SMACKED ACTOR

LONGTIME FANS of Bananarama and Shakespear s Sister are in for a serious shock when they see the acting debut of honey-voiced pop chanteuse Siobhan Fahey. Having taken time off from recording Shakespear s third album, Siobhan has lent her considerable talents to a short (half-hour) film entitled Pinned.
A bleak, harrowing portrait of 90s inner-city Dublin in the midst of the skag/AIDS holocaust, it showcases a powerful performance from Siobhan as Alison, a mother with a reasonably stable addiction to methadone, who strives desperately to ensure a semi-decent life in spite of the attentions of debt-collectors, and her husband s spiralling habit. It s an important and very worthy film, but by no means the kind of thing you d expect from a million-selling pop idol: what was it, then, that compelled Siobhan to appear in it?
The script, basically, she states. It was the first script I ve ever been sent where I understood the characters, I totally related, I understood what the whole thing was about . . . and it was a story that needed to be told, it s a very relevant story for Dublin at the moment. But it s also relevant to Manchester, London, just about every big city, now that smack s back. It was never really gone, but it s just gone completely mad in the last few years, and it s almost always the dispossessed who are most fucked-up on it. And the main protagonists myself and Martin are not criminals, they re people, with the same decency that all human beings have and the same dignity that all humans have.
But the dehumanising effects of heroin addiction come across very strongly in the film, especially in the passages which detail Davy and Alison s hassles with a hostile police . . .
Well, I think anyone that s been around, anyone that s actually lived, will know that that s the case. I mean, fuck, we ve all been pulled over by the police, we ve all been given a hard time because of the way we look, or because of our accents: I mean, it s happened to me, we ve all fucking been through it, and all my mates. I don t really hang around with pop stars, y know? My mates come from all walks of life.
Are you intending to combine the acting with the songwriting from now on?
Fuck, yeah, I could never choose between the two, I don t see why anybody has to. I mean, if you look at all the really brilliant people, they re all poets, actors, sculptors, photographers, novelists . . . so why not get the full set? I know my talent is for songwriting, but I ve combined the two all my life: for me, acting is to do with a creative urge and an urge to express yourself and to reflect life as you ve experienced it.
And I always wanted an opportunity to perform without the mental grief of having to provide material to perform to, so in a sense it was a real release for me cos I could just throw myself into the depiction of the character, and how I related to her, and how she related to me. And a lot of Alison is me. I could totally imagine myself ending up in that position, had my life taken a different turn. I think we all could. I mean, I don t come from a privileged background.
So the role wouldn t have required a great deal of research?
Mmm, I did research. Y know, I felt close to her as a woman and as a human being, but in terms of the heroin addiction, yeah, I had to research that, cos I ve never been a heroin addict. But I know plenty of people who have.
What other acting projects do you intend to involve yourself in?
I ve never, ever made cohesive career plans, I m not a careerist, I never have been. I have to say, I have no ambition to become a Hollywood star. I just want to be involved in anything that interests me and attracts me as a soul. Anything that captures my soul. And it has to be character-driven and dialogue-driven. I ve always followed my instincts totally. (pause) I actually am an original punk, and the whole ethos of punk was, and is, Fuck it, I m gonna DO IT! It s the same approach I still use, it comes from your soul.
So, tell us about your new album, Siobhan. I know it s the best thing I ve ever done, she says matter-of-factly. It s always really life-affirming to write something that s great, and it s got me really excited about life generally. 96 was a bit of a black hole for me, it was a lot of soul-searching and a few crises of confidence, but I m really looking forward to this year.
Did you ever feel during your Bananarama days that you were caught on a treadmill?
It became that, definitely. Actually, in certain respects, I was disappointed with the turn everything took because, I don t know if you re old enough to remember, but when we first started out, we were the antithesis of what was going down at the time, it was all post-punk and we were there with this brilliant absolute ultra-pop. Which isn t actually what I listen to, I mean I m absolutely obsessed with The Jesus And Mary Chain and Patti Smith, but I ve always been really into the pop singles chart. I m not ashamed to say, I m a massive pop fan. I just love pop culture, I ve always been fascinated by it, it s a total reflection of the zeitgeist.
I ve always wanted to be in tune with the times, I m not an evergreen, I ve always been affected by the times. You could say it s sad, but I love to absolutely spit bricks the way a 13-year-old would about a band that s in the charts that I think are despicable, and I m virtually having orgasms over an incredible record that gets into the Top Ten, that brings me so much joy. It s so strange that all my life, me and my mates have been so into music, and now we re all into our 30s and we re still completely obsessed, to the point where we actually have pop quizzes in each other s houses. This is when I feel truly alive, y know, when I m arguing with somebody about the merits of the new Blur single.
So who s the object of your venom these days?
Well, the nice thing about being alive for as long as I have is that the venom abates, you re able to put things in perspective, and just not waste your energy getting really fucking angry . . . at least, not so often (laughs) . . . but I absolutely hate Take That, East 17, the Spice Girls . . .
So you wouldn t see the Spice Girls as feminist heroines?
(Thoughtful pause) I m not saying that they re not. I m a music fan, so I d judge them first and foremost by the record and how it moves me, and it just doesn t. I just thought they were incredibly banal, and didn t deserve the press attention they got. But I was at the Blur gig the other night at the Astoria, and I was really enjoying the gig and I didn t even notice, but apparently two Spice Girls invaded the stage, then the people downstairs spotted them and the house lights went up and then all of a sudden they got fucking pelted with cans. It was like a football match, they were being pelted with high-velocity cans of lager to the point where they had to make a hasty retreat. It was great fun, of course. n