It’s 30 years since Bucks Fizz brought the Eurovision Song Contest back to Blighty with their fully-charged, skirt-ripping performance of Making Your Mind Up.
Since then the band’s line-up has changed countless times but stalwart Bobby G remains.
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of that Eurovision victory the group will be touring the UK, kicking off with a date in Epsom, Bobby’s home town.
It’s also where he cut his teeth as an entertainer.
“I was quite late getting into the music business,” he says. “I spent at least the first 10 to 12 years of my working life as a builder in and around Epsom and Ewell.
“I was doing the building during the day and in the evening I would go and work in pubs and clubs as a jobbing entertainer.”
That led to cabaret and later a role in the West End musical Jesus Christ Superstar before he was spotted and picked to be in Bucks Fizz, a band manufactured solely for the 1981 Euovision Song Contest.
Competing in the Eurovision, he says, is slightly surreal. “You’re representing your country. The reward is like the Olympics. When you win the Olympics you win a gold medal and the prestige for your country.
“There’s an immense amount of pride. You get the backing and support of everyone because you’re going to do something for your country.”
And he readily admits it changed his life. Following their win, the band went on to have a string of hits, including land of Make Believe and My Camera Never Lies.
The group has evolved over the years as singers have come and gone, with the current line-up featuring Bobby’s wife Heidi, Paul Fordham and Tammy Choat.
The new show, says Bobby, is a bit of a reflection on the story of Bucks Fizz and the band's musical influences.
And coming to Epsom is also quite apt: “I’m getting back to where it all started.”
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