413 Hello Bananarama* - It Ain't What You Do It's The Way That You Do It

( * Fun  Boy  Three  and .... )

Chart  entered : 13  February  1982

Chart  peak : 4

Number  of  hits : 29

I  can't  claim  to  be  a   great  fan  of  this  lot  but  I  do  get  indignant  on  their  behalf  at  the  ongoing  attempt  to airbrush  them  out  of  pop  history  in  order  to  give maximum  credit  to  a  manufactured  band  of  stage  school  brats  that  came  along  a  decade and  a  half  later. ( I  should  note  in  fairness  that  Mel  B  has  acknowledged  them  as  an  inspiration ).

The  pivotal  figure  in  Bananarama  coming  together  in  1979  was  Sara  Dallin , a  17-year  old fashion  student  from  Bristol . Having  relocated  to  London  she  hooked  up  with  her  childhood  friend  Keren  Woodward  who  had  moved  there  to  take  a  job  with  the  BBC's  Pensions  Department. The  duo  went  out  clubbing  and  were  soon  joined  by  Sara's  new  friend  from  her  course  , the  slightly  older  Siobahn  Fahey  from  Dublin.

The  trio  were  all  music  fans  and  became  known  faces  on  the  post-punk  scene, occasionally  being  invited  on  stage  to  do  backing  vocals  for  the  likes  of   The  Monochrome  Set  and  Department  S. They  caught  the  eye  of  ex-Pistol   Paul  Cook  who  invited  them  to  stay  in  a  flat  above  The  Professionals'  rehearsal  space. It's  not  known  if  he  received  "special  favours "  for  this  although  you  could  hardly  blame  him  for  asking.  Siobahn  befriended  London  DJ  Gary  Crowley  who  arranged  for  them  to  record  a  demo  which  became  their  first  single,  a  cover  of  Black  Blood's  1975  European  hit  "Aie  A  Mwana"  in  August  1981. The  lyric  was  entirely  in  Swahili  which  the  girls  learned  phonetically. It's  a  good  tune  performed  with  stronger  vocals  than  you'd  expect  over  a  disco  beat. It  made  the  "Bubbling  Under"  section  of  singles  just  outside  the  chart  and  got  them  a  small  feature  in  The  Face.

One  person  who  noticed  was  Terry  Hall  of  The  Specials  breakaway  group  Fun  Boy  Three  who  invited  them  to  collaborate  on  this,  the  second  single  for  both  groups. The  song  was  originally  a  jazz  tune  written  and  first  recorded   in  1939.  With  neither  Neville  Staple  nor  Lynval  Golding  being  a  particularly  good  musician, the  fledgling  Fun  Boy  Three's  sound  was  based  on  tribal  percussion  with  some   basic  bass  and  piano  so   the  'Nanas  were  performing  a  useful  musical  function  in  filling  out  the  sound. They  get  a  generous  slice  of  the  record,  singing  the  main  hook  and  the  call  and  response  scatting  in  the  middle  of  the  record  that  goes  on  a  tad  too  long  before  Terry's  little  added  verse.  I  was  quite  disappointed  with  it  after  The  Lunatics  Have  Taken  Over  The  Asylum . I   could  see  why  its  upbeat  tropical  vibe  was  popular  in  the  middle  of  a  dismal  winter  but  at  heart  it's  pretty  vacuous  and  its  thin  sound  means  you  don't  hear  it  on  the  radio  now.