Bucks Fizz

In 1981 the British quartet Bucks Fizz captured the Eurovision Song Contest title, then dominated the early part of the decade as one of its standout acts by securing nine Top 20 singles from 1981 through 1983, among them the three number-one successes “Making Your Mind Up,” the Eurovision entry itself, “The Land of Make Believe,” and “My Camera Never Lies.” Across their career the group placed twenty singles inside the Top 40, with their final chart appearance arriving only in 1988, an impressive span for a band assembled solely for the contest. The production and songwriting partnership of Nicola Martin and Andy Hill created Bucks Fizz expressly to perform their own contest composition, selecting the proven two-male, two-female configuration that had thrived since ABBA’s 1974 triumph; Jay Aston, Cheryl Baker, Bobby G, and Mike Nolan completed the lineup and, buoyed by their Eurovision victory, proved difficult to stop.

Three additional 1981 releases—“Piece of the Action,” “One of Those Nights,” and “The Land of Make Believe”—accompanied the self-titled debut album that climbed to number fourteen on the British chart. The following year the Are You Ready LP entered the Top Ten while “My Camera Never Lies,” “Now Those Days Are Gone,” and “If You Can’t Stand the Heat” sustained the run of hit singles. In 1983 the Hand Cut album and four further chart entries—“Run for Your Life,” “When We Were Young,” “London Town,” and “Rules of the Game”—kept the momentum alive, though steadily falling positions soon became evident. Two later singles stalled at numbers thirty-four and fifty-seven, and even a seasonal Greatest Hits collection managed only number twenty-five.

A modest recovery appeared under way when summer 1984’s “Talking in Your Sleep” returned the band to the Top 20, yet the subsequent “Golden Days” and “I Hear Talk” faltered once more. Shortly before Christmas a road accident left Nolan seriously hurt and forced cancellation of the current tour. Matters worsened when Jay Aston exited in 1985; Shelley Preston stepped in, and the revised group continued to notch occasional minor successes punctuated by the stronger 1986 showing of “New Beginning,” which reached number eight, until “Heart of Stone” closed their chart account in 1988.

Thereafter Bucks Fizz persisted with frequent personnel shifts that ultimately involved roughly fifteen different vocalists, among them former Dollar singer David Van Day. Of the original members Baker departed in 1993 and Nolan in 1986, leaving Bobby G as the sole link to the group’s beginnings. Nolan and Van Day subsequently launched their own Bucks Fizz featuring Mike Nolan, issuing several singles and re-recording earlier material for compilation projects. After Nolan’s departure Van Day carried on, engaged in well-publicized legal disputes with Bobby G, and now performs under the banner David Van Day’s Bucks Fizz Show. In 2004 the mid-eighties configuration of Baker, Nolan, Bobby G, and Preston reunited for select dates tied to the release of The Ultimate Anthology. Two years later, following the rarities collection Lost Masters, the four founding members plus Preston reconvened to cut a version of the Proclaimers’ “500 Miles” for Comic Relief.