PANDERING AND THE GOLDDIGGERS

High fashion and high energy meet during live performances by Pandering And The Golddiggers. Having already performed to the UK on tour, they will soon be taking to the charts with their debut album.

Scandinavian pop act Alphabeat were quick to realise the potential of musical three-piece Pandering and The Golddiggers when they stumbled across their MySpace page and invited the vocalists to join them on their 2008 UK tour.  Despite having only performed three times together previous to this, the group took to the stage with great enthusiasm and were signed to a record label soon after. Founder members Francine Ihenacho and Tamer Wilde are both Brit School alumni, but were not friends whilst enrolled. “We would see each other at school and be a bit coy,” states Francine. “It wasn’t until afterwards that we met at a party and just bonded straight away over our mutual love of fashion and music.” The pair soon developed an admiration for each other’s voices and songwriting, and it wasn’t long before they began sharing their music. They later pursued the talents of Christie Prentice, who they had witnessed performing around London, and convinced her to join their troop.

Wonderland: how exactly did the three of you come together?
Tamer Wilde: We had seen Christie do a few gigs in London, and one night we kind of followed her into an alleyway.
Francine Ihenacho: The first time the three of us sang together was outside a sex clinic in Soho.
Christie Prentice: I wasn’t going in or out though, just to clarify.
Can you explain the name of the band?
Tamer: There’s always confusion whether I’m Pandering, which I’m not at all. It’s basically a name that is very fitting for who we are, because “Pandering” has a double meaning as in to solicit sex or to just give people what they want. The “Golddiggers” is basically to take what you want. So it’s giving and taking.
And how did you end up supporting Alphabeat?
Christie: Basically, Alphabeat added us on MySpace, and they asked us to join them on their UK tour. It was a big honour, our first tour and the fourth gig we’d ever done.
Tamer: We had a different outfit for every show.  We were throwing things together from vintage shops, stylists, clothes from archives, bits and pieces that were made for us, stuff that I had made.
Francine: Management were like: “Right guys, you’re doing 18 shows, how many outfits do you need? Five?” We said 18 completely straight-faced. In terms of our image, it’s to create a vision of what we want to portray of ourselves.
Tamer: It’s an extension of our personalities.
So you have an interest in fashion?
Francine: Yeah, high fashion. It’s important, as what we want to do as a band is not have a gimmick or be all about the image, but to get back to the old school glamour.
Tamer: Out of the band, I was a stylist anyway. So that’s when it kind of sank in that there’s a lot of image going on here that people were afraid to do – to dress slightly more refined. I don’t know how to describe our style.
Francine: Extreme couture!
Would you consider your music to be as extravagant?
Francine: We’ve heard it described by the Scissor Sisters that the mark of a good song is when you can just strip down the production. For us, the best kind of music is when you can strip it away and it’s just a vocal and a guitar, but you still have a really strong hook and a really strong song.
Where do you usually perform?
Francine: We get called to do quite a lot of fashion parties, which is a nice challenge as fashion crowds can be quite cool. The trick to breaking them is to wear something expensive. The last one Tamer had this Balenciaga jacket on and Christie had these Yves Saint Laurent shoes, so we got a bit of their respect before we even started singing. We do vocal a cappellas during our live shows because a lot of our songs are quite high-powered, and we like to strip it down and show people that we’re vocalists as well.
So where have you performed that you’ve really enjoyed so far?
Christie: Manchester and Leeds – they just went absolutely crazy.
Francine: The crowds are just great. I think we’ve only had two not-good gigs on tour, and that was just down to technical hitches and stuff like that. In terms of the 18 shows [with Alphabeat], they were all amazing. Shepherd’s Bush in London as well – and I had an incident.
What happened?
Francine: I was wearing this sequined dress, and I knew as soon as I walked out and put my arms in the air, it was going to come down. We have a dance move on our first track that is quite energetic, and so when I turned to the crowd I could just feel this ‘hush’. You know, like in the movies?
Christie: People on the balcony could see.
Francine: So yeah, they were completely out. But the best part of this story is that to this date the gig at Shepherd’s Bush is the only gig my parents have come to. Before or since. You can’t make that stuff up.
Is that the only ‘wardrobe malfunction’ so far?
Francine: Once is enough, thanks.
Christie: We did a fashion show where I was wearing a lacy thing, and my bra would not fit in underneath the top. You could see my nipples, but it wasn’t that bad.
Francine: She was in all the papers the next day!
Christie: It was all references to “Superwoman has lost her top”. I make a big thing of it, but I’m up for anything. I think you have to be.

[Originally published in Wonderland Issue 21, February 2010. Photography James Mountford]