ARCHIVE INTERVIEW 1

This Section of the website contains old interviews from various newspapers and magazines from the last 25 years, the interviews will be replaced on a regular basis

This Interview is from Record Mirror December 24th 1983 & is called....

HOW FAR SHOULD A GIRL GO? 

Cheryl - " I wouldn't  go as far as Jay"

EVER SINCE Mike & Bobby captured the hearts of Europe By Ripping Off the girls' skirts as a finale to 'Making you mind up' Bucks Fizz have come across as an ever increasing split in the skirts and an ever expanding hairy chest from the two macho men in pop.

Cheryl Baker knows what i  mean. "Yeah my camera never lies" she laughs as we look through some typically saucy pics of the band "what a joke that is". But it's not you see. Sure Jay's pouting is a little over the top, and when Cheryl runs her hand up Bobby's leg you know full well he'd much rather be at home with his wife. However Bucks Fizz have that indefinable attraction. It's the same attraction that is Kim Wilde's left eye, Chrissie Hynde's voice and Cheryl's upturned nose. "Sex  is important to the presentation of the Bucks Fizz" agrees Cheryl, "You need to attract weather sexually or romantically. Everyone tries to attract and that's the easiest way". "We all like to be attractive, to interest the opposite sex, well each to his own of course" She Laughs "I wouldn't go as far as Jay does. I'll wear a split skirt and have my arms showing, but my sexy image only goes as far as i want it to, Jay goes further."

Bands that win Eurovision tend to do a swift impression of the Titanic, but Bucks Fizz have survived by keeping up with the Georges, as Cheryl explains. "We've gained a lot of fans with our sexy image whereas at the beginning we only appealed to young children and mums and dads. Although we've changed our image, they've kept with us and we've gained this other mob who didn't really care at the beginning."  But don't mums and dads object to the nation's youth being corrupted by those ever shrinking Bucks Fizz costumes? "No not really" She smiles. "the only trouble we had was when Mike was in the newspapers telling of his exploits" -  footloose and fancy free is how Cheryl politely describes Mike Nolan. "He got a few letters from parents saying they didn't want their kids to see Bucks Fizz again."

OF COURSE images can backfire, badly, and this may account for the dreadful experience Jay suffered when she was attacked by a maniac whilst jogging.  "Jay coped with that episode really well." Says Cheryl. "It shook her without doubt because she fought him off which was good. She let herself calm down and get over it completely before she told the papers, she doesn't jog anymore." Cheryl  too knows the problems of blokes who drink their ages in pints and set about intimidating women. "Because of our position, you do get fellas come up to you in pubs and say stupid or very personal things and that is hard for my boyfriend to take. There's been times when he's really wanted to thump someone and I've had to stop him. They might say 'Cor I wouldn't mind having a bunk up with you' or they'll say they hate Bucks Fizz. They're just a bunch of wallies and I've learnt to disregard what they say."  During the General Election Bucks Fizz came under attack due to Jay's remarks about unemployment, and her revelation that she would be voting for Maggie Thatcher and Co. Do the rest of the group share her political views I wonder? "I'm very confused politically."  Cheryl says "It seemed like political blackmail when the Falklands started and everyone's favour went to Maggie Thatcher, I hate the way people's favour seems to change with the weather. I find it all rather confusing. I don't agree with nuclear missiles but on the other hand, if Russia's got them what do we do? Do you say 'OK we're unarmed, you can blow us up' or do you say 'Well we've got them as well so if you fire one at us we'll fire one back'?"

WHAT ABOUT getting Bucks Fizz songs to say a little more, I ask? "I'd like to do some more meaningful songs but unfortunately songs like that don't tend to sell  and really we're in the business, aren't we? I used to buy albums by people who wrote more from the heart when I was a secretary, and I wrote loads of lyrics then. I've still got them so maybe I'll do something with them after Bucks Fizz," she says. Cheryl's a lady who has Obviously thought about the future, She know that at almost three years and a greatest hits album, Bucks Fizz may be on the downward slope of popularity. Will the band end up on the cabaret circuit ripping off their skirts for drunken business men, I ask? "I refuse to do cabaret  because I did it for so many years before Bucks Fizz and it's soul destroying." She says. "When Bucks Fizz eventually come to fizzle out (Cheryl's joke not  mine) I'd like to do something else. My career won't end with Bucks Fizz. I'd like to produce and write and i want to act. I'd love to be a sit com. What I don't intend to do is run Bucks Fizz dry and waste years when I could be doing something else.

INTERVIEW - ANDY STRIKE