The impact of the smash catapulted me and Cheryl through the windscreen. The main girder of the coach went directly through the toilet area. Over the weekend (April 4), original members Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan and Jay Aston celebrated four decades since winning the Eurovision Song Contest with their classic hit, Making Your Mind Up. More serious, long-term ocular damage can occur for a variety of reasons but is less common. After six weeks of physio Mike was allowed home but the accident had taken its toll emotionally. The pair had worked together after suffering similar serious head. A big part of why I left was when everyones still being antagonistic when Mikes at deaths door and were all very badly injured, she says. Both continue to raise money for the charity. The crash happened after the group, famous for their Eurovision winning hit Making Your Mind Up, left their packed out gig at the City Hall to head to the Gosforth Park Hotel and their bus was hit by a lorry on the Great North Road. He said: It was about 10.20pm and we were all looking forward to the party. BUCKS Fizz star Jay Aston has said that she's unable to move and in agony after getting coronavirus following her mouth cancer battle. There was one time on live TV in Holland, going out to millions of viewers, when Bobby completely forgot to rip my skirt off, so I did it myself, Aston laughs. I remember the collision and then the silence after and seeing the traffic lights changing. At the end of it I did think, that song and that piece of Velcro has just changed our lives. I love my country, I love saying that Im British, I love my Queen, Im a proper royalist, and to actually represent your country and win that award was everything to me. She tears up when recalling her phone call home from the celebration party. "We did not have a good deal. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. A couple of months after that, I knew I had to quit. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. This means that we may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. I have to work. He developed epilepsy, lost 50% of his vision in both eyes, became withdrawn, and showed signs of personality change. I had to walk with a stick for another month. Jill was unconscious beside me with broken ribs and a punctured lung. It was the third day after the coach crash that I thought, Ive got to get out of here for my own health and sanity.. We started making more records and going on tour, and so began a hectic whirlwind life. The four members Jay Aston, Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan and Bobby Gee were all injured but Mike, who alongside Cheryl was thrown through the windscreen, was so badly injured at one point he was read the last rites. Apart from feeling a bit nervous when Im being driven, Im fi ne. It will be 22 years this weekend since Mike Nolan won Eurovision with Bucks Fizz but just three years later he nearly died when the groups tour bus hit a lorry. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. The impact was about 75 miles an hour, it was horrific, we were thrown all over the place. Singer Mike Nolan still has a black hole in his memory 29 years after he almost died in a Newcastle crash, Sign up for free to get the latest North East news and updates delivered straight to your inbox. This group reunited Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan and Shelley Preston, before Jay Aston replaced Preston in 2009. [12], In 2004, Nolan along with Baker, G and another later member of Bucks Fizz, Shelley Preston reformed for a one-off series of shows on the 80s revival Here and Now Tour. The Eurovision winners were involved in a horror smash in 1984 and the physical and mental scars took a long time to heal. It was very painful. I have a mortgage and bills to pay. [3] Despite multiple TV appearances, magazine interviews and several singles, the group never had a hit and eventually disbanded three years later. Bucks Fizz, meanwhile, continued, plucking 21-year-old Shelley Preston from 800 auditionees to replace Aston. She and Baker failed to click initially. My legs were also badly gashed across the shins. My mum Kathleen and dad John, and my five brothers, were called to my bedside to say goodbye. I think it broke some boundaries and people couldnt help but kinda like it Its amazing how many complete strangers come up to me when Im shopping, choosing some cereal of something, and they say, are you making your mind up?, Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. The company is family owned and highly values relationships often going beyond the call of duty to help a customer. Now, 25 years after the horror smash, they have faced their fears and recreated the journey along the. What happened to Cheryl Baker's Bucks Fizz cash? Cheryl turned to me and said: Theres something wrong with you. Mike and Cheryl were right at the front, while Bobby G was sitting right at the back. In hindsight, it probably was too soon for us to be back working, as the crash meant that injuries manifested themselves later on. When youre working 365 days of the year, flying here, there and everywhere, and theyre buying five-storey houses in Mayfair and youre still riding around in a Fiat 124, which is a bit like a lawnmower, you start to feel a bit resentful. G disagrees, considering the deal very fair considering the lifestyle and career opportunities it afforded the four. With tensions rising within the band and their team (Aston would later reveal shed been having an affair with Hall) and rockier mid-Eightiessingles seeing their star decline, Bucks Fizzs peak era came to a screeching halt on 11 December 1984 literally and almost fatally. We both landed on the road, just in front of the bus, unconscious. Aston was hospitalised with back injuries, Bobby G with whiplash and Nolan and Baker were both thrown through the coach windscreen. We also may change the frequency you receive our emails from us in order to keep you up to date and give you the best relevant information possible. We could do everything together and have a great time. I thought the music was getting louder and louder but it wasnt in reality. The four of us, plus all our musicians, were travelling on the Great North Road after a packed out gig at Newcastles City Hall. Following a head injury, it is important for the individual and those around them to look out for symptoms such as severe headaches, deafness in one or both ears, blurred vision, vomiting, or inability to be woken or drowsiness when you would usually be awake. A couple of days after the operation my head and face started to swell as fluid began to build up around my brain. The band are set to release another album in 2022. It was so close to the bone.' Jay is now cancer-free. Cheryl added: I know it was a disastrous thing to happen, but we all survived it and I think that is something to celebrate. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. In 2018 she signed up for a stint on Dancing On Ice in a bid to bolster the books, admitting the show 'saved my bacon'. I eventually went back to my house in West London to take it easy. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. We were all lucky to walk away with our lives that night. My memory has totally wiped it out. British pop around that period, I think we were at the forefront of pop music in the world, and I think it has become part of that., Its part of me now, its part of my DNA, says Baker. To be fair, I think we benefitted just as much as anybody else.. [Aston was from Purley in Surrey, where she had been crowned Miss Purley in 1978]. That split-second decision to pick up some fruit stopped me going to the loo, which wouldve pierced my whole body through the middle. When I came round I had double vision. The demo was recorded by Nolan and Martin and was accepted as one of the finalists. [5] The group were catapulted to fame overnight and the song made No.1 in several countries, including the UK. Here he relives the night that changed his life. Mike sustained a traumatic injury to the head and it was touch and go whether doctors could perform a life-saving operation in time to remove a blood clot from his brain. They I dont remember anything else until I woke up in hospital.. It was worse for my family because they didnt know if I would survive and if Id be brain damaged at the end of it. I wanted to get on with life as normal. **I do not own copyright on this clip but have uploaded as a matter of interest without ownership, any copyright issues then please let me know and i will re. She said: "I had no work coming in, but I was raised not to be a shirker so I rang a friend who runs a company. It was nearly a disaster but not quite., Despite the buzz among the media and public that Britain might have backed a winner, the band tempered their expectations. I feel sorry for Jay now, when I look back I couldve tried harder to make her feel a part of the fantastic relationship I had with Mike Nolan, but it was never gonna happen., Feeling, according to Baker, absolutely controlled we didnt have any dealings with how we ran our lives, the downsides of their contract began to reveal themselves too. Id done all of those by the time I was about 21.. We were travelling at 35mph and so was the lorry. It was in 1976 that he successfully auditioned for his first serious band. In the latter half of the decade, he joined a rival variation of the group Bucks Fizz with original member Mike Nolan. And its great to be back performing this autumn. Cheryl and Mike Nolan were catapulted through the window and were taken to hospital with band members Bobby G and Jay Aston. In the past Mike said he lived in fear of people asking how he was and wore a cap and sunglasses in case he was recognised. Cheryl, 66, said she's had to resort to growing her own veg and has even been offered money by her Dancing On Ice partner Daniel Whiston and bandmate Mike Nolan in a desperate bid to make ends meet. The voting was certainlydazzly-nail-biting stuff. We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. Mike and his fellow band. I look at it now, I look like I was 12, this skinny little girl. Then I collapsed in her arms. I woke up in hospital and remember thinking: Not here again. Born into show-business . I was still feeling unwell and the crash had affected me emotionally. The last thing I remember is someone shouting and then our coach collided with a lorry. The band sold 50 million records worldwide; had three UK number ones including Making Your Mind Up and went on a string on sell-out tours. I kept thinking if Id gone to the loo in the coach instead of talking to Jill Id have been crushed to death. I was diagnosed with Osgood-Schlatter disease, where a kneecap tendon gets inflamed. A year later, they released a single and recorded an album of old Bucks Fizz hits. There was always a desire to progress musically, Aston explains. I started to suffer mood swings and my personality changed. I even stopped exercising for a bit and put on weight. Pop star Jay Aston says leaving band Bucks Fizz in 1985 was the worst financial decision of her life. [4] On Saturday 4 April, they won the Eurovision final itself. Since 2004, he has been a member of the group The Fizz, along with other former Bucks Fizz members Cheryl Baker, Shelley Preston (from 2004 to 2009) and Jay Aston (since 2009). Baker left in 1993, Nolan in 1996, yet Bucks Fizz continually regrouped and reformed with a dizzying array of line-ups, many barely recognisable from the Eurovision glory days. Singer Mike Nolan still has a black hole in his memory 29 years after he almost died in a Newcastle crash. We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. The Bucks Fizz star has revealed how he has tried to remember what happened. There were about 20 of us on the coach at the time. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. Yet Aston and her bandmates were also set out on a course of friction, exploitation and exhaustion. Now called The Original Bucks Fizz, the concert at Newcastle City Hall takes place on December 12. I was told it was a side effect of the brain injury too. It was a devastating time. Bucks Fizz star Bobby G turned down the opportunity to reunite with his former bandmates to celebrate the group's 40th anniversary. The Fizz undertook an extensive UK tour throughout 2015.[13]. Something went wrong, please try again later. 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[7] Nolan was featured on the front page of many of the tabloids over the next few days with headlines declaring him to be "on the brink of death". Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? I felt very twisted and had to see an osteopath who manipulated my back, neck and pelvis for quite a long time. I also lost my driving licence due to my impaired vision. I used to be an extrovert on and off stage, but I became withdrawn and introvert when not performing. She said to ask for some painkillers, but the nurse couldnt give me any straight away so she opened the window. It can start at any age but is usually diagnosed in childhood. When you see whats been happening with withholding vaccines, I think its proved a point that leaving was a better option and I stand by that., Four decades on from the cork popping on the Bucks Fizz phenomenon, how has pop changed? More than 500,000 people in the UK have the condition and while there is no cure medication can be used to control the symptoms. Pat Harris from Busk says: We are still campaigning for every school to have a policy in place around the wearing of seat belts on coaches for all pupils on school trips. bucks fizz coach crash driver CMI is a proven leader at applying industry knowledge and engineering expertise to solve problems that other fabricators cannot or will not take on. I was even a contestant on a celebrity special of BBC Two quiz show Eggheads and got all my questions right. All I wanted to do was get home and give my mum a hug.. He still suffers from memory loss and has tunnel vision things the coach crash left him with permanently.. I was given a 50/50 chance of survival. Mike is great now, they have changed his medication and he doesnt have to have nearly as many drugs. They had no idea I was Cheryl Baker.". I had planned to sit at the front too, but Id headed to the loo at the rear. Now Im patron of the charity Headfirst, which supports research into head injuries. Michael Nolan (born 7 December 1954) is an Irish singer who is best known as one of the four original members of the British pop group, Bucks Fizz, who now perform as The Fizz. It was like a therapy session really as we have never all really talked about what happened and I had blanked a lot of it out. Indeed, whatever your thoughts on Making Your Mind Up theres no denying its innocent, guile-free appeal, or its hallowed place in British pops goldenEightiesera. I dont remember anything about it, but I died and they revived me. It can lead to difficulties such as headaches, dizziness, fatigue, depression, irritability and memory problems. It was about 10.20pm and we were all looking forward to the after-show party. We surprised everyone, including ourselves, by winning the Eurovision Song Contest with Making Your Mind Up. Nolan along with singers Bobby G, Cheryl Baker and Jay Aston became known as Bucks Fizz. The technically 'official' Bucks Fizz are still performing, and currently consist of: Bobby G, Heidi Manton, Tammy Choat and Paul Yates. Id quite often agree with Bobby because Mike and Cheryl, even to this day, would go the opposite of Bobby., Bucks Fizz performing at the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin, In 2015, Baker admitted to having fallen in love with Nolan when she first saw him but attested that nothing untoward had ever happened between them. The craftsmanship that was developed by songwriters because of the lack of technology meant that through theSeventiesandEightiesthere was a real level of craftsmanship and I think weve lost some of that.. Like young people do, we thought it was really exciting, as opposed to thinking, we have a death threat on our heads, we could all die at any minute!They did, however, feel intimidated by the strong entries from Germanys Lena Valaitis and Irelands Sheeba. It took a long time to feel my usual self again at least five years. I told him I was struggling and needed to earn some money. THE LAST time pop group Bucks Fizz stepped on a bus in Newcastle it almost killed them. 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I dont want people to feel sorry for me. I was in and out of hospital for two and half years, in plaster, having physio, or on crutches. Bucks Fizz performing at the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin (Getty) In 2015, Baker admitted to having fallen in love with Nolan when she first saw him but attested that "nothing. We had armed guards outside our bedroom doors and everywhere we went, Baker remembers. I havent had a seizure for eight years so, touch wood, the epilepsy is under control. After changing his epilepsy medication 10 years ago he noticed his energy levels started to return to normal. Over the years Ive really tried hard to remember but nothing comes to me. The group continued for a few years until Nolan too became unhappy with the situation and quit in 2001. I also had to be taught how to walk and talk again by physiotherapists. James Coxon, from brain injury charity Headway, says: Double vision or other temporary visual disturbances are common after a traumatic brain injury. As a member of Bucks Fizz, he won the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest and achieved 20 UK top 60 singles between 1981 and 1988, including three number one hits. But, on the anniversary of the groups success in the Eurovision Song Contest with Making Your Mind Up, Mike says he still does not remember that night. We are also currently campaigning to improve working conditions for drivers who are doing long European trips. THE LAST time pop group Bucks Fizz stepped on a bus in Newcastle it almost killed them. I keep my brain healthy doing quiz books and Ive spent hours mastering sudoku. In 2018, diagnosed with mouth cancer, Aston underwent a seven-hour skin graft operation to remove part of her tongue: I havent been gigging every week, so it is a bit like having an elastic band around your tongue all the time, she says. But in 2009 Mike, along with Cheryl and fellow original band member Jay Aston decided to start performing together again as Formerly Of Bucks Fizz. My face was all marked, I had oil in my hair and even bits of glass from the windscreen. Admitting she's struggled to stay in the black 'on and off' since she was 16, Cheryl said the uncertain nature of showbusiness makes it hard to know where you stand from one year to the next. The Eurovision star took to her social media over the weekend . He has since recorded a second album. At the dress run, when we ripped the skirts off he said to the rest of his band, we might as well go home now. That rip-off skirt was almost like a safety blanket. But the singer admits he feels nervous when travelling by. I also was suffering temporary memory loss. Jay, who still bears the scar of the accident said: We had been on tour when Mike reminded us it was 25 years since the crash and we said we had to do something to mark it. And there was one recently where I went out without my proper attire when I ripped off. My nose was fractured and some ribs broken. My whole thinking was do the Song for Europebecauseyour mum and dad can video it, Ive got that for posterity and you can go back to being a secretary, says Baker. Bucks Fizz will be performing all their greatest hits the group had a string of smashes after winning Eurovision in 1981 with Making Your Mind Up. It cuts across, its a silly song thats just got something. Something went wrong, please try again later. We also may change the frequency you receive our emails from us in order to keep you up to date and give you the best relevant information possible. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Cheryl Baker, Jay Aston, and Bobby G talk to Mark Beaumont about Eighties pop stardom, cliques and infighting, the crash that nearly ended their lives, and the little piece of Velcro that changed everything, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile, Clockwise, from top left: Bobby G, Mike Nolan, Cheryl Baker and Jay Aston, A door opened on a grand hallway behind the scenes attheDublinconcert hallRDS Simmonscourt, and the cheers of the 7,000 strong crowd echoing those of 500 million TV viewers across the continent gave way to a blizzard of flashbulbs. Although she took aim at the fees, claiming the contestants are 'poorly paid'. IT'S fair to say The Fizz have had a difficult 18 months. The law was changed in 2006 but only children aged 14 and over are legally required to wear them. Mike was worst off. Id had terrible memory problems since the accident and been struggling to learn lyrics. The first nail in the band's coffin was a 1984 coach crash, which happened when the group was returning from a sell-out concert in Newcastle. Lying unconscious in the road, her spine broken in three places, Cheryl came close to never walking again. Bucks Fizz have been called out for 'LYING' about the reason behind their name change. This means that we may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. I was also very un-street and Cheryl was very streetwise she was brought up in Bethnal Green. We looked a state, covered in bruises and bumps, and we joked about what our fans would say if they saw us. In 1993 he also started working with the organisation Belt Up School Kids (Busk) which campaigned for seat belts to be made compulsory on coaches. It was the most frightening experience because I knew something bad was happening but I didnt know what. Former bandmate, G was unhappy with the competition and threatened to sue Van Day, while Bucks Fizz fans were almost universal in their derision of the new recordings. As the band had work booked in Mauritius in April to film a TV show, we were all just thinking, lets get over this and get back onto our feet again. Jay quit Bucks Fizz after the 1984 tour bus crash that left fellow member Mike Nolan with severe head injuries. We are inviting the surgeon and nurse who treated Mike along with staff from the Newcastle General and RVI and ambulance crews. We were kept in a separate hotel, we had our own separate coach and outriders on motorbikes whizzing us through red lights, taking us on the wrong side of the road. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. Thats 445 a day, or one every three minutes. Mike Nolan released his first solo album in early 2013 entitled In My Life. And every year when the anniversary of the crash comes round, I think about it. "I did not make big money out of being in Bucks Fizz. You can't turn the work down. I watch what I eat and Im in bed at 10pm and up at 5am. I heard someone say, were gonna hit that, and that was when we hit this massive articulated lorry that had loads of steel on it. On 11 December 1984, while on tour and returning from a sold-out gig in Newcastle, the group's tour bus was extensively damaged after colliding with an articulated lorry. I was given a 50/50 chance of survival.. What caused Bucks Fizz crash? Footage of their bus journey to the spot of the crash will be shown on BBCs Look North tonight and tomorrow from 6.30pm. As Nolan later reasoned, the idea of the group was 'dated'. Last winter we did a fundraising gig for North East Headway in Newcastle which was quite poignant as that is the city where the coach crash happened all those years ago. It took me years to accept it. Cheryl helped form the charity and it was originally The Mike Nolan Brain Damage Fund but later changed its name. This means that we may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. After life-saving brain surgery he was left half blind with epilepsy. Of course, life got very difficult after that too as I was involved in several lawsuits because the management werent happy with my decision to leave. Dollar. In 1997, Nolan was contacted by former Dollar singer David Van Day, with a view to forming a rival version of Bucks Fizz.
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