Where are they now?
One half of Seventies pop duo, Dollar, THEREZA BAZAR talks to Yours about mixing romance and records, going solo and the importance of looking after yourself in your 60s
They were one of the sweetest couples of pop music, known for their clean-cut image and fun hits from Mirror Mirror to Love’s Gotta Hold On Me, O L’Amour to Give Me Back My Heart.
But it all started for Thereza Bazar and David van Day, who made up the group Dollar, when they met answering an advert for, ‘girls and boys who could sing and dance’. Thereza had always loved music, having grown up listening to her semiprofessional jazz guitarist father and studied at the Arts Educational School in London. So when she saw the advert, which turned out to be for members to form the Guys ‘n’ Dolls band, she had to go for it. There she met Julie Forsyth (daughter of Bruce), The Cortinas’ Paul Griggs and of course, David.
“He looked like David Cassidy and Donny Osmond rolled into one!” says Thereza.
After 18 months they started dating and remained a couple for seven years.
Guys & Dolls went to No.2 in the charts in 1975 with their first hit, There’s A Whole Lot Of Loving and had four more hits until 1979. But Thereza and David left in 1977 to form Dollar, inspired by international musical double acts such as Donny and Marie Osmond and John Travolta and Olivia Newton John.
“There was no other girl/boy act in the UK then,” Thereza explains. “So we plugged that gap. We were squeaky clean, like a toothpaste ad, though I would have loved to have been sexy like Debbie Harry!”
From their debut single success with Shooting Star in late 1978, the pair swiftly gained popularity. For Thereza, highlights have to be working with top producer Trevor Horn, performing for The Prince’s Trust and being hilariously lampooned by Tracey Ullman and David Copperfield as ‘Dollop’ on the TV comedy show, Three Of A Kind.
Eventually, though, it had to end. “I think we could have got a lot further, but there were only two of us and if you’re not going in the same direction, what can you do?” she says.
Thereza tried launching a solo LP but it didn’t work and in 1988 she followed her sister and mother to Syndey, Australia, where she’s lived since.
Over the decades, she’s reunited with David for TV shows and tours, with a reunion planned for 2019.
Despite the ups and downs between them, Thereza admits she’ll always be fond of him. “David was my first love,
my first boyfriend. When he had his heart attack [in late 2016] I was so upset.’”
Today Thereza splits her time between Sydney and her house in the Cotswolds, keeping herself fit with Tai Chi and pilates as well as singing. She’s recently put together an expanded edition of her solo album.
“You have to look after yourself in your 60s. You can’t pretend to be a sprightly young thing anymore. As long as I have my faculties, I’d like to live to 102!”