Jay Aston

Jay Aston is a British singer and performer who first comes to prominence with Bucks Fizz, the group that wins the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin with “Making Your Mind Up”. The band goes on to score a series of hit singles, including three UK number ones: “Making Your Mind Up”, “The Land of Make Believe” and “My Camera Never Lies”. Aston leaves Bucks Fizz in 1985 after a period of tension within the group and later returns to perform with related line-ups under the Bucks Fizz name.

Early life and training

Aston is born in Purley, Surrey, and comes from a theatrical and circus family. Her father is a comedian, her mother is a former dancer who performs as her husband’s straight man, and both parents also work as acrobats. Her brother Lance appears at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1980 with Prima Donna. Aston trains as a dancer, singer and actress at the Italia Conti School of Speech and Drama, and performs on stage during her teens, mainly as a dancer.

Bucks Fizz

Aston is one of the four original members of Bucks Fizz when the group forms in 1981 for Eurovision. Alongside its competition win, the group becomes one of the top-selling acts of the 1980s. Aston also contributes creatively to the group, designing many of its stage outfits and helping create its visual identity. In 1983 she sings lead on “When We Were Young”, one of the group’s biggest hits. She also releases a keep-fit album, Shape Up and Dance, in early 1984.

During this period she is injured in a road accident while on tour, and also survives an attack while out jogging. By 1985 she leaves the group in acrimonious circumstances. A legal dispute follows, including an injunction that prevents her from starting a solo career for a period and forces her to sell her Kensington home before the matter is settled.

Solo work and other projects

After leaving Bucks Fizz, Aston lives for a time on Housing Benefit in Croydon and later returns to writing and recording music. Encouraged by Marcella Detroit, she releases the single “Naked Phoenix” in 1993 and records an album of songs the same year. She also contributes music to the film Dirty Weekend. In the late 1990s and early 2000s she tours with her own band, Aston, performing rock and pop material, much of it self-written. She is also part of the cover band Monster Boogie in 2002.

In 2003 she releases Alive and Well, an album of 13 tracks co-written with her husband, guitarist Dave Colquhoun, whom she marries in 1999. In 2006 she issues Lamb or Lizard, a three-disc box set released through her website and featuring recordings from before and after her Bucks Fizz years.

Later appearances and teaching

Aston sets up The Jay Aston Theatre Arts School in 2001, teaching children aged 2 to 17, and continues to teach dance and performance there in Kent. She appears in an episode of Never Mind the Buzzcocks in 2002, in a Comic Relief version of “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” in 2007, and on the National Lottery to promote a Bucks Fizz release. She also appears on a television programme celebrating 1980s acts and later takes part in the second series of The Voice, singing Muse’s “Time Is Running Out” but not being selected by the judges.

Her acting work includes small roles in To the Manor Born and Citizen Smith, and she plays Claudia Brite in the film The Last Days of Edgar Harding. In 2015 she appears as the Fairy Godmother in a pantomime production of Cinderella.

Personal life

Aston marries Dave Colquhoun in Greenwich, London, in 1999, and they have a daughter, Josie Alexandra, born in 2003 in Bromley. Her mother dies in 2007 and her father in 2009. Aston is diagnosed with mouth cancer in 2018.

Gene Loves Jezebel

A second artist with this name is associated with the gothic rock band Gene Loves Jezebel, including Jay Aston’s Gene Loves Jezebel.