Mention the name ‘Bucks Fizz’ to most people and they will probably mention the group’s 1981 Eurovision Song Contest winner, ‘Making Your Mind Up’, or possibly the title of this anthology. However, there is so much more to Bucks Fizz than that! As a teenager I devoured their singles and albums, pictures of the group adorned my bedroom walls and I saw them at venues from Lancashire to London. I am not being the least bit ironic when I say that Bucks Fizz made some of the finest pop music of the eighties, and if all you know are those aforementioned singles then be prepared for a few surprises in this collection.
Disc One presents all twenty of Bucks Fizz’s hit singles as it always should have been done: the original single mixes, properly remastered and in chronological order. In the year following their Eurovision victory Bucks Fizz advanced in leaps and bounds and with 1982’s ‘My Camera Never Lies’, a sleek, brilliant, modern pop song with an inventive vocal arrangement, they deservedly scored their third #1 single. ‘Now Those Days Are Gone’ became the third top ten hit from the group’s superb second album Are You Ready. It features lush harmonies, a gorgeous lead vocal from Mike Nolan and remains a live favourite to this day.
Bucks Fizz were backed by a core of top-notch musicians including Graham Broad on drums and Pilot/Alan Parsons Project guitarist Ian Bairnson, (check out his solo on ‘London Town’). Ian also co-wrote ‘If You Can’t Stand The Heat’ and ‘Run For Your Life’, two excellent singles lifted from the group’s glorious third album, Hand Cut. ‘When We Were Young’ represented such a dramatic shift in style that reviewers on Radio One’s new releases programme ‘Roundtable’ were unable to discern who it was, but Warren Bacall’s dramatic and lyrically bleak song about a woman getting older and losing her looks, afforded Jay Aston the opportunity to shine and gave Bucks Fizz their ninth top twenty hit. Another excellent Warren Bacall song, ‘Rules Of The Game’, was less successful but was a further indication of just how far Bucks Fizz had evolved visually and sonically by the end of 1983.
In 1984 Bucks Fizz began an enduring flirtation with AOR. ‘Talking In Your Sleep’, a rock-oriented cover version of a US top five hit for The Romantics, returned the group to the top twenty. A fine cover of John Parr’s ‘Magical’ in 1985 took Bucks Fizz further in that direction and saw the group’s tour being reviewed in Kerrang magazine (I’m not joking, I still have the clipping!) and between these two singles ‘I Hear Talk’ and ‘You And Your Heart So Blue’, two excellent songs written by the group’s principal songwriter Andy Hill with long-time collaborator Pete Sinfield, deserved to be much bigger hits than they were. Perhaps the finest AOR moment for Bucks Fizz was another Hill/Sinfield song, ‘Heart Of Stone’. It later became a hit for Cher, and the title track of her 1989 album, but, as much as I love Cher, the Bucks Fizz original was far better. Sorry Cher!
The second disc features nineteen B-sides from the group’s 7” singles. Sadly, this means that fantastic tracks like ‘Invisible’ (originally planned as their tenth single and follow up to ‘When We Were Young’) and the excellent ‘When The Love Has Gone’ – both criminally wasted as 12” bonus tracks – are excluded in favour of much weaker material such as ‘Pulling Me Under’ or ‘Don’t Stop’. There are still great moments to enjoy though. ‘Taking Me Higher’ with its rattling rhythm and overlapping harmony vocals in the verses is one I have always loved. ‘Stepping Out’ is a fine pop song that was really too good to be just a flip side. Cheryl Baker’s self-penned ‘Where Do I Go Now’ is sensitive and rather lovely, but the highlight for me is another track originally planned as a single: ‘Oh Susanne’. It’s a perfect fusion of Andy Hill’s melodic sensibilities and Warren Bacall’s dark, melodramatic style. It also contains one of my favourite-ever lyrics in a pop song, ‘So if you hear her calling in the dead of night, don’t answer/Cos a broken heart and a broken mind spells danger’. I have never not loved this song. If you don’t like ‘Oh Suzanne’ then I’m afraid we can’t be friends.
Disc Three is excellent and collates most of the group’s essential 12” mixes. Ones to watch out for here are the Extended Club Mix of ‘London Town’, which I quite literally wore out my copy of at the time, ‘When We Were Young’ and the heavily percussive ‘New Beginning’, a top ten hit from 1986 and the group’s biggest hit to feature Shelley Preston. Shelley also features on ‘Keep Each Other Warm’. The Long Version (also included in this form on the group’s Writing On The Wall album), remains definitive, with delightful, spine-tingling harmonies towards the close of the song.
A fourth disc contains instrumental backing tracks for all of the group’s singles. If you’re a Bucks Fizz anorak/obsessive like me then it’s fascinating to get under the bonnet of these songs to hear how they are constructed and discover parts previously hidden in the mix. Alternatively, if you’re having a Bucks Fizz karaoke night then this disc would be perfect, but otherwise disc four is one for the completists.
Disc Five features a number of previously unreleased extended remixes, consisting of five singles and six flip sides or album tracks. As a fan it’s always fun to hear familiar songs broken down and reassembled. Highlights for me are an extended version of ‘January’s Gone’, a beautiful and underappreciated song from the I Hear Talk album, and ‘Took It To The Limit’, which has been crying out for an extended version ever since it was first released over forty years ago. I even tried creating my own version once by editing sections of the track together on cassette when I was a teenager…but that’s another story.
The Land Of Make Believe: The Definitive Collection is a worthy addition to the Bucks Fizz discography. Discs One and Three are an ideal hits collection for the casual fan whilst discs four and five offer something for hardcore Fizz fanatics. ‘Definitive’? No. For that you would need to include songs that were singles in other territories (‘Easy Love’, ‘Are You Ready’), songs that were intended as singles (‘Invisible’, ‘Love In A World Gone Mad’) and selected album (and non-album) tracks such as ‘I’d Like To Say I Love You’ or Jay’s version of ‘Indebted To You’. That’s a compilation (or box set) waiting to be made one day.
Bucks Fizz made some tremendous pop records. They were far more eclectic than they were ever given credit for, and rarely received the credibility that they deserved. Some of their stellar moments are captured on this collection but so much more from Bucks Fizz/The Fizz lies beyond. My hope is that The Land Of Make Believe sparks a renewed appreciation of a group I have always loved, and introduces some new fans to a body of work that has brought me so much pleasure in my own life.
- Reviewed by David Waterfield.
- The Land Of Make Believe: The Definitive Collection is released via Cherry Pop Records on 27th October 2023.
- Bucks Fizz Official Website (Bobby G)
- The Fizz Website (Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan, Jay Aston)
Track Listing:
Disc One – The Singles
1 Making Your Mind Up
2 Piece Of The Action
3 One Of Those Nights
4 Land Of Make Believe
5 My Camera Never Lie
6 Now Those Days Are Gone
7 If You Can’t Stand The Heat
8 Run For Your Life
9 When We Were Young
10 London Town
11 Rules Of The Game
12 Talking In Your Sleep
13 Golden Days
14 I Hear Talk (7 Inch Mix)
15 You And Your Heart So Blue
16 Magical
17 New Beginning
18 Love The One You’re With
19 Keep Each Other Warm (7 Inch Mix)
20 Heart Of Stone
Disc Two – The B Sides
1 Don’t Stop
2 Took It To The Limit
3 Always Thinking Of You
4 Now You’re Gone
5 What Am I Gonna Do
6 Taking Me Higher
7 Stepping Out
8 Shot Me Through The Heart
9 Where The Ending Starts
10 Identity
11 When We Were At War
12 Don’t Think You’re Fooling Me
13 Where Do I Go Now
14 Pulling Me Under
15 Oh Suzanne
16 In Your Eyes
17 Too Hard
18 Give A Little Love
19 Here’s Looking At You
Disc Three – Original Extended Mixes
1 My Camera Never Lies
2 If You Can’t Stand The Heat
3 When We Were Young (Extended Club Version)
4 London Town (Extended Club Mix)
5 Rules Of The Game
6 I Hear Talk (Extended Version)
7 Talking In Your Sleep (Extended Version)
8 You And Your Heart So Blue
9 New Beginning (Extended Version)
10 Love The One You’re With (Extended Version)
11 Keep Each Other Warm (Long Version)
12 I Hear Talk (1986 Extended Version)
Disc Four – Backing Tracks
1 Making Your Mind Up
2 Piece Of The Action
3 One Of Those Nights
4 Land Of Make Believe
5 My Camera Never Lies
6 Now Those Days Are Gone
7 If You Can’t Stand The Heat
8 Run For Your Life
9 When We Were Young
10 London Town
11 Rules Of The Game
12 Talking In Your Sleep (Monitor Mix)
13 Golden Days
14 I Hear Talk
15 You And Your Heart So Blue
6 Magical
17 New Beginning
18 Love The One You’re With
19 Keep Each Other Warm
20 Heart Of Stone
Disc Five – The Unreleased Extended Mixes
1 Making Your Mind Up
2 Took It To The Limit
3 Land Of Make Believe (1991 Dance Funk Remix)
4 If You Can’t Stand The Heat (Alternative Version)
5 January’s Gone
6 In Your Eyes
7 Too Hard
8 I Need Your Love
9 Don’t Turn Back
10 New Beginning (Dub Funk)
11 Love The One You’re With (Dub Funk)
