Drink, drugs, trashed hotel rooms and financial hell. The story of, er, Bucks Fizz EUROVISION STARS 40 YEARS ON
THEY were the ultimate in bubbly 80s pop… but it seems the sparkling image of Eurovision darlings Bucks Fizz was all a Land of Make Believe.
Forty years after they stormed the contest – and the charts – with Making Your Mind Up, members of the original line-up have decided to open up about the group’s past in a warts-and-all biopic.
Jay Aston, 59, says: “It’s an amazing story. We’re just in the process of putting it all together – we have all the diaries.
“Everyone thinks they know the story of the band but they don’t.”
Despite a string of rows and break-ups, three of the original four – Jay, Cheryl Baker and Mike Nolan – still perform together as The Fizz after recruiting Bobby McVay.
The fourth original member, Bobby G, won the use of the group’s original name in a court battle and now uses it with his own line-up.
Cheryl, 67, says: “There have been so many ups and downs with the band – some proper drama.
“There’s a lot to tell right from the beginning with winning Eurovision, and the real story behind it.
PITTANCE
“It will lift the lid on the music industry at that time. We were selling millions of records but being paid an absolute pittance.”
The group were formed in 1981 to perform the UK’s Eurovision entry, Making Your Mind Up.
Their dance routine, in which the two men tore off the women’s skirts, revealing shorter skirts underneath, was voted the contest’s most memorable moment nearly 25 years later.
The song went on to be a No 1 in the UK and across Europe. The same year they had a second No1 with The Land of Make Believe.
But Jay reveals: “Our accounts from year one, having had a Eurovision winner and then Land of Make Believe – selling four million copies – show each of us made just £6,700.
“It’s a ridiculously small amount of money. I still have all the paperwork, I kept everything.
“We were earning one half of one pence per single. We had to live with our parents until we were in our late 20s, we couldn’t afford to move out.”
By the end of 1984, after a string of hits, success began to slow down. Then came a more serious disaster.
After a gig in Newcastle in December, their tour bus had its roof ripped off in a collision with a lorry.
Cheryl and Mike were both thrown out through the windscreen, along with their driver and one of the guitarists.
Jay was taken to hospital for back injuries, bruising on the brain and broken ribs, and Bobby G was treated for whiplash.
Cheryl broke three vertebrae in her spine.
Jay says: “We were all lucky to walk away with our lives that night.”
Mike almost didn’t. He suffered major head injuries and fell into a coma.
He was reported to have died on the operating table and was on life support for three days. He still suffers from impaired vision, epilepsy and shortterm memory loss.
Cheryl says: “The coach crash caused so much pain and devastation for us all, it was dreadful.
“How on earth will we dramatise that? This film is going to be full of drama. It will be warts and all… and there are some warts.” Mike adds that the group still fight regularly.
He says: “When we fall out, we really fall out. Cheryl and I do have some really bad rows.
“I row with Jay and she can take it – but she can really scream sometimes too. It’s a miracle we’re still together, but we are.”
But he says past disputes have been far worse. One was with David Van Day, one half of pop duo Dollar, who joined him in 1997 after a brief stint in Bobby G’s Bucks Fizz.
Mike adds: “I’ve worked with a few difficult people but he was the worst by a country mile.” Calling it
This film will be warts and all… and there are some warts CHERYL BAKER ON PLAN FOR A BUCKS FIZZ BIOPIC
his “lowest point”, he tells how the pair fell out and he took Van Day to court in a dispute over earnings.
Mike says: “I won the case – three days later he went bankrupt. I was left to pay the court fees of £40k. It left me broke and I had to sell my beautiful penthouse in Maida Vale.
“I could never forgive that **** hole for what he did to me.”
Jay had similar financial headaches when she left the group. She says: “I had 13 lawsuits by the age of 23 and faced a £500,000 legal bill.
“This was all due to contracts I signed when I joined. In the midst of the 1991 recession, I had to sell my house.” In 2011,
the trio found themselves in a bitter legal conflict with Bobby G over the use of the band’s name. They rebranded as Cheryl, Mike and Jay: Formerly of Bucks Fizz, before bringing in vocalist McVay and settling on The Fizz.
Hinting of other big revelations to come out in the movie, they said: “We have to get them past the lawyers yet.”
Cheryl has previously admitted the group were not always well-behaved, saying: “We didn’t invent the trashing of hotel rooms, but we were quick learners – it became quite a regular occurrence.
“Then we moved on to emptying a room of all its contents. The occupant would return to find everything gone, including the bed. On tour you have to make your own entertainment.”
She has also admitted dabbling in cocaine once in the past – but said she was not a great fan of it.
The idea for the biopic came as she started on her autobiography in lockdown. She says: “I kept diaries throughout the last 40 years.
“Bizarrely the diary for 1981 – the year we hit the big time – went missing.” She asked Mike to fill in the gaps and found he also had a stash of diaries all the way back.
Mike says: “Why I keep them, I don’t know, but I’m glad I did. It’s a fantastic record of the bizarre stuff that went on.”
Their story is not yet complete. When lockdown ends they are back on tour.
But, says Cheryl: “Now we’re in control. We actually earn more today than when we were at the top of the charts, won Eurovision and sold millions of records.”