40 Fun Facts About Bucks Fizz

Which fastening let the men of Bucks Fizz rip off the women's skirts at Eurovision in 1981?

Velcro held the long skirts in place until the men tore them away to reveal mini-skirts beneath. Cheryl Baker later said that strip of fastening had changed her life.

Bucks Fizz's The Land of Make Believe was, its lyricist said, a veiled attack on which political leader?

Margaret Thatcher and her government's policies were the hidden target, lyricist Pete Sinfield later said. Listeners heard only a sugar-coated fairy tale about a child's dream.

The cocktail that gave Bucks Fizz their name mixes orange juice with which alcoholic drink?

Champagne makes up two parts of a Buck's Fizz to one part orange juice. Creator Nichola Martin borrowed the name for her new group because it was her favourite drink.

Bucks Fizz shelved their recording of What's Love Got to Do with It after which singer released it first?

Tina Turner released her version first and turned it into a worldwide hit, so the group's take was left off their 1984 album. It stayed in the vaults until a CD reissue in 2000.

In which city did Bucks Fizz win the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest with Making Your Mind Up?

Dublin staged the contest in a showground pavilion normally used for agricultural and horse shows. The British group won by four points after five different songs had led the voting.

Which rock frontman echoed Bucks Fizz's skirt-rip by tearing at his duet partner's dress at Live Aid?

Mick Jagger ripped away part of his partner's dress in Philadelphia in 1985, leaving her to finish the song in what was effectively a leotard. The Eurovision original came four years earlier.

Which birds attacked Bobby G by the Serpentine as Bucks Fizz filmed their Now Those Days Are Gone video?

Swans set upon the singer as he walked beside the Hyde Park lake, and he had to be rescued. The wartime-themed video cast him in a love triangle with the group's two women.

Which long-running BBC children's show did Cheryl Baker of Bucks Fizz co-present from 1987 to 1997?

Record Breakers made her a familiar face to a generation of children, first alongside Roy Castle. She stayed on after his death in 1994, having left the group the year before.

Which singer turned Heart of Stone, the last Bucks Fizz single to chart, into the title track of a 1989 album?

Cher recorded the song a year after the British group's version stalled at number 50 in the UK. Her album of the same name went on to sell more than four million copies.

Which Bucks Fizz singer spent three days in a coma after the group's tour coach crashed in December 1984?

Mike Nolan suffered the worst injuries of the four and was reported to have died on the operating table before pulling through. The crash left him with epilepsy and impaired vision.

Which brunch cocktail does the International Bartenders Association treat as the same drink as a Buck's Fizz?

The Mimosa takes its name from a yellow-flowered plant, while the British drink is named after the London club where it is said to have first been served in 1921.

Which country did Bucks Fizz beat into second place by just four points at the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest?

Germany finished runner-up for the second year running, this time with Lena Valaitis singing Johnny Blue. France came third, and the winners' final total was 136 points.

Bucks Fizz were Britain's most recent Eurovision winners for 16 years until which act triumphed in 1997?

Katrina and the Waves ended the drought with Love Shine a Light. In between, British entries finished second four times, once losing by a single point.

Bucks Fizz songwriter Andy Hill later co-wrote Think Twice, a seven-week UK number one for which singer?

Celine Dion took the ballad to the top of the UK chart in 1995, where it sold over a million copies. Hill wrote it with Pete Sinfield, his partner on several of the group's singles.

Which TV series used Bucks Fizz's Making Your Mind Up in its 2025 episode The Interstellar Song Contest?

Doctor Who played the 1981 winner in a story set at a song contest in space. The recording had earlier turned up in the time-travel police drama Ashes to Ashes.

In which British soap did Cheryl Baker guest-star in 2023, helping characters perform Bucks Fizz's Eurovision winner?

EastEnders brought her in for a Eurovision-themed party episode in May 2023. That year's contest was being staged in the UK on behalf of Ukraine.

Which comic-book hero is name-checked alongside the pirate Captain Kidd in Bucks Fizz's The Land of Make Believe?

Superman appears in a lyric built around a child's dream, in which ghostly voices tempt the child outdoors. The single ends with an 11-year-old girl reciting a nursery rhyme.

On which BBC host's chat show did Bucks Fizz unveil Jay Aston's replacement to 14.5 million viewers in 1985?

Terry Wogan introduced the new line-up on his BBC One show in June 1985. One member later said they looked so awful that he wiped his own video of the appearance.

Which act were the last British winners of the Eurovision Song Contest before Bucks Fizz took the title in 1981?

Brotherhood of Man won in 1976 with Save Your Kisses for Me. The UK then waited five years for its fourth victory.

Which band's Don't You Want Me did Bucks Fizz's The Land of Make Believe knock off the UK number one spot?

The Human League had held the Christmas number one before the fantasy-themed single overtook them in January 1982. It stayed top for two weeks and became the group's biggest UK seller.

After a sold-out concert in which English city did Bucks Fizz's tour coach collide with a lorry in 1984?

Newcastle is where the group returned 25 years later, playing a benefit concert for head-injury victims at the same hall they had left on the night of the crash.

Which singer was picked from 800 auditionees to replace Jay Aston in Bucks Fizz in 1985?

Shelley Preston, then 21, had spent six months singing at a hotel nightclub in Sri Lanka before the London audition. Her biggest hit with the group came a year later.

With which group had Cheryl Baker already sung for the UK at Eurovision, three years before Bucks Fizz won?

Co-Co finished 11th in Paris in 1978, then the worst result a British entry had recorded. Baker said she felt she had let the country down.

Which 1982 single gave Bucks Fizz their third UK number one in the space of twelve months?

My Camera Never Lies topped the chart for one week in April 1982. Its video had the four re-enacting scenes from films including Bonnie and Clyde and Cleopatra.

Which 1981 single followed Making Your Mind Up and saved Bucks Fizz from the Eurovision one-hit-wonder tag?

Piece of the Action reached number 12, a contemporary pop song chosen to move the group away from the rock and roll style of their winner.

David Van Day, who joined Bucks Fizz in 1996 and later toured a rival version, was half of which pop duo?

Dollar had made him a star alongside Thereza Bazar. His dispute with Bobby G over the group's name went to the High Court and became a BBC documentary, Trouble at the Top.

Bucks Fizz's Cheryl Baker and Jay Aston made cameos in the video for which act's 1983 hit Who's That Girl?

Eurythmics cast the pair among the women escorting Dave Stewart through the video, alongside Kiki Dee and Hazel O'Connor. Annie Lennox played both a nightclub singer and a man in the audience.

Bucks Fizz's 1986 comeback hit New Beginning (Mamba Seyra) is sung partly in Spanish and which African language?

Swahili lines sit beside a children's choir and a gospel choir on the heavily layered recording. It reached number eight, the group's best chart placing for four years.

Which pop magazine gave Bucks Fizz's second album, Are You Ready, a perfect ten out of ten in 1982?

Smash Hits awarded full marks to the album, which went gold and became the group's only top-ten LP. The band were less keen on its sleeve, telling the art director the concept was naff.

In which London department store did the BBC film Bucks Fizz's Eurovision preview video for Making Your Mind Up?

Harrods is where the four are seen strolling without miming a word, as was usual for the BBC's preview films. The clip was later left off the group's official video releases.

The sleeve of Are You Ready, Bucks Fizz's most successful album, shows the group taking part in which activity?

Parachuting runs across the whole gatefold: the four sit in an aeroplane on the front, fall through the air inside and land on the back. The idea came from the art director, not the band.

Which teenage singer succeeded Bucks Fizz as Eurovision winner in 1982 with a ballad about peace?

Nicole was a 17-year-old high-school student when she won in Harrogate, where the UK hosted as reigning champions. She recorded her winning song in several languages, English included.

Which rock star co-wrote Magical, a 1985 single Bucks Fizz recorded in their heaviest style?

Meat Loaf wrote it with John Parr, who released it first, and it remains the only released song he wrote but did not record himself.

Which British star first recorded Golden Days, the song Bucks Fizz released as a single in October 1984?

Cliff Richard recorded the song a year before the group's version, which stalled at number 42. It was produced by its co-writer rather than Andy Hill, the group's regular producer.

Which top ten hit from 1983 is the only Bucks Fizz single with Jay Aston singing lead on her own?

When We Were Young had a heavier, more ominous sound, with a lyric about an old woman mourning her lost youth. Aston called it her favourite of the group's songs.

Buck's Club, the London birthplace of the Buck's Fizz cocktail, inspired the Drones Club in which author's stories?

P. G. Wodehouse modelled his fictional club for idle gentlemen largely on Buck's, and even wrote its real barman into his stories.

In which West End musical was Bobby G an understudy the year before he joined Bucks Fizz?

Jesus Christ Superstar had him covering the role of Pontius Pilate at the Palace Theatre. The show closed that year after eight years, then the longest run of any musical in Britain.

Bucks Fizz's Eurovision dance routine was choreographed by a former member of which television dance troupe?

Hot Gossip alumna Chrissie Wickham spent two days drilling the four in the routine. Credit for the skirt-rip itself has since been claimed by three different people.

Jay Aston's brother Lance sang for the UK at Eurovision the year before Bucks Fizz won, in which group?

Prima Donna finished third in The Hague in 1980 with Love Enough for Two. The sextet had only won the British heat after a chaotic tie-break vote.

Which future 1980s pop star was an early member of Brooks, the boy band that also launched a Bucks Fizz singer?

Limahl sang with Brooks under his real name, Chris Hamill, before fronting Kajagoogoo. The group was styled as a 1970s answer to The Monkees but failed to score a hit.