UFO Info Week-End

But other times – and this is what rescues me – he’ll just come in and make

But other times – and this is what rescues me – he’ll just come in and make so light of it, he’ll say, `Oh, sod that, let’s write a song, or just do something positive and joyous.’ Just doing something joyful can sometimes get you out of it.”Stewart has lent a hand with the new venture, although this, with Fahey’s history, could spell disaster. “The thing about him is I can go into massive dark tunnels, from which there’s no return, it would appear when you’re down there – the well, y’know? – and that can really freak him out, which doesn’t help Though it’s the normal response, and then there’s holy war. Stewart has clearly done his time in coping with all this.”Yeah And I don’t understand … why he does.” She lowers her voice as a couple at a nearby table are eavesdropping with slack-jawed fascination.

I just can’t seem to write songs about peace and love.”Fahey’s depressions can last for months, and she ticks off a number of drugs she’s been prescribed, including Prozac, which she quit because it made her speedy. It builds until the only salve is to write a song, which is why my stuff is so negative Damn shame. As soon as I ovulate, I’m an absolutely destructive and negative person, and that lasts for two weeks. Her own hormones spend much of their time in havoc, which accounts for the emotional see-sawing to which she’s prey – when she started dating Stewart, she was so insecure and so often drunk, she’d fall off his arm at photocalls and stagger away to find something to clutch while she threw up “Y’know,” she says confidentially, “I am not an easy person. This sort of twisted, baby-doll innocence is, I think, the underbelly of any beautiful girl you see with make-up.”Fascination with off-the-deep-end female nature is a key Fahey concern.

“I love Wurzel Gummidge, I always have, and I adore the character of Aunt Sally because she’s such a sick, manipulating, dangerous, naughty female. Fahey, meanwhile, was using the band to investigate her own mangled psyche.”I wanted us to wear this mask of make-up that was a bastardisation of what make-up is supposed to do, and it evolved from Lillian Gish, who looked mad, but powerfully so, to Baby Jane to Aunt Sally.”A nervous and often stuttering, though articulate, interviewee, Fahey tips her teetering ash. Egos clashed and videos the band made on the theme of Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? were, it’s said, more than pertinent You can see the problems. Detroit was a straight- down-the-line rock ‘n’ roller who’d worked with Eric Clapton, Belinda Carlisle and Phil Collins.

It is a criticism frequently levelled at Fahey that she is devoid of musical ability and thus must harness herself to talent – in this case, the singer-songwriter Detroit – to construct any kind of career; still, there’s no denying that the twisted sensibility she brought to the band is what gave it flight. The combination of image – exhumed femmes fatales in sequins – and songs blending Fahey’s wry, camp lyrics with Detroit’s spangled pop know-how resulted in two hit albums, Sacred Heart and Hormonally Yours, some cracking singles (“You’re History” and “Stay” among them) and a string of awards.It was another strained working relationship. Stewart (currently in the news suffering with “paradise syndrome”) suggested to her the possibility that she was being used and within a year, she had extricated herself.What followed was a form of artistic revenge in the garish bizarrerie of Shakespear’s Sister. To take another option would have been a struggle, but it could have been achieved – there were the Raincoats, the Slits, there was Patti Smith before them, strong women who didn’t conform …”Just how far she’d moved from her ideal was made crystal clear when Fahey met ex-Eurythmic Dave Stewart, to whom she is now married. And I feel, looking back, that Sarah and Keren were probably quite happy with that. “We were signed to a label that wanted us to remain little girls who appealed to other little girls, who were cute and non-threatening and delivered cute little pop songs.