We have never wrapped ourselves up in our own world thinking we are the only people who know what is doing. We listen to other things and see what we would like and what would suit us.
— Keren Woodward
The band is our whole lives and we are completely dedicated, but if you get too serious you'll have a lot of problems and if you don't enjoy what you are doing you shouldn't be doing it.
We used to do 'Venus' live for a long time but never got 'round to recording it because people would always say it's too old-fashioned a song.
We didn't want to be famous. We just loved the music and excitement.
I find it really irritating when a band changes the melody of a song you know.
Finding out I was expecting a child was highly inconvenient for doing all the promotion for 'Venus.'
We were completely DIY and very opinionated. We weren't the type that sat back or do what we're told… We never listened to many people.
We spent a couple of years trying to be what we thought people wanted us to be, what the press thought we should be, doing what the company wanted. Finally we just said 'Sod it. This is what we do best. We're best at making pop records that people enjoy and having fun and entertaining them.'
We've always been do-it-yourself. In that we've had complete control.
My dad was fine, but I have to say my mum was upset when I said I was leaving home.
We've always written from personal experiences.
The perfect pop song is about creating a memory.
I'd hate to be too grown-up. That would be dull.
Thank god magazines like 'Heat' weren't around in our day. The thought of someone catching you unawares on a beach and publishing photos of your cellulite… it's so hurtful, causes so many problems.
We never thought of ourselves as a girl band. We dressed like blokes.
When you're in a band it's a 24/7 thing. If you don't get on or like each other things will fall apart very quickly, which is what it seems happened with Fifth Harmony.
We were expected to smile and be flirty to everyone. But we acted more like a male rock band. We never mastered the niceties. We were more interested in having a good time.
Pop music is a constant reminder of what you were doing at the time, it holds all sorts of memories.
The group has always been based on friendship and a certain attitude.
When we go out, we do enjoy ourselves. We don't worry about whether or not people will recognize us.
We had no money, and we had to go through 'punk' school. We ended up living in the rehearsal room that used to be the Sex Pistols rehearsal room at Malcolm McLaren's office. So we had this sort of interesting beginning.
Radio in the U.K. is so formulaic. You've got commercial stations who play the same 20 songs all day.
We've never been good at long-term plans.
I can't even compare ourselves with the Supremes. I adore the Supremes! I can't set myself up as comparison to people I'm in awe of.
We've sung to prerecorded tracks and things like that, but we've never done a proper world tour with a band and everything.
If we'd had a Svengali manager and done what we would have been told, maybe we would have had a bigger, more hugely successful career.
Back in the day we didn't really have time to be a live act because we were always on TV or doing live interviews. We were being flown all over the world.
The amount of women we've met that say that we were an inspiration to them growing up, has always been one of the best things about being in the band.
I guess that people can't imagine three girls just getting up off the streets and making a career for themselves without someone to help them - which is what we did.
Everyone we knew was forming a band. Boy George, Wham! Sade. But it wasn't a big deal, they were our friends. It wasn't like we were hanging out with pop stars.
There is nothing worse than a spoilt brat.
We did 10 years of working and travelling constantly, and we were just knackered. I thought: 'I've got to take a break.' I felt like I was going mad. I decided to move to Cornwall.
We were all friends who formed a band. We weren't auditioned or put together by a record label, management company or TV show.
We were always around music and we were lucky to be in the right place at the right time, knowing the right friends.
We want people to enjoy our music.
We're best at doing pop music - we're not good at doing down, depressing music.
It never worked having a management style where someone would try to tell us what to do. It's never been the sort of group that we are.
I don't know how to write or to be anything other than Bananarama-ish because that's who we are.
The ‘80s don't seem to have gone away. Most weekends in the summer we're off doing a festival in front of 10,000 or 15,000 people with a load of other ‘80s acts. It was just such a great era for music, for individuals and characters. It just had a spirit.
We never realized how much of an influence we had.
After a few years, we realized that you did have to put some work into it. That's why the bimbo comments make me angry. After seven years, people have to realize we have a certain amount of talent.
If people want to compare us to the Shangri-Las, then that's all well and good. But those groups were put together. They were told what to sing, dressed up, neatly packaged. We're like the '80s version in that we're more outgoing, more involved in it.
We never came into the business with a plan beyond the next three months. It's all been a natural thing for us to go off and travel and then maybe record an album.
I definitely think we paved the way for other girl groups. We did it very much on our own terms without kowtowing to all the men in the business or being told what to do by anyone. For that we feel very proud.
If I look back on my life, you can almost tell the story of it through pop songs. Romances as a teenager, your first kiss, first love, first heartbreak.
But you're not really emotionally mature in your 20s. Well, we weren't. You don't say anything, you just bottle it up and then it builds up.
We were very creative. There was nothing contrived about us. No one telling us what to do, what to wear, what to sing. We wrote our own material, chose our producers.
I'm not worried about wrinkles on my cheeks, or going grey. I'm not trying to be 20.
When Siobhan left, we never fell out or had a huge argument. She just wanted to move to America and do something different.
When you've known someone for so long you never lose that friendship.
