80S FAVES ARE FESTIVE HIT

IT just wouldn’t be Christmas without a spot of Fizz.

And thanks to our Eurovision legends, there’s plenty to sing and raise a glass to this festive season. The band, formerly known as

are back with new LP, Christmas With The Fizz!

And the record helped singer

find her voice again after being diagnosed with mouth cancer.

She endured a seven-hour operation to save her life during the summer.

Jay told me: “It’s been up and down but I’ve gone back and done gigs with the band again. My vocals are coming back gradually and I love singing the Christmas songs. I’m having physio and speech therapy, so the swelling on my tongue is going down.”

Jay had surgery that involved rebuilding her tongue with tissue from her leg, leaving her unable to sing at first. Bandmate

explained: “Jay can sing but the vocal cords hurt, they have been damaged.

“She’s more concerned about the volume and pronunciation because she’s basically using a new tongue.” Christmas With The Fizz is a remarkable comeback for Jay, and the band have never sounded better. Cheryl said: “It’s my favourite time of year.

“We were in the middle of recording new material. But management wanted a Christmas album, so we recorded White Christmas that day and even my daughter Kyla wrote us a song for it.” Produced with PWL legend the album also features revamped Fizz hits. Fizz man told me: “Land Of Make Believe was a big hit for us at Xmas in 1981, it got to No5 and everyone was saying, ‘this should have been No1’, but they don’t play it because Christmas isn’t actually mentioned. “So we changed the lyrics at the beginning, mentioned Christmas and put jingle bells on it…now it’s got everything – Easter eggs as well!” The Making Your Mind Up stars have been through thick and thin, and ditched the Bucks Fizz name after a long legal battle. But Mike said: “I feel like we are stronger as The Fizz than Bucks Fizz, and we’re all booked up for 2019!” I’ll drink that! to