Bucks Fizz were not just a pop band. Bucks Fizz were a phenomenon. From the moment Bucks Fizz walked onto that Eurovision stage in Dublin in 1981 and stopped the entire continent dead in its tracks, Bucks Fizz became something that went far beyond music, far beyond chart positions, far beyond the famous skirt moment that the whole world still talks about today. Pop, Glitter and Heartbreak is the book that the Bucks Fizz story has always deserved and never had until now. This is the complete, unfiltered, deeply human account of how four ordinary young people, Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan, Bobby G and Jay Aston, came together almost by accident, conquered Eurovision, dominated the British charts with timeless classics like Making Your Mind Up, The Land of Make Believe and My Camera Never Lies, and lived through experiences so extraordinary, so painful, so joyful and so brutally real that no fiction writer could have invented them. Bucks Fizz gave the world some of the greatest pop songs ever recorded and this book finally gives Bucks Fizz the full, honest, breathtaking story that Bucks Fizz and every single person who has ever loved Bucks Fizz so richly deserves.
But Pop, Glitter and Heartbreak does something that no previous account of Bucks Fizz has ever dared to do. It goes all the way in. It goes behind the sequins and the smiles and the sold out tours and the television appearances and it shows you the real Bucks Fizz, the complicated, vulnerable, courageous, flawed and utterly compelling real Bucks Fizz that existed beneath the surface of the public image. You will discover the childhoods and early struggles of each Bucks Fizz member before the fame arrived. You will live through the overnight transformation that winning Eurovision brought to Bucks Fizz and feel the dizzying, terrifying reality of what sudden global fame actually does to four young people who were completely unprepared for the scale of what was about to hit them. You will go inside the recording sessions and the tour buses and the dressing rooms and the arguments and the romances and the friendships that made Bucks Fizz tick during the golden years. And then you will face the devastating 1984 coach crash that shook Bucks Fizz to its absolute core, threatening lives, testing friendships and forcing every single member of Bucks Fizz to dig deeper than they had ever had to dig before. The Bucks Fizz story is a story of real people facing real consequences and this book holds nothing back.
And it does not stop there. Because the Bucks Fizz story did not stop there. Pop, Glitter and Heartbreak follows every chapter of the Bucks Fizz journey including the painful lineup changes, the bitter legal battles over the Bucks Fizz name that tore relationships apart and made headlines for years, the struggles of each individual Bucks Fizz member to find their footing as the hits became less frequent and the world moved on, and the deeply personal private battles that Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan, Bobby G and Jay Aston each fought in their own ways away from the spotlight. This is the book that asks what really happened to Bucks Fizz and then actually answers that question with honesty, depth, compassion and the kind of gripping storytelling that will keep you reading long into the night. Whether you grew up with Bucks Fizz, discovered Bucks Fizz later or are coming to the Bucks Fizz story completely fresh, this book will move you, surprise you, make you laugh, make you cry and leave you with a profound appreciation for everything that Bucks Fizz was, everything that Bucks Fizz went through and everything that Bucks Fizz continues to mean to the millions of people around the world who carry their music in their hearts every single day.
