New music from Bananarama has arrived as the band confirm a series of new live dates and HMV Instore events events for 2024, included in this is an instore album signing at HMV Brighton in Churchill Square Shopping Centre on Friday 8th March 2024 at 12:00pm – details HERE.
On the releases front, The Reflex has added his deft French touch to the band’s 1984 Top 10 smash hit ‘Robert De Niro’s Waiting…’ Revisiting the original source tapes to unearth bass, guitars and more, The Reflex breathes new life into the track, traversing a line between the song’s original winning pop and adding subtle house flourishes. Having remixed everyone from Cerrone and Nile Rodgers to Noel Gallagher, The Reflex is renowned for his skilful and sensitive re-workings, or ‘revisions’ as he calls them. Watch the video HERE.
Australian producer Luke Million brings his remix prowess to 2022’s ‘Velvet Lies’, transforming the original into a slinky combination of vocoder-ed vocals, Italo Disco and Electronic Funk. With releases across labels such as Future Classic and Nervous Records, and remixes for the likes of Duke Dumont and Bag Raiders, Luke Million’s percolating keyboard wizardry sounds both futuristic and “retro” at the same time.
Following on from the euphoric new single ‘Feel The Love’, and the masterful Boys Noize re-rub of the worldwide No.1 ‘Venus’, these new remixes feature on the digital and Deluxe 3CD versions of ‘Glorious: The Ultimate Collection’. Other formats include a collector’s triple vinyl and double CD.
Bananarama’s official store hexclusives include a deluxe vinyl and deluxe 3CD edition, both of which are accompanied by a book which features an introduction by broadsheet journalist Fiona Sturges, articles by Sara and Keren, and an in-depth exploration of Bananarama’s relationship with fashion and music by writer and trends expert Katie Baron. It also includes stunning still photography of many of Bananarama’s outfits and memorabilia from their personal collections.
Of ‘Glorious: The Ultimate Collection’, Sara says: “We wanted this to be a unique collection, a celebration of all the twists and turns in our career. We compiled endless lists of songs, album tracks and hit singles and whittled it down to forty: our favourite tracks from the past four decades. Leafing through my early lyric books transported me back to that teenage girl writing poems and scribbles that would eventually be turned into songs. Each track … is a piece of the jigsaw and a connection to me. Together they create the bigger picture, the story of us as artists. It has been one almighty journey.”
Keren adds: “At times we have maybe felt that we haven’t received the credit, respect, and recognition we deserve, certainly sometimes purely down to the fact we were born female. I feel the collection of songs we have amassed over the last four decades hopefully speak for themselves, so I don’t have to. Putting the music together for this project… made me realise how much we have achieved and how determined, tenacious, and hardworking we are.”
With two shows already announced at The London Palladium on 3rd and 4th April 2024, the band has also been confirmed to perform at London’s Mighty Hoopla on 1st June 2024 as well as headline 80s Classical with the Orchestra of Opera North in Leeds on 20 July.
Bananarama will also be visiting HMV stores in the UK in March 2024, signing copies of ‘Glorious: The Ultimate Collection’. They will be heading to Brighton (12pm) and London (6pm) on Friday 8th March, then Birmingham (12pm) and Manchester (5pm) on Saturday 9th March. More information can be found HERE, and full dates are below.
BANANARAMA UK LIVE DATES 2024:
MARCH
08 BRIGHTON HMV (Instore @ 12pm)
08 LONDON HMV (Instore @ 6pm)
09 BIRMINGHAM HMV (Instore @ 12pm)
09 MANCHESTER HMV (Instore @ 5pm)
APRIL
03 LONDON Palladium
04 LONDON Palladium
JUNE
01 LONDON Mighty Hoopla
JULY
20 LEEDS 80s Classical at Millennium Square
Tickets HERE.
