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    Court Still Making Mind Up On Bucks Fizz Spat

    A hearing officer is still making his mind up about who should be allowed to use the band name Bucks Fizz.

    The final decision in the long running dispute will given in five to six weeks.

    Members of the Eurovision winning group, Cheryl Baker , Mike Nolan and Jay Aston believe they should have the right to call themselves the original band name.

    They are currently touring as The Original Bucks Fizz after the fourth bandmate, Bobby G, used the name to set up another group with three new members.

    One of them is his wife, Heidi Manton, who owns the copyright of the name Bucks Fizz .

    Evidence from both sides was heard during the hearing at The Intellectual Property Office in London.

    It was told how fans had been left "disappointed" after discovering they had booked tickets for a band featuring only one member of the original band.

    Meanwhile Bobby G, real name Robert Gubby said he felt entitled to claim his band was the "original" act because it had a "direct connection" right back to when it was first founded.

    Comparing the situation with acts like The Drifters and The Supremes, he said bands often had line-up changes throughout the years and this did not mean the public was being deceived.

    As Baker went into court, she said: "We hope the right result comes out, for the public, to stop the confusion, and if that result is that we win, then that is how it should be."

    Aston said it was a "terrible shame" they found themselves in this position, adding "we shouldn't be here".

    Their lawyer, Dean Dunham, was hopeful they would be successful.

    He said: "What Bobby G does is nothing like what Bucks fizz was...you can't mislead the great British public, if you do, it is wrong."

    While the agent for The Original Bucks Fizz, David Hahn, remarked to Sky News Online: "It is unfair that Bobby G should be operating with three unknowns. It is not fair on the Bucks Fizz fans."

    A notice on the website for Bobby G's group says: "Bucks Fizz(R) are solely owned and managed by Heidi Manton.

    "The current members of the group, as featured on this site, are the only group authorised to perform under the Registered Trade Mark of Bucks Fizz(R).

    "Any other group(s) performing under the name Bucks Fizz are in infringement of the Registered Trade Mark and are not representing Bucks Fizz(R)."

    Bucks Fizz formed in 1981 to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest which they won with the song Making Your Mind Up.

    Their performance famously included a dance routine where the girls' skirts were ripped off halfway through.

    Bucks Fizz are not the first to get into a dispute over band name rights.

    Three members of The Bay City Rollers have been forced to tour as Les McKeown's Legendary Bay City Rollers.

    While Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath have also been embroiled in similar legal arguments.

     

    12 comments

    • zippo  •  10 months ago
      How can you have Bucks Fit without Cheryl and Jay ????????
    • Mike  •  10 months ago
      As for the courts,well "I hope that there comes a times for making their minds up!!"
    • gabby e  •  10 months ago
      he carried on with bucks fizz but its not bucks fizz without the other three-whoever owns the name u want to see bucks fizz not bobby g and 3 no names
    • Rockin' T.C.  •  10 months ago
      Cheryl, Jay & Mike should be allowed the name "Bucks Fizz" , because they have at least 3 of the original 4 members & that's as close as you'll get to the original group who made the records & won the Eurovision Song Contest.
      Maybe Cheryl, Jay & Mike should be joined by Shelley Preston (who took over from Jay Aston when she left) who featured on some of Bucks Fizz last hit records.
      while Bobby G. should be billed as Bobby G. (ex- Bucks Fizz) & group or some other name, because he would be the only original in this line up.
      He's not that much of a singer anyway, he has certainly lost whatever voice he did have back then.
    • jerome  •  10 months ago
      He's an orange, and they are bubbles. the only people popping the champs will be lawyers. Bucks Fizzes alround landlord
    • Paul Donovan  •  10 months ago
      it would like the rolling stones going on tour with only keith richards from the original line up
    • Adrian T  •  10 months ago
      The original people who were part of Bucks Fizz should have the name such as Cheryl, Mike Nolan and Jay and not Bobby G, he comes over as look at me and what I can do his wife had no part in the original Bucks Fizz so she should let go of any rights she has and find another name for her and her husbands band. After what Mike Nolan went through when they had the serous accident a few year ago he is lucky that he pulled through so I think after all said and done he should be the one with the name of Bucks Fizz.
    • straight talk  •  10 months ago
      What's in a name? you're only as good as your last performance. Cheryl is probably the best known out of all of them followed by Mike Nolan and will probably be remembered beyond Buck's Fizz, so rename them with her/his/their name in the lead then people will get what they want.

      For instance, one of my all time favourite bands were the Fortunes and I saw them before The Lead Singer & Bass Guitarist, Rod Died and since he was the voice of the Fortunes, that's all that mattered but now he has gone and his position filled by another, albeit a good singer and still an excellent band, they will never be the Fortunes in the original format and I personally wouldn't spend the money that these bands command for 2nd best, there is no substiute for the real thing, no matter what their name may be, so Bobby G, give it up you haven't got the main ingredients
    • William Garland  •  10 months ago
      WHAT? NO, YOU CAN,T HAVE"BUCKS FIZZ", THAT SONG GOT ME THROUGH SOME TOUGH TIMES, EVERY TIME I FELT BLUE," MAKING YOUR MIND UP" MADE ME SMILE,AND IT WAS A GOOD DRIVING SONG..GET A BAND OF YOUR OWN,YOU CAN STILL DO THE SONG, ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS CHANGE THE NAME OF YOUR BAND..IS IT REALLY THAT IMPORTANT?,,STOP BEING FOOLISH AND CHILDISH..I SHALL KEEP MY RCA 45 AND HOPE THAT SOME DAY MY GRANDCHILDREN WILL DANCE AROUND MY LIVING ROOM TO MAKING YOUR MIND UP..THANKS FOR THE GREAT SONG..DJ BILLYGEE FL..
    • gary  •  10 months ago
      The winners can call themselves Bucks Fizz - the losers will be Fucks Bizz.
    • jaqueline  •  10 months ago
      As I understand it ,names and titles of books or whatever else cannot be subject of copyright. Trademark maybe - but not copyright. A precedent was set about 8 or 9 years ago when Wet Wet Wet tried and failed in high court to prevent the press using its title and thereby preventing any disclosures of matters relating to the group. Trademark copying - Yes. Copyright - No!
    • Ivana Havitoff  •  10 months ago
      the fizz went out of bucks so long ago - poor rita