Now, 45 years later, rebranded as The Fizz, they\u2019re enjoying a bumper year, with a brand new single – A Crazy Shot in the Dark – on the way and a string of sold-out shows. Speaking to The Mirror<\/a> at Butlin\u2019s Skegness<\/a>, before headlining an 80s weekender, she adds: \u201cEurovision, it’s pretty incredible. I\u2019ve done it twice. I did it in 1978 and came 11th, which was at that time the worst the UK had ever done.\u201d<\/p>\n READ MORE: “I\u2019m very aware of the changes that come with menopause” Mel B shares her secret to staying healthy<\/a><\/p>\n Eurovision is 70 this year and live shows kick off with a first semi-final in Vienna, Austria, on May 12, a second on May 14 and the grand final on May 16. Reminiscing about the Bucks Fizz victory, Cheryl continues: \u201cTo win it was phenomenal, life changing, magical. Now it\u2019s bigger and better. Back then it was an invited audience, dignitaries, the local mayor, a bit stuffy. Now there are proper fans, with flags, it\u2019s a big love fest.\u201d<\/p>\n Bucks Fizz and their famous skirt rip stole the show at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1981<\/p>\n As Bucks Fizz, the band sold 15 million records worldwide and had three number ones. The Fizz remains a foursome, but Cheryl and Jay, 64, are now joined by singers Nikk Mager, 42, and Matthew Pateman, 55, who replaced Mike after his 2024 departure. A legal battle in 2011 saw a judge rule that Bobby owned the trademark to the name Bucks Fizz. Jay laughs: \u201cTragically, we still rip our skirts off!\u201d<\/p>\n Matthew, who was in 90s boyband Bad Boys Inc, adds: \u201cI watched the win in 81 at my nan\u2019s, stood in front of the telly, copying the routine. Land of Make Believe was the first record I ever bought, too – and now I\u2019m in the band. Having that childhood memory of Bucks Fizz, and now being on stage about to rip her skirt off – it\u2019s surreal. I get goosebumps.\u201d<\/p>\n But life has not been plain sailing for Bucks Fizz\u2019s original line-up. In 1984, Cheryl, Jay, Mike and Bobby were involved in a horrific coach crash that nearly killed them all. Travelling to their hotel following a sold-out concert at Newcastle City Hall, their tour bus collided with a lorry.<\/p>\n The Mirror’s Hannah Britt meets The Fizz<\/p>\n The Fizz before their headline show at Butlin’s Skegness<\/p>\n Cheryl says: “I still have a piece of the motorway in my leg. People have said over the years, \u2018Do you know that you\u2019ve got pen on your leg?\u2019 Mike and I went through the windscreen and months later, pieces of glass were still coming out of my body. Any black marks you see on me, they\u2019re bits of the A1. I asked a plastic surgeon to remove them, but he said the op would make worse scars. Coming out of that alive, it was a second chance at life. We could have all died and Mike was actually read the last rites.\u201d<\/p>\n Jay continues: \u201cIt changed us completely. We were on such a whirlwind of busy success, travelling all over the world<\/a>. On such a high that, somehow, the impact was almost like someone was saying \u2018stop.\u2019 It really affected me. We hit a lorry with steel on it and it was such an impact. We were lucky that we survived. My husband has a fascination with bands that aren’t around anymore and so many of them have been killed in accidents – plane crashes, coach crashes. You\u2019re travelling so much.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were all badly injured. Poor Mike – he had about a third of the brain removed due to a huge blood clot. Cheryl broke her back, I had a head injury, broken nose, broken ribs.\u201d Jay left Bucks Fizz in 1985 and had to sell her London house to pay the \u00a3400,000 legal fees involved. She was replaced by Shelley Preston.<\/p>\n The Fizz have a brand new single out soon(Image: Paul David Drabble)<\/p>\n Pursuing a solo music career, Jay started a performing arts school, worked as a vocal coach, and rejoined the group in 2009 on Preston\u2019s departure. But she faced her own mortality again, when she was diagnosed with mouth cancer in June 2018, aged 57. She had a seven-hour operation to remove and reconstruct part of her tongue using tissue from her thigh and is now cancer-free.<\/p>\n She says: \u201cCancer changed my outlook on the world all over again. I wrote my will. I only thought of my daughter, Josie, and wanted to plan in case I didn’t make it. They took a piece of my leg and sewed it into my mouth. Certain syllables are difficult, certain lines. When I do interviews my tongue swells and I walk with a limp sometimes. Talking comes from a different place in my tongue. Singing is less painful than having to talk for hours. It\u2019s like having an elastic band constantly in my mouth, pulling. I can only taste on one side of my mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n Cheryl, who enjoyed a successful TV career, hosting hit show Record Breakers from 1987-1999, says: \u201cComing out of the 80s and going into the 90s you couldn’t give Bucks Fizz away. We were doing bingo halls. That was quite soul destroying. But nobody wanted the 80s back then. That\u2019s all changed.\u201d<\/p>\n Cheryl is loving the 80s nostalgia-fest. She says: \u201cWe\u2019re having more fun than ever before. (Image: Hulton Archive)<\/p>\n Matthew interjects: \u201cNostalgia is like a drug. You\u2019re transported back to a time when you didn’t have a care in the world. Doing your homework, then watching Top of the Pops.\u201d Nikk rose to fame after competing on talent show Popstars: The Rivals, in the boyband Phixx. He says: \u201cMusic is a universal language we all understand, it brings us all together. And the more uncertain the world is, the more important nostalgia is.\u201d<\/p>\n Determined to get a \u2018piece of the action\u2019 Cheryl is loving the 80s nostalgia-fest. She says: \u201cWe\u2019re having more fun than ever before. It was very serious back in the day and we had no say in it whatsoever.\u201d Jay adds: \u201cWe were complete puppets, we were pushed and pushed. We had about three days off in the first year. Now we call the shots.\u201d<\/p>\n While they miss Mike, who left two years ago, the new line-up has re-energised them. Cheryl says: \u201cThese boys, they want to do the gigs. We\u2019re back to all singing, all dancing.\u201d Nikk adds: \u201cFor this kind of job, you\u2019ve got to be full of beans\u201d.<\/p>\n The remains of the coach involved in the crash(Image: NCJ Archive)<\/p>\n While Mike simply lost his love for the band, there was some acrimony between Cheryl and Bobby. She says: \u201cHe found it difficult to work with me and I found it difficult to work with him.\u201d Bobby did some gigs with them when the band reformed, but it didn\u2019t work out. Cheryl adds: \u201cOn the other hand, when Jay left, we didn’t see her for 20 years. But when she came back, it was like having your old mate back.\u201d<\/p>\n And being 72 is not going to hold Cheryl back. She says of the combined ages of The Fizz: \u201cWe are already 192\u2026 but when you’re on stage, fans look up and see someone of a particular age, they see a memory and you’re doing the songs they remember. Jay adds: \u201cWe\u2019ll be ripping off our skirts until we\u2019re 100.\u201d<\/p>\n *For more information about The Fizz, including the new single A Crazy Shot in the Dark and upcoming shows, see thefizzofficial.com <\/a>. Follow the band on Instagram<\/a> @thefizzcmjn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s been 45 years since Bucks Fizz won the Eurovision Song Contest, and they’re still going strong. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20858],"tags":[21319,21323,20859,20863,20860,21321,21322,21320],"class_list":{"0":"post-31599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eurovision","8":"tag-cheryl","9":"tag-coach-crashes","10":"tag-eurovision","11":"tag-eurovision-song-contest","12":"tag-eurovision-song-contest-2026","13":"tag-jay-aston","14":"tag-matthew-pateman","15":"tag-mike-nolan"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Bucks](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2_place-at-Eurovision-Song-Contest-in-Dublin-1-28-screenshot-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1_IMG_1557jpeg.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2_20da91ec-42dd-4265-a37c-915911faedbfjpeg.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1_Bucks-Fizz-Skegness-0012JPG.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Cheryl](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1_Bucks-Fizz.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1_Bucks-Fizz-coach-crash.jpg\")
<\/p>\n