Cheryl Baker still has 'bits of road buried in leg' after crash that nearly killed Bucks Fizz

In a single skirt-ripping moment, Bucks Fizz stole the Eurovision Song Contest crown with an unforgettable performance of their number one hit Making Your Mind Up. Victory was theirs the moment Bobby Gubby and Mike Nolan ripped Cheryl Baker and Jay Aston’s skirts off, revealing shorter skirts underneath. Cheryl, now 72, says: “Three minutes and a skirt rip changed our lives forever.” Now, 45 years later, rebranded as The Fizz, they’re 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 at Butlin’s Skegness , before headlining an 80s weekender, she adds: “Eurovision, it's pretty incredible. I’ve done it twice. I did it in 1978 and came 11th, which was at that time the worst the UK had ever done.” 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: “To win it was phenomenal, life changing, magical. Now it’s 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’s a big love fest.” 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: “Tragically, we still rip our skirts off!” Matthew, who was in 90s boyband Bad Boys Inc, adds: “I watched the win in 81 at my nan’s, stood in front of the telly, copying the routine. Land of Make Believe was the first record I ever bought, too - and now I’m in the band. Having that childhood memory of Bucks Fizz, and now being on stage about to rip her skirt off - it’s surreal. I get goosebumps.” But life has not been plain sailing for Bucks Fizz’s 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. Cheryl says: "I still have a piece of the motorway in my leg. People have said over the years, ‘Do you know that you’ve got pen on your leg?’ 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’re 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.” Jay continues: “It changed us completely. We were on such a whirlwind of busy success, travelling all over the world . On such a high that, somehow, the impact was almost like someone was saying ‘stop.’ 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’re travelling so much. “We 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.” Jay left Bucks Fizz in 1985 and had to sell her London house to pay the £400,000 legal fees involved. She was replaced by Shelley Preston. Pursuing a solo music career, Jay started a performing arts school, worked as a vocal coach, and rejoined the group in 2009 on Preston’s 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. She says: “Cancer 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’s like having an elastic band constantly in my mouth, pulling. I can only taste on one side of my mouth.” Cheryl, who enjoyed a successful TV career, hosting hit show Record Breakers from 1987-1999, says: “Coming 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’s all changed.” Matthew interjects: “Nostalgia is like a drug. You’re transported back to a time when you didn't have a care in the world. Doing your homework, then watching Top of the Pops.” Nikk rose to fame after competing on talent show Popstars: The Rivals, in the boyband Phixx. He says: “Music is a universal language we all understand, it brings us all together. And the more uncertain the world is, the more important nostalgia is.” Determined to get a ‘piece of the action’ Cheryl is loving the 80s nostalgia-fest. She says: “We’re having more fun than ever before. It was very serious back in the day and we had no say in it whatsoever.” Jay adds: “We were complete puppets, we were pushed and pushed. We had about three days off in the first year. Now we call the shots.” While they miss Mike, who left two years ago, the new line-up has re-energised them. Cheryl says: “These boys, they want to do the gigs. We’re back to all singing, all dancing.” Nikk adds: “For this kind of job, you’ve got to be full of beans”. While Mike simply lost his love for the band, there was some acrimony between Cheryl and Bobby. She says: “He found it difficult to work with me and I found it difficult to work with him.” Bobby did some gigs with them when the band reformed, but it didn’t work out. Cheryl adds: “On 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.” And being 72 is not going to hold Cheryl back. She says of the combined ages of The Fizz: “We are already 192… 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: “We’ll be ripping off our skirts until we’re 100.” *For more information about The Fizz, including the new single A Crazy Shot in the Dark and upcoming shows, see thefizzofficial.com . Follow the band on Instagram @thefizzcmjn