The Fizz

It’s been a pivotal year for pop group The Fizz after original Bucks Fizz stars Cheryl Baker and Jay Aston recruited two new singers following Mike Nolan’s retirement last year.

Mike was replaced by singers Matthew Pateman and Nick Mager, making the group a quartet once again. It’s been a busy year for the new line-up of The Fizz with a tour of the UK, a cruise gig, Butlins weekenders and a special appearance at BBC Radio 2 In the Park last weekend.

Music News caught up with the band at the gig in Hylands Park, Chelmsford, just before they performed on the DJ stage with Paddy McGuiness. Paddy had invited the band to fulfil a lifelong dream - to rip off Cheryl’s skirt during that iconic moment during their Eurovision winning song, Making Your Mind Up, and he wasn’t disappointed!

You’re about to perform Making Your Mind Up on the stage with Paddy McGuinness on stage at the Radiio 2 DJ tent, aren’t you?
Cheryl - Paddy said on the radio that he wanted to rip my skirt off, so we thought we’d better let him have the opportunity then, so that’s why we’re here!
Matthew – It should be a giggle, we haven’t rehearsed it or anything.

What do you love about playing at festivals like this?
Cheryl: This is really special, it’s so brilliantly organised. It’s so great - we’ve got a dressing room opposite Jessie J and I’m such a Jessie J fan. For the likes of The Fizz, aka Bucks Fizz, usually we’re at an 80s event so we see the same faces all the time. This is great because it’s such a mix of genres and ages.
Nikk: It’s eclectic.
Jay: We need a bit more of that on radio stations – they could play Land of Make Believe a lot more!

What have the last few months been like for you, Nikk and Matthew, since you joined the band?
Nikk – Life’s got a lot more fizzier since being in The Fizz! It’s been unreal.
Matthew – Working with these two, Jay and Cheryl, is an honour. Today’s Radio 2 in the Park gig is one of the best things we’ve done so far.

Were you always fans of The Fizz?
The first record I ever bought was The Land of Make Believe, when I was 10, and then I also saw them when they opened Burtons in Bromley, and I queued up for hours around the block, and I got them to sign my autograph book. And so now, being in the band, I got goosebumps at the soundcheck today!
Nikk – I had a dream that when I was 13 years old, Cheryl Baker was in the playground of my school, so random but there you go! I’ve got no idea what it means, and now I’m in a band with her. Dreams do mean things.

For you Cheryl and Jay, it’s a big change since Mike Nolan retired from the band last year. How are you enjoying band life with Nikk and Matthew?
Cheryl – Personally speaking, as much as I adore Mike, and I went to see him a couple of days ago, Mike is really happy, not working. We’re doing The Stag in Sevenoaks which is a bit of a favourite of our’s in November and Mike is coming to see the band there.
Jay – He hadn’t wanted to gig for a few years so we were dragging him around, really after the lockdown, he didn’t want to come back. So it’s now an enormous difference really. There’s now two vocals, it’s changed the routines back, and they’re a joy to work with.

You were stranded on a cruise recently, weren’t you Cheryl?
Cheryl - I was stranded on a boat in the middle of the ocean off the west coast of Africa. Someone was ill and then there was something wrong with the boat. We were supposed to dock where I was going to get off, fly home and we had a gig, and it didn’t happen, it couldn’t dock for three days, and so Mike stood in for me, which was really good of him.
Jay: He had a problem with the skirt ripping though - he didn’t look quite right in it!

That famous song Making Your Mind Up being the Eurovision winner – you gave a lot of support to Remember Monday this year. Do you think we’ll ever win Eurovision again?
Jay: Yes I do. I think Sam Ryder sort of won because obviously we had to support Ukraine, and that was fair enough, but he had huge points and that’s given us hope that it can be achieved in the not-too-distant future. Hopefully not another 20 years though.
Cheryl: We did think before that “Ah is there any point, are we ever going to win again”, and then Sam really bucked the trend.
Jay: I think there’s a likeability element and I think it isn’t just the song, it’s just something that fits. There’s so many people involved, so many countries and styles and tastes that you really don’t know what they’ll go for, but I think that Sam ticked all the boxes.

Talking of likeability – there was a process to sign Matthew and Nikk up. Did you get instant likeability vibes during the auditions?
Jay: They were annoyingly likeable! There was a couple of other guys that were shorter and we thought “they might work”, but realistically when we saw Matt and Nikk together, they blew them out of the water.

Did you have to change much up with the songs, because there’s now two guys again, whereas you were used to one male voice?
Cheryl: That was what was beautiful because we could go back to how it used to be – there was always four vocals and the routine was designed for four people. And Matt and Nikk have got such fantastic voices.

Matt and Nikk - what’s your favourite song to sing out of the Bucks Fizz catalogue?
Nikk: Out of the three number ones, my favourite is The Camera Never Lies and funnily enough I’d never heard it until the audition, I love it.
Matt: It’s good to sing because it’s actually quite complicated, but it’s just exciting.
Nikk: Land of Make Believe is cool too.
Matt: Land of Make Believe gives me goosebumps still, every time, and the audience are the same.

If you could sing in any other band in the world, of any time, which band would you have wanted to be in?
Cheryl: Fleetwood Mac because my style of music is not pop, that’s not what I love. I love that West Coast America kind of sound.

You should do some cover songs of Fleetwood Mac, Cheryl.
Cheryl: Well, when I do solo shows I have to sing a bit of Bucks Fizz at the end, but I sing Joni Mitchell and songs like that.
Jay: She’s a great Joni Mitchell singer. I wouldn’t be too far off Cheryl’s choice because I do love Fleetwood Mac. I’d like Abba’s success! I would like that – I like a bit of Dancing Queen!
Matt and Nikk: We’re both George Michael fans.
Matt: I would have loved to have been in Wham! He’s my hero definitely.
Nikk: Freddie Mercury as well for me.