ASTON
Jay

Jay Hilda Aston is a British singer and occasional songwriter. She was a member of the British pop group Bucks Fizz from 1981 to 1985 and now under The Fizz. She was the youngest member of the group's original line-up, aged 19 when they won the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest. During Aston's membership, the group had 12 of their 13 UK top 40 hit singles, including three number one hits. Since 2009, she has performed alongside fellow original Bucks Fizz members Cheryl Baker and Mike Nolan. The group used to perform under the name the Original Bucks Fizz but are now known as the Fizz.

Bucks Fizz

Aston was, along with Baker, one of the four members of Bucks Fizz when they were formed in 1981 to compete in that year's Eurovision Song Contest. They won with "Making Your Mind Up"; the song went to number one in many countries, including the United Kingdom. The group went on to become one of the top-selling groups of the 1980s, scoring many hit singles and albums over the next few years, including two more British number ones: "The Land of Make Believe" and "My Camera Never Lies". Aston designed many of the group's stage outfits. In 1983 she performed the lead vocal on the song "When We Were Young", which went on to become one of the group's biggest hits.

Aston became known for her love of physical exercise, and released a keep-fit album in early 1984 called Shape Up and Dance. She was the victim of an attack while out jogging,[when?] but fought off the attacker and recovered from the incident.

In December 1984, while on tour, Bucks Fizz were involved in a tour coach crash, in which Nolan was seriously injured. By this time, tensions within the group had risen to the point that Aston was eager to leave, but was still under contract. However, the following year, she left the group in acrimonious circumstances. Aston became the subject of many newspaper headlines on her sudden departure where it emerged that she had had an affair with the group's producer, Andy Hill, who was also the husband of Bucks Fizz creator Nichola Martin. The group's management company took Aston to court under the terms of her contract, but dropped the case in the midst of the trial and agreed to release her from it. However, an injunction was placed on her against commencing a solo career, which took two years to settle and resulted in her selling her Kensington home. In addition, all eight cases were settled out of court after the case was investigated by the attorney general.

After Bucks Fizz

Forced to sell her house, Aston was living in a small bedsit in Croydon on housing benefits in the early 1990s. Her brother had married Shakespear's Sister star Marcella Detroit who encouraged her to record new songs. In 1993 Aston released a single, "Naked Phoenix", and recorded an album of songs. This same year she contributed a song to the controversial Michael Winner film Dirty Weekend, although Aston walked out of the film's premiere in disgust. By 1995 she was living with her parents but was still writing and recording music. Around this time she met and began dating guitarist Dave Colquhoun, whom she married in 1999. During the latter part of the 1990s and early 2000s, Aston toured with her band Aston, performing rock and pop tracks, many of which she wrote herself.

In 2001, she set up a performing arts school in her name, The Jay Aston Theatre Arts School, teaching children aged between two and 17.

In 2002 she was involved in a cover band called Monster Boogie, and she also appeared in an episode of Never Mind the Buzzcocks as one of the mystery guests in the identity parade round. The following year she released an album, Alive and Well, featuring 13 tracks, all of which she co-wrote with her husband.

The glory years of Bucks Fizz, mainly focusing on Aston, were portrayed in 2005 in a drag lip-synch show, Night of a Thousand Jay Astons, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe after its début in London. Aston was played by one female and three male performers. The life of Aston was told through an outrageous parody, and was described in review as "hilariously over the top". The show has also been staged at other venues, including the Comedy Theatre in Dublin in May 2006 and the Soho Theatre in London in summer 2007.

Another solo album, a three-disc box-set Lamb or Lizard, was released in July 2006 through her website, which featured recordings from before and after her work with Bucks Fizz.

In March 2007, she appeared in the Comic Relief video "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" a comic cover version of the Proclaimers song, dancing with the other three original members of Bucks Fizz, and also Shelley Preston, who had replaced Aston in the group in 1985. This was the first time that Aston had met the group since 1985. She said that relations between them had improved, but not to the extent that they could work together as a group again: "I'm kind of on good terms with all of them individually. But as a band, it just doesn't work, and it's a shame, but it doesn't. There's always been two camps – Cheryl's camp and Bobby's camp, and I was the one in Bobby's camp, and Mike was always in Cheryl's camp."

A new Bucks Fizz CD with a bonus DVD, The Very Best of Bucks Fizz, was released in May 2007. Aston appeared alone on the National Lottery to promote the album. In August 2008, Aston once again joined up with Bucks Fizz members Mike Nolan, Cheryl Baker and Shelley Preston, when she appeared on "Pop Goes The Band", a television show celebrating 1980s acts – with one episode devoted to the reuniting of Bucks Fizz. This programme was shown on Living TV in March 2009.

In May 2013, Aston appeared on the second series of UK singing talent show The Voice, singing Muse's "Time is Running Out", but was not chosen by any of the judges. Aside from her duties in the Fizz, Aston has also appeared in pantomime a number of times. In 2019 She appeared as the Wicked Stepmother in Snow White at the Queens Theatre, Barnstaple.