‘The pope complained about the lyrics!’: the Bluebells and Siobhan Fahey on how they made Young at Heart
‘I had moved down from Glasgow and was sharing a council flat with the girls from Bananarama,We wrote the song after watching the Frank Sinatra film’I first glimpsed Siobhan Fahey at my publisher’s offices,Later that day, when I was being interviewed by Smash Hits, I told the interviewer: “I really fancy Siobhan from Bananarama,” The next night, she was at our concert, at the front,I remember saying to my bandmates Ken and Dave McCluskey: “I’m gonna get off with her.
”We met in the car park and liked each other.Soon afterwards, I moved down from Glasgow – into a London flat with the glamorous Bananarama girls.It was like the Beatles in Help! One night, we were lying in bed watching the Frank Sinatra film Young at Heart, one of my dad’s favourites, and talking about our backgrounds.Siobhan is Irish but her father was in the British army, so she’d moved around and changed schools a lot.I think she had just wanted to escape, so we started writing lyrics about how her parents had got married young to have sex and have kids, because that’s what people did then.
It was the first time since I’d left home that I also realised what our parents had done for us, which fed into the line: “How come I love them now? How come I love them more? / When all I wanted to do when I was old was to walk out the door?”Bananarama recorded Young at Heart, but their version didn’t quite have whatever their big hits had at the time.Our record company boss Roger Ames suggested the Bluebells record it.We were big pals with Dexys Midnight Runners so thought of asking Helen O’Hara, who played fiddle on Come on Eileen, to play on our version.Roger said that would be “too much cross-pollination”, but the old story about us finding a fiddle player in the pub isn’t true – Bobby Valentino, who played on the single, was a session-player who laid the part down in a few minutes, and Lawrence Donegan came up with a killer new bassline.In 1984, the song got to No 8 but then nine years later it was used on a car advert and it spent four weeks at No 1.
The pope actually complained that the lyrics promoted divorce, which I thought was really funny – although my mum is Italian so she wasn’t best pleased.Bob’s Smash Hits story is sheer fantasy and makes me sound like a stalker – but Bananarama did share offices in Covent Garden with the Bluebells.We were penniless and on the dole, so we’d go in there to use the phones or steal toilet roll.I met Bob there.He was – and is – the most charming, positive and inspiring person, so he sweet-talked his way into my affections and I took to him big time.
Bananarama had been living in a leaky loft space above the Sex Pistols’ rehearsal room, although we were all in a council flat when Bob used to come down and stay in my room.We weren’t long out of school, we were practically children, but it was an incredible time to be in London.We’d go dancing in the Wag Club and everyone there was in a band: Wham!, Culture Club, Sade.Once Bananarama started having hits, we had to disguise ourselves to sign on for the dole in case they’d seen us on Top of the Pops.Then suddenly we needed material for an album.
I remember Bob sitting with a guitar and going: “Let’s write a song,” He came up with the title Young at Heart after we watched the film, then I started writing lyrics about my relationship with my parents,You can hear the difference between our personalities in the song,My words reek with pain, his are more loving: two very different experiences of growing up,Bananarama recorded Young at Heart as a northern soul stomper.
We’d wanted Soft Cell’s producer but were told he only did synth bands, so instead we ended up with Barry Blue.It’s a flawed production but I like our version, although it doesn’t have the fiddle hook, which is so important to the Bluebells’ one.The song’s mix of dark and cheery lyrics with uptempo, uplifting music reminds me of Tamla Motown, which was the reason we formed a girl group.It was such an amazing time to be young, and we were two kids who wrote a song about our parents from the heart.The Bluebells’ 1984 debut Sisters is out now as an extended remastered double album/3CD/DVD set
Domestic violence screening tool should be replaced, Jess Phillips says
The main screening tool used to determine which domestic violence victims need support has “obvious problems” and should be replaced, the UK safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips, has said.Phillips is reviewing systems, including the Dash (domestic abuse, stalking, harassment and “honour-based” violence) questionnaire, largely relied on by police, social services and healthcare workers across the UK since 2009 to assess risk.Academics and others working in the sector have raised concerns about the 27-question tool, which assesses answers to decide which respondents are deemed high risk so they can be referred to specialist care.Phillips told the BBC’s File on 4 that she was reviewing the entire system supporting victims but said it would not change overnight.“My instinct is that the tool doesn’t work, but until I can replace it with something that does, we have to make the very best of the system that we have,” Phillips said
Ovarian cancer blood test can detect disease early, study suggests
Scientists have developed a simple blood test to spot ovarian cancer early that could “significantly improve” outcomes for women with the disease.More than 300,000 women, mostly over the age of 50, are diagnosed worldwide each year, according to the World Cancer Research Fund. Ovarian cancer is often diagnosed late, which makes treating the condition more difficult.The test trialled by UK and US researchers looks for two different types of blood markers in those showing symptoms of the disease, which include pelvic pain and a bloated tummy. It then uses machine learning to recognise patterns that would be difficult for humans to detect
UK to clarify definition of ‘honour’-based abuse in drive to cut violence against women and girls
Ministers are introducing a clearer legal definition of “honour”-based abuse in an attempt to catch more perpetrators and protect women and girls from violence and coercion.The law change is intended to improve how public services respond to “honour”-based abuse in England and Wales, and forms part of Labour’s plan for change, which includes a pledge to halve violence against women and girls.Teachers, police officers, social workers and healthcare workers will receive training to spot the signs of “honour”-based abuse and better support victims, while an awareness-raising campaign will encourage victims to come forward.Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, said: “All forms of ‘honour’-based abuse are devastating crimes that can shatter lives. There is no ‘honour’ in them
UK mothers earn £302 a week less than fathers, analysis shows
Women with children earn £302 less every week than men with children: one-third less per week and almost 20% less per hour, according to analysis based on ONS data.This means that Mums’ Equal Pay Day falls on 1 September this year, almost three months earlier than Equal Pay Day for all women. From this date, mothers are working for free for the rest of the year compared with fathers.“The reason the gender pay gap worsens so significantly after having children is because starting a family has a disproportionately negative impact on women’s earnings,” said Joeli Brearley, the founder of Growth Spurt, an online back-to-work scheme for parents.The analysis has been acknowledged as accurate by the Office for National Statistics
Maroushka Monro obituary
My friend Maroushka Monro, who has died aged 78, was a writer, poet, counsellor and at one time an agony aunt.In the booming magazine world of the 1980s, her writing talent earned her a job assisting Katie Boyle, the agony aunt at TV Times. Then she was headhunted by the teen magazine Just Seventeen, where for three years, from 1988 until 1991, she put heart and soul into her role as their agony aunt. She would typically receive up to 800 letters a week, and would frequently respond directly and personally to her readers.Maroushka was forced to relinquish her job because of illness, in the form of the highly debilitating condition spasmodic torticollis, which caused her head to turn rigidly to one side
Eric Midwinter obituary
In 1982 Eric Midwinter, who has died aged 93, co-founded the University of the Third Age (now u3a), with the social entrepreneur Michael Young and the historian Peter Laslett. Self-funding, it brings together those who are no longer working full-time or raising a family (there is no lower age limit) to continue the enjoyment of learning in a wide range of topics, chosen by members. This has the consequent benefit of challenging negative stereotypes of older people.Everyone works collaboratively to teach and learn from each other. The UK now has more than 1,000 u3a branches, each a self-governing charity affiliated to the Third Age Trust, with a total of 400,000 members
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