It is more than three decades since Bucks Fizz won Eurovision and topped the charts with the song Making Your Mind Up and its fun skirt-ripping dance routine but the band’s appeal has endured.

Three of the original four – Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan, Jay Aston – are back on the road on their biggest tour since their 80s heyday, which includes shows at Dartford’s Orchard Theatre on April 6 and Croydon’s Fairfield Halls on April 29.

For singer Cheryl, 61, it will more or less be on home turf and she was delighted to be talking about it to News Shopper.

“I used to live in Eltham so I had News Shopper every week and I miss it. We haven’t got an equivalent paper now – I’m only half an hour away in Kent – and I really miss it. I miss the local news.”

She added: “We’re coming out there to give them what they expect. The dance routines are the same.

“We’ll do all the hits – we had 20-something singles and three were number ones, another four were top ten, another four top 20s.

“Fizz is one of those groups where when you listen it’s like ‘oh I remember that one’.”

Though she has worked extensively on TV (in shows like Record Breakers) and on stage (most recently the musical version of Happy Days), Cheryl said the band is ‘where my heart is’.

She said: “It’s all I ever wanted since pre-school. All I ever wanted to be was a singer in a group, not solo, and when I saw Sandy Shaw win the Eurovision Song Contest, that was my absolute ambition.

“For me, I just relive that iconic moment every time we step on stage and it’s an absolute joy for me.

“It was the moment that changed my life. It was less than two minutes long, that song, and that silly song with that piece of Velcro on my skirt changed my life completely.”

The only snag for the band now is the name – former member Bobby G’s wife owns the rights to Bucks Fizz so the band, which also includes 1983 Eurovision entrant Bobby McVay, now goes by the rather cumbersome moniker Cheryl, Mike and Jay formerly of Bucks Fizz.

Cheryl said: “Bobby G and I were just like oil and water – we never got on, we never mixed. It was really difficult working with him.

“There is animosity – I can’t say there isn’t. With Bobby McVay in the group, he’s just lovely.”

News Shopper:

The band was a product of Eurovision and Cheryl is still enthusiastic about the competition.

She said: “Forgetting the fact it is a competition because we haven’t done very well for years, it’s actually a really good show. It is so spectacular now – the special affects and lighting and the huge arenas.”

Once again, our area has a local representative with Bianca Nicholas from Beckenham making up half of duo Electro Velvet.

Cheryl said: “I have got mixed feelings but at least it’s something new and we’re not going down that Engelbert Humperdinck route.

“My only concern is that he is a little bit old. I would rather it was someone young and gorgeous. I like the idea of the song. It reminds me of that bit in Star Wars and they’re in the bar and the music in that.

“She looks really lovely. That’s good, she’s a local girl. All I would say is go on and enjoy it.”

Cheryl, Mike and Jay formerly of Bucks Fizz are at Dartford’s Orchard Theatre on April 6 and Croydon’s Fairfield Halls on April 29. Go to orchardtheatre.com or Fairfield.co.uk