Bananarama - Masquerade (New Album 22nd July)

BoysForSeles said:
I’m sure they’re not overly that bothered (though they’d love a hit) if they’ve sold out their first run of vinyl that would’ve been the first priority to clear.
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The In Stereo vinyl was hanging around going cheap for quite a long while so maybe they were more conservative in ordering this time.
 
VoR said:
Are they likely to tour, do we think? Surely if there's any money at all for them in this endeavour, it'd be that.
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They do well on a festival line-up but I'm not convinced the demand would be there for a headliner duorama tour. Maybe if they teamed up with another act or two. The In Stereo album launch shows (while pricey at face value) were in very small venues and they were flogging tickets at the last minute cheaply.

I think it probably suits them to turn up for the summer weekend festival shows rather than organising a tour under their own steam. I could be wrong and perhaps a wider tour is part of their extended 40th anniversary plans.
 
They are doing a tweet a long on Thursday to the new album and insisting people steam for it. Get those plays ladies.

Pity the launch shows weren’t this week, they could have left Alice out in the foyer with a couple of boxes of cds and vinyls to flog in time for Friday’s figures.
 
Yes, I feared missing the top 40 initially. They underestimated the vinyl demand it seems. They need to do the cd cheap for a day. Apparently the hoodies are late (says somebody elsewhere who I guess has no reason to make it up) so those hoody/vinyl/cd bundles haven’t shipped yet. #stockingproblems
 
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I'll be more than happy if they make the top twenty AND failing that just as long as it peaks higher than 'In Stereo'.
 
I think I need to start working on my ranking of the album tracks now that I've had almost a week of listening to it.
 
Yes they are behind a whole pile of greatest hits. I wonder if the vinyl hadn't been so scarce this week whether they would have clung in the top 20? Best chart placing since the GHC anyway.

And the album is C'EST FANTASTIQUE :disco:
 
Music Week

They claim to be ‘forever young’ on the track of the same name on their new album, Masquerade – but Bananarama actually become the oldest female duo to have a hit album with said set, which debuts at No.22 (3,021 sales). A trio throughout their glory years, Bananarama consists of 60-year-old Sara Dallin and 61-year-old Keren Woodward these days, and Masquerade – originally conceived as an EP to mark their 40th anniversary - is the 13th chart album bearing the Bananarama brand (their fifth as a duo) and their highest charting studio album since Wow reached No.26 in 1987. Their last album, In Stereo, debuted and peaked at No.29 on sales of 2,642 copies in 2019.
 
lolly said:
Music Week

They claim to be ‘forever young’ on the track of the same name on their new album, Masquerade – but Bananarama actually become the oldest female duo to have a hit album with said set, which debuts at No.22 (3,021 sales). A trio throughout their glory years, Bananarama consists of 60-year-old Sara Dallin and 61-year-old Keren Woodward these days, and Masquerade – originally conceived as an EP to mark their 40th anniversary - is the 13th chart album bearing the Bananarama brand (their fifth as a duo) and their highest charting studio album since Wow reached No.26 in 1987. Their last album, In Stereo, debuted and peaked at No.29 on sales of 2,642 copies in 2019.
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erm, doesn’t that mean it's their highest charting studio album since Bananarama hit #16?
 
Currently mainly obsessed with those ridiculous backing vocals in the verses of Velvet Lies.

I've come round to the chorus of Bad Love now, it is just Brand New that sounds a bit more demo-ish than I'd like.
 
Won’t spoil it but I saw the set list for the first album launch show and it’s a really good set (though not a set for the casuals). They did a Q&A too.
 
I’m going tonight. Is anyone else? I was vaguely debating about sacking it off due to generally feeling a bit rubbish about work and not being arsed with the travel but those comments have cemented that I should go.
 
Sheena said:
I’m going tonight. Is anyone else? I was vaguely debating about sacking it off due to generally feeling a bit rubbish about work and not being arsed with the travel but those comments have cemented that I should go.
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Yes I am going. I bought the ticket about a month ago and was similarly feeling noncommittal about showing up, but I have resolved to make the effort and stop being such a misery!
 
Sheena said:
I’m going tonight. Is anyone else? I was vaguely debating about sacking it off due to generally feeling a bit rubbish about work and not being arsed with the travel but those comments have cemented that I should go.
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I would’ve loved to have gone but am in Portugal. Go and have a good dance and singalong and lose yourself for a couple of hours.
 
Oh that was fun! Much the same format as the last album launch gig, the Q&A, heavy on new album with a few duo classics and nice touch to bring out Alice to sing on her two songs.

The Q&A didn’t reveal too much new, though they seemed to enjoy my “Have you ever thanked Steps for keeping you in vodka and fags in the nineties?”, became Moopy-centric as they kept a running joke going about Su Pollard who became the stock, comedy response for any question they didn’t want to answer and kept making comments about the how they like doing nothing (such as considering doing Bananatars like Abba so they could tour without getting off the sofa, how Steps earning them loads of money without doing anything was marvellous etc etc. Same as it ever was! :D )
 
Disappointing to hear that they rehearsed Only Your Love but it is apparently unperformable :(

Bad Love went down VERY WELL live. Poor unloved Need a Little More Time was the only song from the new album they didn't play.
 
Just remembered that they were asked in the Q&A about getting the masters for Exotica. Not sure why they would bother. I think they said they were lost in France, with a Bonnie Tyler reference... best left there really. They did say they liked Crazy from that album. I assume they demoed/recorded Starz with Tony Moran - I would love to hear that, rather than the taped in a phone box version we got.

They said they liked the cover of Ultra Violet (I've always thought it looks rather cheap) but couldn't remember what was on it.

Nice things were said about George Michael (as you would expect) but also Pete Burns and Marilyn. There was a 'who would you rather?' type question about some combination of Stock, Aitken and Waterman and there was much hilarity regarding who they'd 'had'.

They somehow ended up talking about how their pre-gig dinner was a Charlie Binghams cottage pie, 'from Waitrose obvs'.

I didn't think about it at the time but they only had a drummer and guitarist for this show as compared to the In Stereo launch which had more of a full band. As I recall Favourite, Bad Love and Velvet Lies were probably the best received of the new album, though I suppose they are all at the upbeat end of things. Alice joining them was cute, and worked well on Favourite in particular. Sara commented after Let's Go Outside that the song was growing on her. Intoxicated from In Stereo was the most random selection of the evening, but Look on the Floor and Every Shade of Blue very much went off as you would expect both being stone cold Nana classics.

Essay over!
 
Glad it was a good night by the sounds of it. Poor Keren having the only song she instigated on the new album left off the set list. Sara apparently writes all the lyrics and Keren comes in to help with the tinkering and arrangements.
 
I imagine that Need a Little More Time might be a bit of a struggle vocally for them live (even by their standards).

I wonder what they'll go with as second single? There's the Radio 2 gig in late September so something in advance of that I guess. They must like Running With the Night as that was the closer. Velvet Lies was a grat track but only just before the album release, so don't think that would necessarily count it out.
 
It looks a little posthumous to me for some reason but the song is good, especially the “wind in my hair and I wanna go faster part….” which is such an ear worm.
 
Forever Young was my instant standout. As I mentioned to @Pingu, I could definitely imagine it as a latter day Steps release…
 
It's not one of my favourites(!) on the album, but I like it and it shows a different side.

Let's have an ALBUM RATE

11 Favourite
08 Stay Wild
10 Velvet Lies
10 Masquerade
09 Running With The Night
09 Bad Love
07 Let's Go Outside
09 Brand New
08 Need A Little More Time
07 Forever Young
07 Waiting For The Sun To Shine

It's SUCH a good album :disco:
 
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