The Return of Shakespears Sister isn’t just about the music

Ken Foster
4 min readNov 6, 2019

After a quarter century not speaking, Siobhan Fahey and Marcella Detroit teach us that it’s never too late for second acts.

Last Thursday, on Halloween, Marcella Detroit and Siobhan Fahey managed the ultimate trick or treat: dressed as gothic-psychedelic cowboys, they played their first official gig in over a quarter of a century, launching their “Ride Again” tour and new EP. For a particular demographic (including me) this was huge. Though the duo is known for their hit “Stay,” from back in 1992, the album that spawned that single, Hormonally Yours, is one of the rare discs of that time that holds up even now: melodic, bitter, witty and expertly sung by two distinctly different voices. These women, now 67 and 61, aren’t letting anything go, and the new tracks, released in bits over the summer before their EP Ride Again dropped last month, bridge time and trends to combine a strange brand of Americana with a distinctly punky edge.

I grew up old-school Bananarama. This was back in the old, old days, when you discovered new music by hearing it at a record…

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Ken Foster
Ken Foster

Written by Ken Foster

Author of fiction and non-fiction; dog guy; bad boxer. New book, City of Dogs, is just out now from Avery/Penguin.