Bucks Fizz name dispute settled

Bobby G (second left) is the only original member remaining

Former Eurovision winners Bucks Fizz have resolved a long-running dispute about the rights to the group's name.

Original member Bobby G won the right to keep the group's name, which had also been used by former member David Van Day.

While Mike Nolan was working as Bucks Fizz we weren't too upset as he was an original member

Derek Taylor, Bucks Fizz manager

In an out-of-court settlement, it was resolved that Van Day would now tour under the name David Van Day's Bucks Fizz Show.

Bobby G's manager Derek Royal told BBC News Online he was pleased that a "massive confusion" had been avoided.

Bucks Fizz won the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest with Making Your Mind Up, which was also one of their three UK number one hits.

The original line-up was Bobby G, Jay Aston, Cheryl Baker and Mike Nolan - who was replaced by former Dollar singer Van Day in 1995.

Van Day later left and started a group with Nolan, and began working as Bucks Fizz.

The group had a series of hits in the early 1980s

"While Mike Nolan was working as Bucks Fizz we weren't too upset as he was an original member," said Mr Taylor.

"But when David Van Day wanted to use the name on his own we had to act."

The act's New Beginning company, which owns the copyright to the group's title, served an injunction against Van Day in June 2001.

The following month a judge refused to stop Van Day using the Bucks Fizz name, leaving two groups working under the same title.

Now the matter has finally been resolved out of court.

Injured

Mr Taylor said the group, of whom only Bobby G remains from the original line-up, is still busy "in this country and abroad".

Mike Nolan, who was badly injured in a coach crash in December 1984 while on tour with the group, left the revived Bucks Fizz he had been leading with Van Day in 2001 after a dispute.

Cheryl Baker has become a TV presenter, and she has also compèred a yearly children's dance show called The Stars In Our Eyes at Her Majesty's Theatre in London.

Jay Aston continues to tour as a singer with her own group, Aston, and runs a stage school for children.