In a single skirt-ripping moment 45 years ago, Bucks Fizz stole the Eurovision Song Contest crown with their number one hit Making Your Mind Up. Cheryl Baker, now 72, recalls: "Three minutes and a skirt rip changed our lives forever." Now rebranded as The Fizz, the band is enjoying a bumper year with a new single, A Crazy Shot in the Dark, and sold-out shows.
But life has not been plain sailing. In 1984, a horrific coach crash near Newcastle nearly killed the original line-up. Cheryl says: "I still have a piece of the motorway in my leg. People have said, 'Do you know you've got pen on your leg?' Any black marks are bits of the A1. Mike went through the windscreen; months later glass was still coming out of me." She adds that Mike Nolan was read the last rites after the crash.
Fellow band member Jay Aston, 64, who was diagnosed with mouth cancer in 2018, underwent a seven-hour operation to reconstruct her tongue using tissue from her thigh. She says: "Cancer changed my outlook. They took a piece of my leg and sewed it into my mouth. Certain syllables are difficult." Jay is now cancer-free and continues to perform with The Fizz.
Despite a legal battle that saw Bobby Gubby own the Bucks Fizz trademark, the band still rips off their skirts on stage. New member Matthew Pateman, who watched the Eurovision win in 1981 as a child, says: "Now I'm on stage about to rip her skirt off – it's surreal."
