2018 Highlight: BANANARAMA Together Again and Then Not Together
Back in 2017 Keren Woodward and Sara Dallin announced that they were welcoming back Siobhan Fahey to the Bananarama and touring the UK and US. In 1988 I was crushed like a little teen boy by the news that the group that I fell in love with in 1983 announced they were splitting up. Fahey left the group because of the male-dominated music industry was changing the group into a sugar-coated pop group. She left the group right before they were supposed to do a world tour and sadly the US was eventually lopped off that tour. Luckily for all of those Fahey fans, she never left music but instead started a new group Shakespeare Sister. My love for both groups continued and with the news of this new chapter of Fahey returning to the group put the wheels in motion.
The North America leg of the reunion tour only had four shows, one in each (NYC, LA, SF & Toronto). Sadly I hoped to do the NYC show but at the time P was doing a production on stage and that week was going to be running tech on stage. I opted for the LA and SF show. Luck has it; the LA show was on one of Paley’s off days. She won the lucky ticket to fly with me to LA to see Bananarama. We were lucky enough to have one of P’s good friends in LA join us for the show. The whole trip was an adventure for her and I. We even got a little bowling in before the show. Now I will admit, I didn’t turn P into a huge Bananarama fan. Having her friend V. there made the evening extra special.
Bananarama 2018 (SF Show)
We flew home the next morning, and she made it to school as well as rehearsal that night. Clem joined me the second night in SF. The show was just as better as the night before. The epic moment of the evening was when Sara and Keren started singing Shakespeare Sisters number one hit “Stay” and Siobhan entered on her singing queue. It was off the chart unreal. Both evenings were amazing and I am so happy I was able to share it with both Clem and Paley.