Fact #159496

Johnny Black (diary entry) : I was slotted in to have breakfast with the band at the Royal Kensington hotel on behalf of Smash Hits, and I arrived well before any of them were up and about. Gradually they drifted down for breakfast and chatted. Nena herself was the last to arrive and, to my delight, she turned out to be twice as beautiful as her press photographs suggest. Here eyes in particular were clear and huge – particularly odd at 8.00am.

She also turned out to be very bright, except that she seems to enjoy ski-ing so there must be some kind of character defect in there. Her English was very good and the interview went well until Nena and her boyfriend Rolf started bickering about Dallas and Dynasty. She loves them, he thinks they’re childish. Having got enough for my feature, I abandoned the interview, my German being totally inadequate for dealing with their little spat.

Much as I enjoyed meeting her, I did get the feeling that the men in the band resented Nena grabbing all the attention, despite the fact that she is talented and beautiful and the group is named after her and she’s almost certainly the main reason why they are successful.