» Interview with Siobhan Fahey
Siobhan Fahey of Shakespears Sister talks to Bella Todd about rivalry, reinvention, and why it’s more fun to play the villain
Having spent the ’80s with Bananarama, the biggest charting girl group of all time, in the ’90s Siobhan Fahey executed one of the most dramatic reinventions in pop. As Shakespears Sister, the once-blonde singer smothered herself in khol, roughed up her synth-pop with an intoxicating gothic growl, and made videos in which she and soprano-voiced then bandmate Marcella Detroit tore at each other like angel and devil. ‘Stay’, which spent eight weeks at Number One in 1992, even earned itself a French and Saunders send-up. Following an un-amicable spilt with Marcella and years spent acting and DJing, Siobhan is now touring as Shakespears Sister for the first time in 13 years, with new album Songs From The Red Room. (And yes, she does have a red bedroom – “blood red!”)
We’re glad to see you’re still exploring the less refined, shall we say non-angelic emotions…
You mean real! I’m a very open person. When people write sugar-coated lyrics, maybe they’re masters of self-deception. Because of the way I perform and maybe my lyrics, people just think I’m this horrible bitch. Yesterday somebody said to me, ‘Oh well, you’re a bit of an ice queen, aren’t you?’ What?! I said, ‘I’ve got a strong jawbone, so you might be mistaken’.
When Stock Aitken Waterman produced Bananarama, you apparently told Pete Waterman you wouldn’t sing songs with ‘love’ in the title…
I didn’t want to sing moon in June lovey dovey lyrics. We did have a huge hit single called ‘Love In The Third Degree’ though, so I didn’t entirely get my own way!
What subject are you most proud of getting onto the Bananarama lyrical agenda?
Well, ‘Rough Justice’ was famously about the injustices in the world, and ‘Hotline To Heaven’ was about… God, what was that about now?! Dark topics. And ‘Robert De Niro’s Waiting’ was about a girl who’d been date raped and escaped into a fantasy world.
What does having been in ‘the biggest charting girl group in history’ actually mean to you?
You know it’s really nice – it’s like if you win a race at sports day. It means as much and as little as that!
Did you consider taking part in the current reunion?
No! I mean, they didn’t ask me to. They have no interest in me touring with the group because they split the money two ways. And I’d find it really difficult to do because it’s a million miles from what interests me. Do I remember the dance routines? Only ‘Venus’, but I have a lot of gay friends who could remind me!
What was your lowest point in Bananarama?
We did a very grueling tour which started in Japan after an 18-hour flight, being taken straight to a live TV studio at 1am in the morning for a youth culture slapstick magazine show. We were waiting to go on, hallucinating with tiredness, while they had this naked man face down on the couch. The presenter shoved his finger up the fat man’s a*** and smelled it and fell about laughing. We just stood their, wilting. The punishment continued in Australia to the point where a bus pulled up outside the hotel to take us to DJ in this pub full of lurching bikers, and something snapped and I legged it down the street and hid under a humpback bridge. Our manager Hilary pursued me and marched me back onto the bus.
Was it crucial that you reinvent yourself so completely with Shakespears Sister after all that?
I wanted a visually strong look that was very different from what I’d done before. But the really twisted image came with the second Shakespears Sister album. I’m still at it! I love make-up. You can just change your face endlessly. It is empowering… on a very sort of basic level!
‘Stay’ is unsurprisingly topping the live requests vote on your website – why was it so popular?
I don’t know! It obviously connects on a very deep emotional level with people. I’ve had amazing feedback over the years. It’s helped people cope with their partners dying of AIDS and really massive things like that. That’s an awe-inspiring thing to hear.
The dramatic rivalry that underpinned your songs during the Marcella period – was that life imitating art, or vice versa?
I think I didn’t realise when we started off that the conflict and the competition was going to be as deep as it became. Probably life imitated art. Art certainly exposed it and nudged it. It was
first spotted and winkled out and exposed and exploited by [video director] Sophie Muller.
I started off thinking it was all just dark humour; almost like a pastiche of the way women were supposed to be with each other. And then it turned into a hideous truth! The poor guy in the
‘I Don’t Care’ video got ripped to shreds as we scrapped over his lifeless body!
That yin and yang element having been so vital – where do you go for your yin since Marcella left?
The competitive dynamic wasn’t at play in the writing of Hormonally Yours. So I don’t think I need that antagonism to write good songs. Although if you ask any performer, they would choose to play a bitch! It’s to do with the planets in my birth charts, the acting. I’m this weird combination of shy and a massive exhibitionist. A shy show-off.
We’ve heard about your ‘hippy element’…
I’m constantly going to psychics. And I’m big into conspiracy theories. I totally believe beyond any shadow of a doubt that the twin towers was an inside job. And any semi-intelligent person can’t argue with the fact there’re other lifeforms out there. I’m going a bit space age with my look on these dates actually, kind of a tron/disco. I’m going to head off for the desert for a couple of days today to visit this place called the Integratron. I read about it in Rolling Stone. It’s a sound dome in the desert where all the ley lines meet and there’s loads of UFO sightings. You can have sonic healing.
Finally, ‘what evil lurks within the mind of woman?’
Everything from the greatest love to the deepest hatred, and all shades in between. Writing …Red Room, the darker stuff came first, and then I recovered my joie de vivre and sense of humour.
I did try to write more positive lyrics this time though, because I’ve noticed that whatever I write comes true. Be careful what you write!
Shakespears Sister play Concorde 2 on Sunday
25 April, 01273 673311, www.concorde2.co.uk
