Chart entered : 28 March 1981
Chart peak : 1
Number of hits : 20
Buck's Fizz are unique in being the only act specifically put together for the Eurovision Song Contest to achieve sustained success thereafter; of course, actually winning the damned thing helped ! They represent the pinnacle of Eurovision influence on the chart ; just five years later Ryder's Runner In the Night failed to chart and only one British runner has topped the chart since ( Gina G in 1996 ).
Buck's Fizz were the creation of Andy Hill and his girlfriend Nichola Martin and were something of a bet-hedging exercise as the duo were also competing in the 1981 British heat as performers in the group Gem . Hill had achieved some success writing advertising jingles while Nichola had been trying to make it as a singer throughout the seventies in various outfits including one called Rags who contested the 1977 British heat. During this period Martin's paths had crossed with another struggling outfit called Brooks and she called on one of their ex-singers Mike Nolan ( born 1954 ) to help her record Hill's song for a demo.
Brooks were an early boy band put together by future Shakin Stevens manager Freya Miller and originally featured Chris "Limahl " Hamill. Founded in 1976 it took them three years to even get a record deal with Polydor despite a fair amount of TV exposure. Roger Greenaway became involved with them and wrote the last three of their five singles , only one of which "Don't You Know A Lady" I've heard . The verdict is very dated bubblegum disco. By the end of 1980 neither Polydor nor Miller were interested in the group any more and they broke up.
Mike and Martin's demo got accepted for A Song for Europe so they now needed to put a group together. Martin invited Cheryl Baker ( born 1954 as Rita Crudgington ) and decided to hold auditions for another male and female ( in case Cheryl declined ). Cheryl was something of a Eurovision veteran having tried three times with her group Co-Co. In 1976 they came second in the British heat with an Arrows song "Wake Up ". After a couple of self-written singles in the meantime including the Dooleys-like "Money Song" they were back with "The Bad Old Days" an Abba-meets-Mary Hopkin confection which became the UK entry but only came 11th in the Final, the UK's worst ever performance at the time but we'd probably settle for it now. After two more self-written singles they had a third crack now renamed The Main Event in 1980 with the song "Gonna Do My Best" written by group leader Terry Bradford. Unfortunately this dire disco effect which makes The Dooleys sound like Chic, wasn't good enough and they placed last in the British heat. That finished the group off and left Cheryl free to accept Martin's invitation.
From the auditions, Martin chose Stephen Fischer but he was unable to square it with his commitments in the musical Godspell so the spot went to runner-up Bobby "G" Gubby, ( born 1953 ) a pub singer. Having decided against appearing in two different groups Martin surrendered her place to the best of the female auditionees, sexy teenager Jay Aston.
Here's the Popular link : Bucks Fizz
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