and founding co-director of Bananarama Inc, Sarah now find themselves the unlikely co-ordinators of a business some ten years standing. And when they're not shaking their booty on TOTP, it is a business for them.

"It is a business for us, we even manage ourselves too, which we've done from very early on." confirms Keren.

"I think only new bands need managers, " reckons Sarah. "If you get your lawyers to do deals, you don't need to give someone a huge percentage of your money just to be your manager. It's not that we want anyone to make creative decisions for us and to sort out our image and career, because we already have one. I think after ten years you have as much knowledge as most managers anyway."

But whats all this managing a pop group lark about?

"Well, I don't really know what other managers do..." considers Keren. "I guess theres a PA-type of manager, who organises your life which is what we've usually gone for. He deals with the stuff we can't be bothered to deal with, and he important decisions we deal with ourselves. But we get on the phone to record companies and say 'what the fuck are you doing here, we need this sort of campaign or that sort of campaign.'"

"After ten years you have a team of people around uou uou can trust," adds Sarah. "People that sort out the huge contracts and stuff. Everything else is day to day and very easy, but it has to be done. Is it fun? That side of things isn't particularly fun, no. It depends whether they say there's a million pounds coming in or you're a million pounds in debt."

"Its really the same for us as it's been since Siobhan left," reckons Sarah, referring to the departure of Siobhan who left to form Shakespear's Sister. "It wouldn't have lasted this long if we wouldn't ave been completely in tune with each other. It was the same when Siobhan was there - we didn't argue over everything. It was only towards the end that she wanted to do somethig different, so she left the group. It had been coming for a while anyway, ever since she met Dave (Stewart) really. And she didn't get on with Peter Waterman."

The business brain of the Eighties most successful songwriting and production partnership, Pete Waterman isn't regularly reported as being one fo the world's nicest chaps. Do Keren and Sarah get on with him?

"Peter's not involved in songwriting, " Keren offers diplomatically, "so he'll just come in and out of the studio. He's very supportive of us, but we don't have to go out with him every night after the studio ... and listen to him talk ... "

Sarah: " ... about selling bull semen at forty pounds a time. He's got prize bulls and he sells the semen for other people's cows."

Keren: "... or for home made wine!"

"We used to hang out in a little gang when we were at school, " remembers Keren, " but eventually we just ended up as the two of us to the exclusion of most other people in school."

"Most people broke friends with Keren, and broke friends with me, " says Sarah, "so we decided we don't need them and cemented our friendship."

The gym-slipped 'Ramas always saw their lives stretching beyond the Bristol homes they grew up in.

"We were never really interested in going to the local pub with the local boys," says Sarah, "We much preferred to get on a train and go to London and experience a wider social life. We wanted a different lifestyle to most of the people we were at school with."

But not all that different to new-found friend Siobhan Fahey.

"The three of us were happy going in the same direction till about the seventh year together," remembers Keren. "We spend seven years living together and doing exactly the same thing."

Sarah: "We even bought three houses next door to each other - we bought in bulk and got a discount. We even knocked our gardens through. We kept the walls pretty solid, though."

Of course, when Bananarama aren't too busy sucking on cigars and rationalising their enterprises, they do get to go on jolly little jaunts abroad and mix with top notch celebs like Sid Little.

"Actually doing European TV is the worst," reckons Sarah. "We had to meet a man dressed up in a fur banana suit once and unzip him and dance around him. He absolutely stank of drink. Sometimes you don't know what you're going in for, so you have to take your chances."

"Its not like saying yes to your 'Little and Large Show' over here, because you know what it entails."

Sarah: "My favourite show ever was 'Seaside Special' in Jersey. We had our three gay dancers with us at the time, and we met Donny Osmond, Mike Yarwood, Spit the Dog. . . "

Keren: "They're far more interesting than the pop shows because of the different people you meet. Meeting someone like Mike Yarwood, who we watched on TV as kids, just kills you."

Sarah: "We even met The Golden Girls on one show. The little one looked great - she came into our room for a smoke. But meeting the big one with the deep voice was a bit like meeting the Queen Mother!"

First bananarama had lots of hits with S/A/W then they had slightly less hits with former Goth-rocker Youth, and now their new album is with Stock and Waterman again (Aitken has since moved on).

Sarah: "We felt that the sound we had when we first worked with SAW we created together, which we felt they gave to everyone else, like Kylie, Jason, and Sonia. Everyone seemed to sound the same."

Keren: "Working with Youth was like going back to basics - it was exciting. And Youth had never actually tried to write a pop song before - it wasn't like working with Mike Stock, who could sit down and play any song you named."

Sarah: "Youth's tone deaf for a start. But he's great. We'd known him since he was 18."

Keren: "But Mike's the best person for us. He's a great songwriter and it's a really good partnership. We just shut ourselves in the studio, come up with a title, Mike sits at the keyboard playing away, and we end up singing something to it. It seems very natural now with the three of us. It's enjoyable."

"It's bound to change you drastically, I suppose," admits Keren on the subject of dropping sprogs. Keren bought hers into the world over five years ago, while Sarah's pride and joy is a dribbly one-year-old.

"But its not the same as an ordinary person having a family," reckons Sarah, "because you can afford to go to different parts o the world with your family, while other people can't. We're lucky that way."

And talking of lucky (ahem), Keren's bagged herself an international playboy as a sparring partner - ex-Wham! star Andrew Ridgeley. How did that happen?

"We were socialising with George (Michael) quite a bit, and Andrew would occasionally crop up at a dinner party or a club. I'd known him on and off for a while and ..."

Sarah: "... she was desperate ..."

Keren: "... we kept in contact with each other."

Is this the big one? Love and kisses and rockets and stars and everything?

"... Oh don't be so stupid, I refuse to answer that question." It's not then.

"No, it's just that I'm not answering that question. If I say no I'm going to sound like I'm down on the whole thing, and if I say yes I'm going to sound like I'll love him desperately for the rest of my life. Apart from anything else, you can never tell, as I've learned from the past."

Ooh, touchy touchy ...

Sarah: "I started exercising after I had the baby because I put on tow and a half stone," admits Sarah casually. Sounds like loads to me. "That's normal!!! And I've lost it. I like doing the weights, but I don't do it very extensively."

Does Keren indulge?

Sarah: "She collapsed last time."

Keren: "No I didn't. Oh, I did actually. I joined the same gym about six months ago but I hate it. I'll stick to the step class and Cher's step video. Maybe."

Will Bananarama still be together in another ten years?

Sarah: "What, as a singing duo?"

No, as corner shop owners.

"Yeah thats probably more the mark."

Keren: "I know there'll come a time when we'll just look at ourselves and it will be laughable to continue."

Sarah: "Also, when you start off, everything seems really important, but the older you get the more you realise how trivial it all is."

Keren: "It's important because it's our business. But there's lots of jobs we could do in the business. Actually, there's lots of jobs I'd hate to do in the business."

Sarah: "I'd like a cushy one, like songwriting. you write the songs, get your millions and just enjoy your life. now thats what I call good business."