Who can forget that moment Bucks Fizz won the Eurovision Song Contest with that cheeky skirt-rip dance move back in 1981?
Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan, Jay Aston and Bobby G helped the UK claim their fourth win in the song contest with upbeat pop tune Making Your Mind Up. And 42 years on Nolan has announced he is retiring from performing for “personal reasons”. The 69-year-old singer has been performing since 1976 and is currently a member of spin-off Bucks Fizz group The Fizz.
Sine their Eurovision victory in 1981, Bucks Fizz has had 17 members and around 15 line-up changes, as well as evolving into to spin-off act The Fizz due to a dispute between the original members.
So what’s happened Bucks Fizz since they won Eurovision and why are they performing under different names? We chart the member changes in the band over past 42 years making the line-up.
Bucks Fizz original line-up
Bucks Fizz were created in 1980 especially to perform Nichola Martin and Andy Hill’s song Making Your Mind Up, which they wrote in a bid to win Eurovision. Mike Nolan was the first member to be recruited and he helped record the demo which was entered into the Eurovision song contest for approval. H then invited Cheryl Baker to join him as he remembered her from 1978 Eurovision group, Co-Co. Auditions were then held to find another male and another female member. This led to Jay Aston and Stephen Fischer joining the band. But Fischer became unavailable after landing a role in a musical and previous auditionee Bobby G replaced him,
Bucks Fizz performed in the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin, with Baker and Aston beginning the number wearing ankle-length skirts, which their bandmates then ripped off to reveal min skirts underneath. The voting countries made their mind up, and Bucks Fizz won it for the UK.
The band went on to have a successful pop career, with other chart-topping singles inlcuding The Land of Make Believe and My Camera Never Lies
Departures
In 1984 the original members of Bucks Fizz were involved in a coach crash while on tour. Bobby G was treated for whiplash, Aston was hospitalised for back injuries Baker broke three vertebrae in her spine, and Nolan fell into a coma due to head injuries. While Nolan was recovering Aston quit the band and sold her story to the tabloids about “The hateful, b***hy world of Bucks Fizz”. She was sued by management for breach of contract and new member Shelley Preston was recruited.
Preston remained and toured with the band until 1989 when Baker, G and Nolan became a trio until 1991. At this point Baker’s career as a TV presenter took off as she had become the host of children’s BBC show Record Breakers. Nolan recruited new members Amanda Swarzc and Heidi Manton, who would go on to marry Bobby G. This line-up continued until 1996 when Nolan left and former star of 80s band Dollar, David Van Day joined.
Sine then Bobby G and Heidi Manton continued to perform as Bucks Fizz up until 2018 with a variety of bandmates, ending with Tammy Choat and Paul Yates.
Meanwhile, Nolan and Van Day teamed up with two new female members, Lianna Lea and Sally Jacks, to perform as Bucks Fizz starring Mike Nolan and featuring David Van Day
Reunion
Then in 2004 original members of Bucks Fizz Bobby G, Baker and Nolan reformed with Preston as part of the 1980s nostalgia tour The Here and Now Tour under the name of The Original Bucks Fizz. But Bobby G was unable to attend all the tour dates, and was still performing as Bucks Fizz with his wife Heidi Manton and other members. Preston left The Original Bucks Fizz in 2009 and original member Aston rejoined after burying the hatchet with her former bandmates.
Legal dispute
The atmosphere began to sour as Baker, Nolan and Aston continued to tour as The Original Bucks Fizz, while original member Bobby G was still singing live as ‘Bucks Fizz’. Meanwhile, David Van Day, who had only been a member of the band for about a year, was also performing under the moniker.
This led to a battle to claim the name Bucks Fizz with several overlapping court disputes. Bobby G and Manton had acquired the legal rights to the name Bucks Fizz by registering the trademark. G pursues hsi case against Van Day in the high court and eventually settled out of court in August 2002 when Van Day agreed to call his version of the group David Van Day’s Bucks Fizz Show.
In 2011 a hearing took place between Bobby G and The Original Bucks Fizz, for infringing on the Bucks Fizz trademark. G won the argument and after losing their appeal Baker, Nolan and Aston became OBF, before changing their name to The Fizz in 2016.
Who is left?
After announcing his departure Nolan told Good Morning Britain: “It’s actually personal reasons whey I’m leaving. But also I was getting fed up with the amount of travelling that you’ve got to do. Everyone has to travel but because I can’t drive any more I’ve got to get in a cab, onto a train, onto another train, meet up with a band, do the gig, stay overnight, two trains back, another cab and just, and then 40 years of it.”
Baker admitted, “it’s not going to be the same,” without him, but joked: “we’ll replace him, of course.”
Baker and Aston are now the only members of Bucks Fizz still performing, as The Fizz. They have tour dates booked through out the UK in May, June and September 2024, performing at holiday camp Butlins and the Indigo at The O2 in London.
