Banderas – Ripe Album

Banderas was a female music duo of the early 1990s that was signed to London Records. The group was an offshoot of Jimmy Sommerville’s band The Communards, and featured one of his female backing musicians Sally Herbert, along with the shaven headed singer Caroline Buckley. In 1991 Somerville provided backing vocals to a track called “Why aren’t you in love with me?” from the album “Ripe”. The Banderas duo, Caroline Buckley and Sally Herbert, had previously been part of Somerville’s backing band.

The band is mostly remembered for their hit single “This Is Your Life”, which peaked at #16 in the UK Singles Chart in March 1991.^[1] The track was co-written with songwriter Roger Swallow and contains samples of the song “Crack Attack” by Grace Jones from her 1989 album Bulletproof Heart. The duo appeared on BBC One’s Top of The Pops on 21 March 1991 to perform the song.

The duo’s album, Ripe, peaked at #40 in the UK, and featured further singles “She Sells” (#41) and “May This Be Your Last Sorrow” (which did not chart).