By late 1982 the pop vocal quartet Bucks Fizz had firmly established themselves as one of the pre-eminent acts on the popular music scene in Britain. They’d won over record buyers, and even a good portion of serious popular music critics, who usually reserved buckets of scorn, even contempt, for such manufactured pop entities. But there was no denying that Mike Nolan, Jay Aston, Cheryl Baker and Bobby Gee were gifted entertainers, and in writer/producer Andy Hill, Bucks Fizz had an invaluable creative ally.
In November 1982 the single ‘If You Can’t Stand The Heat’ received a warm reception from the British public, and by early ‘83 the reggae tinged song had become the fifth consecutive top ten hit for Bucks Fizz at home (OZ#93). It was also the first single released by the quartet to feature lead vocals from Cheryl Baker and Jay Aston, whose attire appeared to be getting skimpier with every release. The follow up single ‘Run For Your Life’ (UK#14) coincided with the release of album number three for Bucks Fizz, during March ‘83. ‘Hand Cut’ was produced by Andy Hill and Bobby Gubby (AKA Bobby Gee), and was the first album to feature a track written by a member of the group (Bobby Gee’s ‘Surrender Your Heart’). Despite positive reviews for a solid mix of melodic pop songs, full of catchy hooks and intricate vocal arrangements, ‘Hand Cut’ only managed to reach #17 on the British charts, and failed to spawn any further hit singles, due no doubt to the fact that only two singles were issued. Some time after Bucks Fizz had fallen out of fashion, RCA issued the album track ‘You Love Love’ as a single, but it was one for collectors only to get excited about. ‘Hand Cut’ did happen to feature a very impressive cover (it’s a pity the rest of the cover art associated with Bucks Fizz wasn’t so grand).
Though the shelf life of ‘Hand Cut’ had been relatively short, Bucks Fizz fans didn’t have to wait long for a taste of some new material. The single ‘When We Were Young’ notched up the group’s ninth consecutive British top 20 hit (#10/Fr#4/Ire#6) soon after its release in June of ‘83. It was quite a departure from some of their earlier light ‘n fluffy pop fare, and both musically and lyrically, stood up as a more serious piece of pop-rock. I recall seeing Bucks Fizz perform the song on the special ‘Hoges In England’ (Paul Hogan was suitably impressed - though not necessarily by the song). In October ‘83 the single ‘London Town’ (not the Wings song) became the first Bucks Fizz single to miss the British top 20 (#34), the first sign that the group was beginning to lose some of their bubble. In December 1983 Bucks Fizz released their first ‘Greatest Hits’ album, featuring most of their major hits to date, in addition to the recent single releases, which included ‘Rules Of The Game’ (UK#57), a song which featured Cheryl Baker on lead vocals for the first time. Despite being timed for the Christmas sales frenzy, and backed by an intensive marketing push, the ‘Greatest Hits’ album sold relatively poorly (UK#25), further adding to thoughts that Bucks Fizz had lost some of their pop allure. A sell out nationwide tour in early ‘84 contradicted that notion somewhat, but the group’s sales outside of Britain were waning, and had made no inroads into the lucrative U.S. market.
What does any savvy pop artist do when their fortunes are flagging? Why record a cover version of a sure fire pop hit of course. U.S. power pop quartet the Romantics (see earlier post) had recently had a U.S.#3 hit with ‘Talking In Your Sleep’ (OZ#14). Though the Romantics’ version had bombed in the U.K., the Andy Hill makeover version peaked at #15, and gave Bucks Fizz their biggest hit of 1984. The follow up single ‘Golden Days’ had more than a touch of irony hidden within its subject matter. The lyrics told of a fading movie star, desperate to rise to the top again, and was backed by yet another very clever concept video. ‘Golden Days’ (UK#42) had been co-written and produced by Terry Britten (the first time Andy Hill hadn’t been at the controls) and had been recently recorded by Cliff Richard, but it failed to restore any lustre to the Bucks Fizz brand. Both 1984 singles were featured on the groups fourth album ‘I Hear Talk’, which made itself heard in November of ‘84, but only on the outer fringes of the album charts (UK#66). Around the same time Bucks Fizz duly hit the road for a national tour to promote the album and thank fans for their ongoing support. Shortly before Christmas of ‘84 tragedy struck Bucks Fizz when their tour bus collided with some road works before careering off the road. Several on board sustained injuries, but singer Mike Nolan was the most serious of the casualties. His received serious head injuries, that put him into a coma, and reportedly close to death. Nolan’s recovery to health took several months, and in many respects the group would never reach their former heights. The release of the title track single ‘I Hear Talk’ (UK#34) just a week after their accident, now seemed of little relevance, but no doubt both album and single sales suffered in the wake of the group’s now limited capacity to fulfil promotional commitments.
By mid ‘85 Nolan had recovered sufficiently to resume active service with Bucks Fizz, but his return would soon be offset by the departure of another. Jay Aston had wanted to leave the group for some time, but contractual obligations had prevented her from doing so. It had been evident for a while that her increasingly sexually overt image, which attracted much attention independent of the music and other group members, played at odds with the group’s original teeny bopper image, and no doubt contributed to rising tensions within the group. By June ‘85 she had reached breaking point and in a much publicised and intensely acrimonious split, Aston parted ways with Bucks Fizz. Tales of infidelity and breaches of contract filled the tabloids for some time after, and Aston was eventually sued by the band’s management company for breach of contract. She later went on to establish her own dance school, and maintained some involvement with the music industry through a number of low key projects.
There was a media frenzy surrounding the subsequent auditions to find a replacement for Aston. Eventually struggling night club singer named Shelley Preston got the nod, and made her first appearance with Bucks Fizz via a television spot, promoting their new single ‘You And Your Heart So Blue’ (UK#43), which no doubt got lost among the prevailing chaos surrounding the group at the time. After a turbulent period mid year, Bucks Fizz released the single ‘Magical’ (UK#57) in September of ‘85, and though Shelley Preston hadn’t featured on the recording side of things, it marked her first full involvement during the promotional phase. The song,co-written by Meat Loaf and John Parr, was a clear attempt by Bucks Fizz to be seen as a serious rock group, but they just couldn’t pull that one off. It was also their last release via the RCA label, as by early ‘86 they had shifted stable labels to Polydor.
Having endured and survived such a traumatic eighteen months, by mid ‘86 Bucks Fizz were due for a new beginning. Appropriately enough their next single ‘New Beginning (Mamba Seyra)’ provided the group with a welcome return to the British top ten (#8), and was a promising beginning to their tenure with Polydor. Two months later they followed it up with a cover of the Stephen Stills’ song ‘Love The One You’re With’ (UK#47), also a big hit for Australian group the Chantoozies (see future post). With the arrival of their next single ‘Keep Each Other Warm’ (UK#45) during November of ‘86, it was evident that the high hopes offered up on ‘New Beginning’ were not going to be realised. The group’s previous five singles, including their last two for RCA, were all included on their fifth and final studio album ‘The Writing On The Wall’ (UK#89), released in December of ‘86’. Production duties were shared around, but Andy Hill was still on hand to oversee things, but sales for the album were sufficiently disappointing that a planned single release for the track ‘Love In A World Gone Mad’ was shelved. If they hadn’t read it already, the writing was now most definitely on the wall for Bucks Fizz.
By 1988 Bucks Fizz had parted ways with Polydor, and returned to RCA to record the new single ‘Heart Of Stone’ (UK#50), for inclusion on a new ‘best of’ package titled ‘The Story So Far’. Appropriately enough the group’s greatest ally, writer/producer Andy Hill, played a central role in what would be the final foray by Bucks Fizz into the singles charts. In somewhat of a backhanded compliment, Cher took her version of ‘Heart Of Stone’ into worldwide charts a couple of years later. Though their days as an active studio group were seemingly behind them, Bucks Fizz continued to tour regularly to packed houses (albeit at smaller venues). After more than three years with the group, Shelley Preston left the group at the end of 1989, and went on to pursue various career interests including as a backing vocalist and model. For the next three years Nolan, Baker and Gee continued as a trio, prior to Cheryl Baker’s departure in 1993. Baker focussed her energies on family duties and a successful career as a television presenter. Gee and Nolan decided to recruit two new female vocalists, Heidi Manton and Amanda Swarzc. By 1996 Bobby Gee was the sole remaining original member, following Nolan’s departure. A year later Nolan hooked up with former Dollar singer David Van Day, and the pair formed a rival version of Bucks Fizz, but following objections from Gee and a whole series of law suits, by 2001 Nolan bailed out. Bobby Gee and is now wife Heidi Manton continued touring with the ‘official’ Bucks Fizz line-up, most recently also featuring new recruits Tammy Choat and Paul Fordham. Though all four original members have never reunited, in 2004 Cheryl Baker, Bobby Gee, Mike Nolan and Shelley Preston performed together as part of the ‘Here And Now’ nostalgia tour. Bobby Gee then returned to his Bucks Fizz project, whilst Baker, Nolan and Preston continued to perform on occasion under the banner ‘The Original Bucks Fizz’ (sounds like a soft drink). Further compilation albums ‘The Ultimate Anthology’ and ‘Lost Rarities’ have served to keep the Bucks Fizz legacy sparkling.
If you’re going to choose an artist on which to base the template for the formative stages of a successful music group, then you could do worse than pick ABBA. Just five months after the Swedish supergroup scored their final British #1 in November 1980, with ‘Super Trouper’, Bucks Fizz notched up their first U.K. chart topper with a track that, like ABBA’s ‘Waterloo’ achieved in 1974, had earned them a Eurovision Song Contest title. Bucks Fizz also comprised the classic two girl, two boy line-up, which ABBA had made popular again, and for a several years the British vocal quartet were an almost unstoppable force on both British and European pop charts, but it’s probably fair to say that’s where the similarities end. ABBA had evolved in a largely organic fashion, and its members had all worked extensively as professional musicians for several years previous. ABBA also boasted the mercurial in house writing and production team of Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, who during the 70s, were virtually without peer in terms of their hit making powers. By contrast, Bucks Fizz were a fully conceptualised and pre-fabricated pop vocal quartet, whose members (as talented as they were) had largely gotten the gig based on their levels of charisma, more so than musical ability alone. Bucks Fizz also lacked that in house hit making machine, and instead relied very much on the song writing and production services of Andy Hill, the man who originally co-designed the blueprint for the group.
Andy Hill had co-written the up tempo bubblegum pop song ‘Making Your Mind Up’ with John Danter. With his regular writing/production partner Nichola Martin, Hill set about assembling a vocal quartet to perform the track for the ‘A Song For Europe’ competition, the winner of which would be the United Kingdom entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. The two male-two female formula was the model they decided on, and in January ‘81, hundreds of aspiring pop singers rocked up for an audition to pick the members for the group. Bobby Gee (born Robert Gubby) had been a builder by trade, but had dabbled in music on the side. After his building business folded he focussed fulltime on music, played the local club circuit, and became an understudy with the West End production of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’. Gee wasn’t successful on his first audition, but was eventually recruited in place of another singer called Stephen Fischer, who became unavailable. Cheryl Baker actually had previous Eurovision experience, having been a memberof the group Co-Co. Co-Co had entered the Song For Europe contest in 1976 with a song titled ‘Wake Up’, but were beaten by Brotherhood of Man. It’s worth noting that Brotherhood of Man had been another hastily assembled two male-two female vocal quartet, and they eventually went on to win the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest with ‘Save All You Kisses For Me’, which in turn went on to become a British #1 (come to think of it, Bucks Fizz were much more closely aligned to the career path of Brotherhood of Man than ABBA). Co-Co gave it another shot in 1978, and second time lucky got to represent the U.K. in Eurovision, with the song ‘The Bad Old Days’ (but only managed 11th place). Irish born Mike Nolan had been a struggling singer and songwriter for most of the 70s, and was once a member of a boy band called Brooks (who needless to say sank without a trace), though they did boast another member called Chris Hamill, better known later as Limahl (see earlier Kajagoogoo post). Nolan had actually been hand picked by Nichola Martin to record a demo version of ‘Making Your Mind Up’, so he was first picked for the Bucks Fizz project. The final member of the quartet was Jay Aston, who hailed from a show business family. She was a trained singer, dancer and actress, but most of all had charisma and sex appeal to burn. Whether by chance or by design, the four singers chosen for Bucks Fizz were also all blond - I suppose it lent itself to a certain amount of visual symmetry.
On March 11th, 1981, Bucks Fizz won the U.K. selection show, ‘A Song For Europe’, with their rendition of ‘Making Your Mind Up. A month later they performed the song at the 26th Eurovision Song Contest, held in Mike Nolan’s home town of Dublin. Once again they performed ‘Making Your Mind Up’, and for the first time Cheryl Baker and Jay Aston performed their famous skirt-ripping dance routine (basically as the girls twirled, the guys grabbed the skirts which unravelled), which certainly didn’t harm their chances of winning. Bucks Fizz were declared the winners by four points, and in so doing became the fourth British entry, after Lulu, Sandie Shaw, and Brotherhood Of Man, to take out the Eurovision Song Contest. In many ways Bucks Fizz’s timing couldn’t have been better, in terms of launching an all assault for the teeny bopper pop market. ABBA’s star was waning, and of the other teen focussed pop artists on the British scene, only Shakin’ Stevens (see future post) and Dollar were still going strong.
Bucks Fizz had already recorded ‘Making Your Mind Up’ prior to Eurovision, and RCA had the single primed and ready to go for release. It entered the U.K. charts just two weeks after they performed it on the nationally televised ‘A Song For Europe’, and similarly hit the top of the British charts a fortnight after they took out the Eurovision Song Contest. In so doing, Bucks Fizz became the fourth British act to take a Eurovision song entry to #1 on the local charts, after Sandie Shaw’s ‘Puppet On A String’ (1967), Cliff Richard’s 1968 Eurovision runner up ‘Congratulations’, and the aforementioned 1976 winners Brotherhood of Man with ‘Save All Your Kisses For Me’ (you have to imagine that I cringe every time I type that particular song title). For the first time since 1968, a winning entry from the Eurovision Song Contest hit #1 on the British charts in consecutive years. Australian born Johnny Logan (see future entry) had hit #1 in May 1980 with ‘What’s Another Year’, the winning entry for Ireland in the 25th Eurovision edition. ‘Making Your Mind Up’ went on to top the pop charts in Austria, the Netherlands, Ireland and Luxembourg, and reached the top ten in West Germany and here in Australia (#6).
Andy Hill and Nichola Martin soon had Bucks Fizz back into the recording studio to record another Hill composition, ‘Piece Of The Action’. The song debuted on the British charts during June of ‘81, and went on to peak at #12 nationally (Irl#10/OZ#26). It was quickly followed up by ‘One Of Those Nights’ (produced by Andy Hill), a slower tempo song, which delivered Bucks Fizz their third consecutive British top twenty hit (#20). All three songs featured on the group’s eponymous debut album (UK#14/OZ#35), produced by Hill, and backed by a relentless schedule of promotional tours and live appearances across Britain, Europe, Asia and Australia (during which Bucks Fizz appeared on ‘Countdown’, co-hosting and performing their famous skirt-ripping routine to ‘Making Your Mind Up’). Later in 1981 Bucks Fizz also took out the ‘Best Song Award’ at the Yamaha Song Contest in Tokyo. The winning song ‘Another Night’ was featured on their second album, but was only released as a single in Japan.
Speaking of that second album, Andy Hill and his song writing partners Nichola Martin and Pete Sinfield (ex-King Crimson), had been working away furiously over the summer of ‘81 to pen another ten radio friendly pop songs that would comprise the album ‘Are You Ready’. Nolan, Baker, Gee and Aston did their best to look serious, or was it sultry (hard to tell really), for the cover of the album, for which they were dressed as sky divers (not really sure what the thinking was on that one). The lead out single was the brilliant ‘The Land Of Make Believe’, half pop song, half children’s lullaby/pantomime song (pantomimes were bigger than ever in Britain at the time). The lyrics were based on a child’s dream, full of imaginary characters, and the theme was reflected in the irresistibly charming promotional video. The song featured an infectious chorus hook, and a curious outro, which featured the spoken word vocals of eleven year old Abby Kimber, a member of the then popular Mini-Pops children’s group. ‘The Land Of Make Believe’ was released in November of ‘81, debuted on the British charts immediately, and by mid January ‘82, Bucks Fizz had notched up their second U.K. chart topper. In a nice coincidence, Bobby Gee’s wife had their first baby just a few days before ‘The Land Of Make Believe’ hit top spot. The song spent two weeks at the summit of the British charts (becoming the biggest selling single of their career there), and rocketed to #1 in Ireland and the Netherlands, as well as reaching the top 10 across a dozen other European countries. I recall becoming completely enamoured with the song when it was released in Australia in late ‘81 (#15), and it remains to this day one of my favourite tracks from that era - it really does carry you off to a nicer place. Not everyone felt such an affection for the music of Bucks Fizz, as illustrated by the British Labour Party’s use of the political slogan “The Tories have a worse record than Bucks Fizz”, an example of opportunistic sloganeering which left the group’s record label RCA, among many, less than impressed.
Though Bucks Fizz had just notched up their second #1 with a sweet hearted pop song, tailored to a degree for kids, by contrast the group were becoming increasingly sophisticated, even raunchy in their image - well more specifically Jay Aston and Cheryl Baker were, which kind of set up an interesting contrast. The next single ‘My Camera Never Lies’ was less about a child’s imaginary friends, and more about voyeurism (maybe with a hint of stalking). The promotional video was cleverly put together, and featured the members dressed as characters from famous movie scenes, but undoubtedly also being portrayed in a more overtly sensual way. With ‘My Camera Never Lies’, Bucks Fizz achieved their third British #1 within the space of a year, when the song hit top spot during April of ‘82 (OZ#63/Ger#31/Aut#11). Andy Hill wrote the melody for the song, and Nichola Martin the lyrics. Hill recorded Nolan and Gee’s vocals first, followed by Aston and Baker. He then recorded the complex vocal sequence that features in the middle of the song, with all four singers chanting “my cam-e-ra” at one another, something Hill (and music critics) later gave the quartet full points for mastering. The ‘Are You Ready’ album hit the charts shortly after ‘My Camera Never Lies’, and went on to peak at #10 in Britain and #30 in Australia. The album spawned a further top ten hit, the a cappella style ballad ‘Now Those Days Are Gone’ (UK#8), which marked a stark contrast to the group’s previous up tempo pop fare. The song wasn’t released as a single in Australia, but rather the title track ‘Are You Ready’ (OZ#93) was issued in its place.
By the end of 1982, Bucks Fizz had proven they were no fly by night, here today gone tomorrow, pop sensation, and though they may not have won over the harder edged side of the rock fraternity, no one could deny the remarkable run of commercial success they’d enjoyed over the previous two years was duly merited.
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