Instead it’s as Cheryl, Mike & Jay formerly of Bucks Fizz that Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan and Jay Aston take to the road. Cheryl freely admits the name issue is galling for the former Eurovision winners, but they that’s not stopping them from “bringing back the Bucks”, as the tour is called. “We got back together in 2004 in one form or another, and the original three of us got back together in 2008,” Cheryl said. “We just thought ‘Let’s see what happens!’ We hadn’t actually seen Jay for 25 years. We just did a couple of gigs, and it worked so well that we thought ‘Let’s bite the bullet!’ We did have a bit of contention about the name though. The girl that owns the name Bucks Fizz was actually at primary school when we were being Bucks Fizz!” The girl in question later became a member of the band and is wife to the missing fourth member Bobby G: “In their opinion, they think they own the name, and that’s not right.” Sadly for Cheryl, it isn’t only in their opinion: “It’s the letter of the law. It’s a trademark, and we went to a trademark hearing. But as far as the trademark clerk was concerned, it was a registered name and it was theirs and that was that. “It mattered a lot at the start. We lost a lot of work as a result. But this year is our busiest year in decades. Things are really going well.” A big tour stretches ahead: “It is going to be a world tour. That’s still in negotiation. We are talking to Europe, and we are talking to Australia. There are dates in, and it is looking good.” Nostalgia is a big part of the success: “But at the gigs and festivals, we always give a good show, and we do all the songs that everyone recognises. And we still whip the skirts off!” The skirt-whipping remains their trademark: “It was just an accident really, to start with. It was discussions about costume, whether short or long dresses, and in the end, we just said ‘Let’s have both!’ We just thought we would rip the top one off. It came from just a silly throw-away line, “I don’t think we would have won without it. We only won by four points. Without the skirt-whipping, you would have been speaking to someone called Lena from Germany, not me!” As for whether the UK will ever win again, Cheryl believes we’ve got a better chance than usual this year – simply because Australia are guest participants. “And we are bound to get some votes from them!” These days, the endlessly-political voting is a huge turn-off to viewers – as well as something that counts hugely against the UK. “It happened when we won, but on a much smaller scale. You always knew Spain and Portugal would vote for each other and that Norway and Sweden would vote for each other. But with the break-up of the Soviet Union, you have now got all these hundreds of states coming in all voting for each other and not really knowing western music at all.” Cheryl’s prediction for this year? “We aren’t going to come bottom, and we aren’t going to come top. I think we are going to be somewhere in the middle.” The trio, with Bobby McVay as guest vocalist for the tour, play Horsham’s Capitol on Friday, May 22. Tickets on 01403 750220 or www.thecapitolhorsham.com.