Siobhan Fahey

Siobhan Fahey

Siobhan Fahey (born Siobhan Máire Deirdre Fahey, 10 September 1958, Dunshaughlin, County Meath, Ireland) is a founding member of the 1980s British girl group Bananarama, and later formed the BRIT Award and Ivor Novello award winning musical outfit Shakespears Sister.

Career

Fahey was born the eldest of three daughters (Máire and Niamh being the other siblings) to Helen and Joseph Fahey (her parents had both come from County Tipperary, Ireland). Fahey lived in Dublin for about two years, before her family moved to Yorkshire, England where her father Joseph was posted as a soldier in the British Army. The family subsequently moved to Germany, then returned to the U.K. where Fahey was sent to a convent school in Edinburgh, Scotland and attended schools in Stroud, Gloucester and Kent in southern England. When she was fourteen she and her family moved to Hertfordshire, and two years later she left home for London and became involved in the punk scene of the late 1970s.

1979-1988: Bananarama

There she took a course in fashion journalism where she met Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward, and with the help of Sex Pistol Paul Cook, the trio formed Bananarama. The trio's first hit without Fun Boy Three was "Shy Boy", a song about heart-throb London pirate radio comedian Mark Gould, which entered the charts in Summer 1982 eventually peaking at #4. She helped to co-write many of the group's international hits, including "Cruel Summer", "Robert DeNiro's Waiting", "I Heard a Rumour", and "Love in the First Degree".

In the lavish, star studded surroundings of a French Chateau, Fahey married Dave Stewart of Eurythmics in 1987. The couple had two sons, Sam and Django James before splitting up in 1996. Prior to her marriage to Stewart, Fahey was romantically involved with Jim Reilly, the drummer for the Northern Irish punk rock band Stiff Little Fingers and Scottish singer Bobby Bluebell of The Bluebells, with whom she co-wrote the UK #1 pop song "Young At Heart".

1988-1996: Shakespears Sister

In 1988, frustrated with the direction she felt Bananarama were heading, Fahey left the group and formed the well received Shakespears Sister. Initially, Fahey effectively was Shakespears Sister, though American singer/songwriter Marcella Detroit later became an official member making the outfit a duo. The band was nominated for numerous awards and showed a darker, more sophisticated side to Fahey, who often appeared in the band's music videos and on-stage as a vampish glam figure. However, the duo were not without a sense of humour and this was highlighted in the videos for their second album Hormonally Yours, in which they spoofed classic melodramas such as Sunset Boulevard and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, using the theme of dramatic rivalry for many of their subsequent videos. Ironically, tensions then began to rise between the pair in real life and Hormonally Yours was their last album together.

In 1993 Fahey admitted herself into a psychiatric unit with severe depression . This was just after The Bluebells had a UK number one hit with a re-release of their 1993 recording of "Young at Heart", a song Fahey co-wrote with then boyfriend, Robert Hodgens (aka Bobby Bluebell) and recorded with Bananarama for their debut album Deep Sea Skiving.

In 1994 Fahey portrayed a fan-dancer in the art-house made-for-television film Jiggery Pokery directed by her videographer/photographer friend Sophie Muller.

In 1996, Fahey started playing a series of low key 'rehearsal' type gigs around her native Ireland. In June of that year, London records released "I Can Drive", the first single from Shakespears Sister's third album, which was her first record since her split with Marcella Detroit. The single performed disappointingly (UK number 30) and later London Records refused to release the album. Following this, Fahey left the label and after a lengthy battle of with the label, Fahey finally released Shakespears Sister's, #3, independently through her website in 2004.

1997-2008: Solo years

In 1997 Fahey appeared opposite Martin Dunne in the Irish short film Pinned. She also briefly re-joined Bananarama in 1998 to record "Waterloo for the Channel 4 Eurovision special A Song for Eurotrash. The song proved popular, winning the public vote for best song at the conclusion of the program.

Fahey again joined Bananarama in 2002 for a "last ever" reunion at the band's twentieth anniversary concert at G-A-Y in London. In front of 3000 fans she joined Keren Woodward and Sara Dallin to perform "Venus" and "Waterloo".

Fahey continued to make music into the new millennium. She had an active website (incorporating a message board, online shop, etc) from 2002 until July 2007. Currently the website does have a blog section, although this is rarely updated by Fahey. In 2005 Fahey independently released The MGA Sessions, an album recorded with frequent collaborator Sophie Muller in the mid-1990s. The music was recorded for a film which ultimately was never made. Only 1000 copies of this release were pressed. Fahey's most recent single, "Bad Blood", was released on 17 October 2005. In 2006, Fahey's website stated that she had been writing for other people; these include (former Sugababe) Siobhán Donaghy and Kylie Minogue, though neither of these endeavours made it to the final cut.

Fahey's track "Bitter Pill" was partially covered by pop band The Pussycat Dolls in their 2005 debut album PCD. The verses (which were slightly altered) and the overall sound of the song are from "Bitter Pill", but added in was the chorus of Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff". The song was renamed "Hot Stuff (I Want You Back)" and a remix was included as a B side to one of their hit singles.

On 13 November 2008, Fahey performed at the Pirate Provocateur Extravaganza launch party for the new Agent Provocateur winter collection, and for the release of Dirty Stop Out's new album Cuntro Classics at KOKO in London.

2009-Present: Shakespears Sister re-launch

Fahey released the second Shakespears Sister album without Detroit in 2009. Entitled (Songs from the Red Room), it was released on her own record label, SF Records.. Fahey performed her first live show in almost 15 years as Shakespears Sister in Hoxton, London on 20 November 2009.

Solo discography

Albums

• 2005 The MGA Sessions (with Sophie Muller), independent release

EPs

• 2010 Remixes (MP3 bundle featuring remixes of Bad Blood, Bitter Pill and Pulsatron)

Singles

Year	Song	UK Singles Chart	Notes
1992	Walk Into The Wind	65	Collaboration with Vegas
2002	Bitter Pill	108	Limited to 2000 copies. Guitar version released on Shakespears Sister Songs From the Red Room
2003	Fear Is Real	194	Credited to 'Psychonauts', features vocal loop from Siobhan Fahey's 'War'
2004	Cold	—	Limited white label release only featuring Death In Vegas mixes. Later version released on Shakespears Sister Songs From the Red Room
	It's a Trip/Pulsar Tron (sic)	—	Punx Soundcheck pink vinyl 7" release only, limited to 500 copies. Both tracks later included on Shakespears Sister Songs From the Red Room
	She's Lost Control	—	Credited to 'Erreur Fatale featuring Siobhan Fahey', recorded for Agent Provocateur.
2005	Pulsatron	95	Later released on Shakespears Sister Songs From the Red Room.
	Bad Blood	—	Later released on Shakespears Sister Songs From the Red Room.

See also: Shakespears Sister discography

External links

• Shakespears Sister and Siobhan Fahey