‘It was the biggest moment in our life’
◆ Original members of the Eurovision-winning pop group Bucks Fizz, Jay Aston and Cheryl Baker, talk about how the competition changed their lives
Acatchy chorus, some synchronised dance moves and two rip-away skirts which transformed into cheeky miniature versions at the flick of a wrist.
This was the winning combination which led UK entrant Bucks Fizz to victory at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1981.
“That was the tipping point for us winning the Eurovision Song Contest,” says Cheryl Baker, 70, about their skirt reveal more than 40 years since the classic Eurovision moment.
“I honestly don’t think we would have won without it, I honestly don’t. It was the thing that made us memorable.”
The pair, who now perform in a spin-off group named The Fizz, are reflecting on their winning performance with their hit Making Your Mind Up as this year’s Eurovision contestants set their sights on the same prize.
British singer Olly Alexander will be hoping to follow in their footsteps this year when he takes to the stage in Malmo, Sweden with his dance-infused track Dizzy.
Aston remembers feeling the weight of expectation on their shoulders when they were preparing for the show, but says the buzz of rehearsals, photoshoots and interviews took over.
“You’re just so excited,” she recalls. “It was an amazing time.”
Do they have any pearls of wisdom for Alexander? “I wouldn’t think he needs advice because he’s such a fantastic performer,” says Baker.
“All I would say is to do something like we did. If you look at any of the winning songs of Eurovision, they’ve always got something that’s special and listening to Dizzy, it needs something to lift it.
“It needs something toward the end, he needs to do something spectacular on the stage that makes everybody want to see it again…
“He just needs to pull it out of the bag on the night and I’m sure he can.”
And if the Years & Years singer is at a loss for how to grab the audience’s attention, Baker has a solution.
“What you need is Velcro,” she tells me through a giggle. “Because if the song doesn’t work, just rip your clothes off – it worked for us.”
The pop group – which originally consisted of Aston, Baker, Mike Nolan and Bobby G – were carefully put together for the song contest. The vision was to have an all-blonde group which was built around the first member Nolan.
The recipe was a hit as Bucks Fizz went on to have a successful career after the competition, selling millions of records with a string of studio and greatest hits albums released throughout the 1980s.
Baker says winning the show changed the course of their lives as just before the 1981 show she had been considering leaving music behind to pick up secretarial work again after previously training in the profession, while Aston was contemplating setting sail for Jersey.
“It was the biggest moment in our life in a way because of the knock-on effect of it,” adds Aston.
“It has carved out our future.
“Although it’s hard to win and it’s also hard to then go on beyond that one song and have a career so we have been incredibly lucky.”
A few years into their career in 1984, the group was involved in a serious coach crash in which they were all injured, in particular Nolan who fell into a coma because of head injuries. After tensions were raised within the group, Aston quit in 1985 and was replaced by Shelley Preston.
Aston says she thinks she would have stayed in the band had it not been for the crash.
“We were all injured but there was friction in the band, which still shows itself in the sense that we can’t perform as Bucks Fizz,” she explains.
“There’s always been the two camps and I think, because I was younger, it used to stress me out a bit.”
While Aston pursued her solo career and set up a theatre art school for children, the original members and Preston continued to perform and release music before Preston, Baker and Nolan left in the 1990s.
In 2004, the group reunited under the moniker The Original Bucks Fizz, which had all the original members except Preston in Aston’s place, to distinguish the lineup from G’s other project which used the Bucks Fizz name.
After playing a series of shows, Baker, Nolan and Preston continued together under the new name. The trio later reconnected with Aston for a makeover show, Pop Goes The Band, and she took over Preston’s space in 2009 after the singer left.
Aston, Baker and Nolan have since been performing together with various line-up additions and name changes because of a legal battle with G about the Bucks Fizz trademark.
The trio currently go by the name The Fizz and have released a number of albums under the moniker, though Nolan is planning to leave the group at the end of the year.
“I love every minute on stage and Cheryl and I – we just click. We’re closer than we used to be, massively so, and our voices blend. You can’t really quantify it.
“It’s like, why are some bands successful and others, that might be equally talented, and then they just don’t happen?
“There’s just some kind of invisible chemistry and on stage the public just pick up on it, and we love it.”
The Fizz will be performing at the Indigo at The O2 in London on June 28