2-05-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians – Starter Job #33 (Rock Writer L.E. Agnelli Meets Bananarama)

. . . Couldn’t say the same for another Brit pop group I interviewed, years later, for CREEM. More about that, next time?

-- That’s where I left off on the last blog, and sure enough, I have a little story about the time I talked to Bananarama, the professional-attitude-antithesis of those delightful guys from 10cc. This was in 1984, and CREEM’s Dave DeMartino asked me to interview these very popular London popsters, who I’d go out on a limb and call precursers to the Spice Girls. I’d gone back to my normal name, so Trixie didn’t really interview ‘em -- but L.E. did all right, considering!

At any rate, re-reading the interview is hilarious, because this was one story where I figured out the best way to do it was just to quote directly and describe their facial expressions and vocal inflections. They were quite annoying, I thought, but in an effort to be fair, the “disclaimer” in my piece ran like this:

“Three hungover, hungry, still-jetlagged lasses from London, a.k.a. Bananarama, meet an ebullient but spacey female rock journalist who looks like a Greenwich Village Beatchick circa 1960. They have never heard of CREEM Magazine, and when I describe it, Sarah deadpans, ‘Oh, it’s like the NME now.’”

Further disclaimer: I’d gone to seek my aberrant fortune and lived in London, England, for a year and a half, from mid ’81 to the end of ’82. Living there, I had to hear B-rama’s super slick, catchy, annoying “music” way too much when I lived there, and I met so many unkind, stuck up people just like them in my travels.

Perhaps in a way I was trying to get back at people like them who’d hurt me. . . but on the other hand, CREEM magazine was so perfect for “taking the piss” and making fun of so many popular musicians. I do have quite the sense of humor and even, to this day, I laugh my head off re-reading parts of this article, which I’ll try to post with the blog.

Ah, the arrogance of youth! It’s all here. . .

Enjoy. . . and remember, that song, “Bobby DeNiro’s Waiting”? That one’s actually all right in my book!