Keren Woodward

“If we'd had a Svengali manager and done what we would have been told, maybe we would have had a bigger, more hugely successful career.”

“If people want to compare us to the Shangri-Las, then that's all well and good. But those groups were put together. They were told what to sing, dressed up, neatly packaged. We're like the '80s version in that we're more outgoing, more involved in it.”

“We were always around music and we were lucky to be in the right place at the right time, knowing the right friends.”

“There is nothing worse than a spoilt brat.”

“If I look back on my life, you can almost tell the story of it through pop songs. Romances as a teenager, your first kiss, first love, first heartbreak.”

“Women shouldn't have to apologise for their age or growing old. It is just inevitable.”

“We never thought of ourselves as a girl band. We dressed like blokes.”

“The '80s don't seem to have gone away. Most weekends in the summer we're off doing a festival in front of 10,000 or 15,000 people with a load of other '80s acts. It was just such a great era for music, for individuals and characters. It just had a spirit.”

“We used to do 'Venus' live for a long time but never got 'round to recording it because people would always say it's too old-fashioned a song.”

“People thought we were intimidating, especially once we'd had a few drinks, but when I look back we were virtually on top of each other, holding hands. We sounded so stupid.”

“When you've known someone for so long you never lose that friendship.”

“We didn't know it was going to be a career - it was just a lot of fun. We were known as the bimbo band and never expected to last.”

“We spent a couple of years trying to be what we thought people wanted us to be, what the press thought we should be, doing what the company wanted. Finally we just said 'Sod it. This is what we do best. We're best at making pop records that people enjoy and having fun and entertaining them.'”

“I can't even compare ourselves with the Supremes. I adore the Supremes! I can't set myself up as comparison to people I'm in awe of.”

“A lot of my family were teachers, so that's what I always thought I'd end up being.”

“We did 10 years of working and travelling constantly, and we were just knackered. I thought: 'I've got to take a break.' I felt like I was going mad. I decided to move to Cornwall.”

“We were expected to smile and be flirty to everyone. But we acted more like a male rock band. We never mastered the niceties. We were more interested in having a good time.”

“I might have been told to put a comb through my hair once or twice - by my mother!”

“We got a gay following around the time we started using camp dancers who were stripped to the waist in cycling shorts and aviators.”

“You can be normal if you choose to be.”