80s pop icon was ‘on the dole and living in a bedsit’ after being forced to sell home in battle with former band

BUCKS Fizz star Jay Aston suffered a fall from the limelight after a row with her bandmates that left her broke. Jay was the youngest member of the pop group which sang their way to victory in the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest with their song Making Your Mind Up. Bucks Fizz singer Jay Aston spoke of selling her home and living in a bed sit after leaving the band Credit: PA:Press Association Bucks Fizz won Eurovision in 1981 Credit: Rex Features She won the coveted song prize at just 19 years old alongside her bandmates Bobby G, Cheryl Baker and Mike Nolan. Riding high from their Eurovision win, things started falling apart for Bucks Fizz when a bus crash left Cheryl and Mike severely injured. Sign up for the Showbiz newsletter Thank you! Jay left the band the following year, but not before having an affair with music producer Andy Hill who was married to Bucks Fizz creator, Nichola Martin. The fallout from her departure was nuclear with the rest of the band allegedly threatening to “ruin” Jay. But they entered into litigation when Jay quit in 1985 Credit: Getty The band eventually reformed in 2004 Credit: Rex Features “When I left the band, without going into too much detail, they made it very clear that they would ruin me,” she said on the podcast, Best: Suddenly Single. “‘You’ll never work again and we can do it. [We] made you and we can break you’.” What followed was lengthy litigation which led to Jay being forced to sell her £400,00 house in Kensington and then ending up on the dole, living in a bedsit. “It was a really, really grim time. But as a result of that, no one would sort of touch me. They thought I was trouble,” she said. Most read in Showbiz “Everything that could have been said was said. And I was ill, I was trying to recover from a coach crash and I had all the litigation.” Jay went on to open a performing arts school and left show business, but eventually reconciled with some of her bandmates. In 2004 Jay, Mike and Cheryl got together to form the spin-off The Fizz, Bobby did rejoin them in 2015, but left three years later. Over the years they’ve released four albums, with three entering the charts. Comment now