Fizzing back!
36 years on, a new album from the Eurovision winners
IT’S 36 years since the girls whipped off their skirts and they won the Eurovision Song Contest. But now Bucks Fizz are back – more or less.
The group, now known as The Fizz, are releasing their first album since 1986.
They have had to change their name because of a legal row with Bobby G, the only member of the original line-up not involved in the new project but who still performs as Bucks Fizz with other singers.
Jay Aston, Cheryl Baker and Mike Nolan have been joined by fellow singer Bobby McVay to record The F-Z Of Pop, overseen by veteran producer Mike Stock of Stock, Aitken and Waterman.
A single from the album, Dancing In The Rain, made its debut on BBC Radio 2 yesterday to the delight of fans. Miss Baker, 63, said: ‘I am so proud of this new album.’
The band won Eurovision in 1981 with Making Your Mind Up and went on to sell more than 50million records worldwide.
But in 1984 all four were injured, Nolan most seriously, when their tour bus crashed near Newcastle.
The following year Miss Aston left the group, followed by Miss Baker and, in 1996, Nolan.
In 2009 the three reunited, recruiting McVay in 2014. They have 27 tour dates coming up in the next four months.
1 JAY ASTON, 56
Before joining Bucks Fizz, Miss Aston was already immersed in showbusiness – her mother’s family ran theatres and holiday camps and her parents, Ted and Hilda Durante, were a successful comedy double act.
Miss Aston studied at the Italia Conti Academy of the Arts before landing a place in Bucks Fizz.
During the band’s horror crash in Newcastle she was the only member of the band to remain conscious. She broke her nose and ribs and injured her head.
Miss Aston was the first member to walk out of Bucks Fizz, in 1985. She was rumoured to have had an affair with the band’s married producer Andy Hill.
She was sued for breaking her contract and sold her Kensington home to foot legal bills. She previously said people would be ‘amazed’ to find out how little money the band saw from their performances.
The star released three solo albums and went on to teach vocals before setting up her own performing arts schools.
In 2013 Miss Aston went on The Voice and performed Time Is Running Out, but not one judge turned around when she sang, with Sir Tom Jones advising her to work on her vibrato. She lives in a sixbedroom detached house near Westerham in Kent with her musician husband David Colquhoun and her teenage daughter Josie.
2CHERYL BAKER, 63
London-born Miss Baker was the second original member to leave Bucks Fizz. In 1993 the star, who already had a children’s programme called Eggs ’n’ Baker, decided to start a family and focus on her TV career.
She presented programmes such as Record Breakers and The Saturday Picture Show and has appeared on reality TV shows including I’m Famous And Frightened and Drop The Celebrity.
As well as trying her hand at a solo career, the singer also became involved in musical theatre. In 2006 she appeared in Footloose The Musical in the West End and in 2014 she played Mrs Cunningham in a touring production of Happy Days.
She has twin daughters, Natalie and Kayla, with Steve Stroud, the former bassist for Sir Cliff Richard, and the family live in Sevenoaks, Kent.
3MIKE NOLAN, 62
Dublin-born Nolan left the original band in 1996. The following year he and Dollar singer David Van Day formed a rival version of Bucks Fizz.
Nolan toured with the band’s new line-up but in 2001 there was a legal feud over the use of the name; Nolan and Van Day lost and no longer speak.
As well as forming and reforming variations of the same band, Nolan is also a patron of the brain injury charity Headfirst. He suffered most from the tour bus crash in 1984 which left him with anxiety about travelling and epilepsy. BOBBY G, 63 Real name Robert Gubby, he was expelled from school at 14. Before Bucks Fizz were formed he juggled a day job as a builder with playing Pontius Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar in the West End.
In the bus crash he suffered neck and back injuries. He received £15,000 in insurance but said he had spent £150,000 on back treatments.
He is the only original member to have remained with the band and has replaced former members with new artists, including his now wife Heidi Manton, who owns the copyright to the Bucks Fizz name.
The father of three, who lives in a £333,000 five-bedroom detached house in Tiverton, Devon, is no longer on speaking terms with his former bandmates.