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| Bucks Fizz |
Today, The Grandma has been talking with The Watsons. They continue isolated and working in Rennette Watson's candidature to Eurovision Song Contest. They have been talking about British winners, especially Bucks Fizz, a pop group that won the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Making Your Mind Up.
Before talking about Bucks Fizz, The Grandma has offered a new Cambridge Key English Test A2 Example to The Watsons.
Bucks Fizz is a British pop group that achieved success in the 1980s, most notably for winning the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Making Your Mind Up.
The group was formed in January 1981 specifically for the contest and comprised four vocalists: Bobby G, Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan and Jay Aston.
They received attention for the dance routine which accompanied the song, in which the male members of the group ripped the female members' outer skirts off to reveal much shorter mini-skirts beneath.
The group went on to have a successful career around the world, although they were commercially unsuccessful in the United States, but the UK remained their biggest market, where they had three No.1 singles with Making Your Mind Up (1981), The Land of Make Believe (1981) and My Camera Never Lies (1982) and became one of the top-selling groups of the 1980s.
They also had UK Top 10 hits with Now Those Days Are Gone (1982), If You Can't Stand the Heat (1982), When We Were Young (1983) and New Beginning (Mamba Seyra) (1986). Bucks Fizz have sold over 50 million records worldwide.
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| Bucks Fizz in Eurovision, 1981 |
The line-up of the group has changed a number of times over the years, most famously when Jay Aston quit the group in 1985 and was replaced by Shelley Preston.
Today, two versions of the group exist: a version which includes original member Bobby G, and a version comprising the other three original members -Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan and Jay Aston under the name The Fizz.
In late 1980, Nichola Martin and Andy Hill sought to create a new group to enter their song Making Your Mind Up in the Eurovision Song Contest. The first member to be recruited was Mike Nolan, who was known to Martin. Together, they recorded a demo of the song and entered it for inclusion in A Song for Europe -the preliminary heats for the contest. Realising that a name was needed for the performing artists, Martin quickly decided on Buck's Fizz, as it was her favourite drink.
In January, Martin contacted Cheryl Baker to join them, as she remembered her from the 1978 Eurovision group, Co-Co. Concurrent to this, Martin was holding auditions for another male vocalist and female vocalist, should Baker turn down the position, which she didn't. At the end of these auditions, Martin had found a male singer, Stephen Fischer and female, Jay Aston.
More information: All Music
Unsure of which female vocalist to use, she ultimately decided to use both Baker and Aston as she felt their vocals complemented each other and Martin stepped down from the group in order to team up with Hill for another line-up as they had two songs in the competition.
Fischer then became unavailable as he was appearing in a musical at the time and Martin hired another auditionee, Bobby G for the group. The four members came together for the first time on 11 January 1981. Jill Shirley, with whom Martin had been in a group called Rags who had appeared in the 1977 A Song for Europe contest, placing fourth, agreed to manage the group.
During rehearsals, a dance routine was devised for the song which went on to become famous for the moment where the girls' skirts are ripped off halfway through -only to reveal shorter skirts underneath.
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| Bucks Fizz in Eurovision, 1981 |
The routine itself was choreographed by Chrissie Wickham, a former member of dance troupe Hot Gossip, although Martin, Baker and Aston have all since laid claim to the skirt-rip idea, Martin had used a similar idea when Rags had taken part in the earlier A Song for Europe contest in 1977; subsequently performing the same routine on Top of the Pops after failing to win the competition.
On 11 March, A Song for Europe took place with the then unknown Bucks Fizz competing against well-known act Liquid Gold, as well as Hill and Martin's own group, Gem.
Making Your Mind Up became an easy winner and the group recorded the song with Hill as producer. Later in the month it was released as a single and entered the charts at No.24. By the time the contest was staged, the single had risen to No.2.
On 4 April, Bucks Fizz represented United Kingdom in the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest, which was held in Dublin. Although they were favourites to win, the song faced stiff competition and after a vocally unsound rendition, the early votes were poor. Halfway through the voting process, Bucks Fizz took the lead, although they remained close throughout. Ultimately, Bucks Fizz won the contest by a margin of four points, beating Germany into second place.
Making Your Mind Up became a major hit around the continent, reaching No.1 in the UK as well as eight other countries. It charted highly in other countries such as Australia, eventually selling four million copies worldwide.
More information: The Guardian
With Shirley remaining as the group's manager, Hill as producer and Martin as co-songwriter, they worked with record company A&R head Bill Kimber to continue the group's success, determined that they would not become another Eurovision one-hit wonder. A follow-up single was recorded amid promotional tours and the group's image was revamped.
In May, the single Piece of the Action was released. The song boasted a contemporary pop sound and high production values, in contrast to the rock and roll style of Making Your Mind Up. As Baker has stated: Our follow-up single was nothing at all like Making Your Mind Up, it was a good, strong, contemporary pop song, Piece of the Action became an immediate hit and quickly rose to No.12 in the UK charts. It also charted highly across Europe.
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| Bucks Fizz in Eurovision, 1981 |
Buoyed by this success, the group launched into recording their debut album with producer Andy Hill. Released in July, the self-titled album also became a top 20 hit in the UK charts, as did their third single, One of Those Nights.
In November 1981, Bucks Fizz represented the UK at the World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo, where they achieved the Best Song Award and fifth place overall with their song Another Night. The song was released as a single there and went on to be included on their second album.
In 2005, BBC viewers were invited to vote on the most memorable Eurovision moments ever. Bucks Fizz won with the Making Your Mind Up skirt-rip routine.
More information: Smooth Radio
Making Your Mind Up
is a song by the British pop group Bucks Fizz. It was the winner of the
1981 Eurovision Song Contest and was composed by Andy Hill and John
Danter. Released in March 1981, it was Bucks Fizz's debut single, the
group having been formed just two months earlier.
Following its win in the contest, the song reached No.1 in the UK and several other countries, eventually selling in excess of four million copies. It launched the career of the group, who went on to become one of the biggest selling acts of the 1980s and featured on their debut, self-titled album.
From 2004 to 2007 the BBC used the name Making Your Mind Up for their Eurovision selection show in honour of the song.
In late 1980, songwriter Andy Hill composed Making Your Mind Up with an eye to entering it into the A Song for Europe finals the following year. Working with his then girlfriend, Nichola Martin, a singer and music publisher, she encouraged him to collaborate with musician John Danter, who she could sign up to her publishing company, therefore owning half the rights of the song, Hill was already signed to another publisher. Martin claims that Danter's input was minimal, the song being essentially a Hill composition.
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| Bucks Fizz in Eurovision, 1981 |
In October 1980, they set about recording a demo of the song featuring the vocals of Hill, Martin and Mike Nolan, a singer Martin had worked with before.
In December, the song was chosen out of 591 submitted entries to be one of the eight songs performed in the contest. Martin then realised she had to quickly assemble a group to perform the song for the contest, based around her and Nolan. With the song already entered under the name Bucks Fizz, Martin and future group manager, Jill Shirley recruited Cheryl Baker, Bobby G and Jay Aston to the line-up, with Martin herself dropping out.
The song was alongside another Hill/Danter composition, Have You Ever Been in Love, which would be performed by Martin and Hill under the name Gem.
Martin and Shirley secured a recording deal with RCA Records and Hill spent a week at Mayfair Studios in London with the group recording the song and its B-side. Backing vocals on the record were supplied by Alan Carvell, who also went on to be one of two backing singers in the Eurovision performance.
More information: Metro
The song was co-published by Paper Music, which was a year-old publishing company owned by Billy Lawrie -himself a songwriter and brother of singer Lulu. Choreographer Chrissie Whickham, a former member of dance troupe Hot Gossip, spent two days with the group working on the dance routine.
The lyrics of the song are largely meaningless, although it can be argued that they are about making the decision to commit to a serious relationship.
On 4 April, the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest was staged in Dublin. In a close contest throughout the voting procedure with no less than five different songs taking the lead at various stages, Making Your Mind Up managed to secure a victory with 136 points, beating second-placed Germany by a small margin of four.
Making Your Mind Up went to No.1 in the UK following the victory and remained there for three weeks, becoming one of the biggest selling songs of the year. It also saw the group in high demand throughout Europe, with the single hitting No.1 in many countries and charting in the top ten in Australia.
The record eventually sold four million copies worldwide. The single began a run of 20 UK hits for Bucks Fizz and was quickly followed up by Piece of the Action and debut album, Bucks Fizz. At the end of the decade, Making Your Mind Up was No.47 in the UK top selling singles of the 1980s.
More information: The Sun
And try to look as if you don't care less
But if you want to see some more
Bending the rules of the game will let you find
The one you're looking for
And then you can show that you think you know
You're making your mind up.
But if you want to see some more
Bending the rules of the game will let you find
The one you're looking for
And then you can show that you think you know
You're making your mind up.
Bucks Fizz
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