Cheryl: I was threatened with sack from Bucks Fizz for having mind of my own

BUCKS Fizz legend Cheryl Baker has claimed the group’s management threatened to sack her and told her she was the least valuable member of the Eurovision-winning band.

The singer, 70, part of the foursome that won the song contest for the UK with Making Your Mind Up in 1981, said bosses resented how she would not be told what to do.

“There were a few run-ins,” she said. “I was threatened with the sack once and I was told I was the least valuable member of the band by the woman who put us together.

“It was a really strange environment and I’m not sure the people who put us together were happy with the fact I was coping with it so well and that I wasn’t as manipulable as the others.

“They would say different things to each of us to keep us apart, to almost cause animosity between us, so that they could control us better, so we weren’t a tight unit.”

Along with Jay Aston, Mike Nolan and Bobby G, Cheryl became a household name after their narrow victory in Dublin, thanks in part to the now legendary “skirt rip” dance routine.

But Cheryl said it immediately felt like they had lost control of their lives. And she claimed their management even arranged a sham engagement to her then boyfriend to get more publicity.

“It was like your life didn’t belong to you anymore,” she told Kaye Adams on her How To Be 60 podcast.

“They wanted promotion. I had no intention of getting married to him.

“We didn’t control anything. I didn’t know how much money we were earning, I didn’t know how many singles we were selling.” Cheryl left in 1993 to focus on TV presenting, but returned to singing with the band in 2004.

After a dispute over the group’s name, Cheryl, Mike and Jay have performed as

The Fizz, while Bobby G, his wife and two others performed as Bucks Fizz.