David Van Day | |
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![]() Van Day performing in 2012 | |
Background information | |
Birth name | David Paul Day |
Born | Brighton, Sussex, England | 28 November 1956
Genres | |
Occupation(s) |
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Instrument(s) | Vocals |
Years active | 1974–present |
Formerly of |
David Van Day (born David Paul Day, 28 November 1956) is an English singer, songwriter and politician who was formerly a member of the pop vocal duo Dollar. He was also in the 1970s vocal group Guys 'n' Dolls (with his Dollar partner Thereza Bazar), and two latter-day line-ups of Bucks Fizz in the 1990s and 2000s.
Van Day was born David Paul Day on 28 November 1956 in Brighton, Sussex, England. Having been a member of song-and-dance troupe The Young Generation, [1] in 1974 he successfully auditioned for the then-new vocal group Guys 'n' Dolls. The group had a few hits, and Van Day began a romantic relationship with bandmate Thereza Bazar. Keen to embark on a solo career, Van Day was sacked from the band in 1977, as was Bazar shortly afterwards.
Van Day and Bazar then decided to perform together, and formed a new duo, Dollar. The band recorded and toured from 1978 to 1983, then again from 1986 to 1988. They had several top-ten hits in the UK, including "Love's Gotta Hold on Me" and "Give Me Back My Heart". He also had a brief solo career as a movie actor, appearing as a devious handyman in Michael Armstrong's 1983 horror anthology film Screamtime , opposite Dora Bryan and Jean Anderson. After a final top-ten hit, "O L'amour", in 1988, Dollar broke up for a second time. Bazar left the music industry and moved to Australia.
In the early to mid- 1990s, Van Day toured as Dollar with a succession of female singers. In the late 1990s he joined one incarnation of the pop group Bucks Fizz, alongside original Bucks Fizz member Mike Nolan. With both of these acts he recorded and released budget-priced CDs of re-recorded hits. Neither sold well and the Bucks Fizz tracks received widespread criticism from fans. [2]
In 2003 Van Day (with Bazar) competed in the ITV1 reality show Reborn in the USA . He was the first act voted off. He caused controversy during the show, accusing producers of biased editing, [3] and arguing with singer and fellow contestant Sonia, [4] accusing her of "being crafty and cunning to try to save her own skin". [5]
In 2008, Van Day was a semi-finalist on the eighth series of British reality television show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! , [6] finishing in fourth place.
Van Day hosted the eleven-part reality series Brides on a Bus on Wedding TV. [7] He also briefly appeared in the series Celebrity Coach Trip on Channel 4, and was interviewed with wife Sue Moxley on The Jeremy Kyle Show .
In 2007, Van Day stood as a Conservative Party candidate for Brighton and Hove City Council in the East Brighton ward, but neither he nor the other two Conservative candidates was successful in gaining a seat. [8]
In 2018, Van Day stood for a seat on Thurrock council in Aveley and Uplands Ward as a Conservative. [9] The election was won by MEP Tim Aker. [10] In 2019, Aker resigned and Van Day won the subsequent by-election. [11] He lost the seat to Labour by 20 votes in May 2022. [12]
In the 1990s Van Day married a model called Maria. They have two children together, Amber Van Day and Olivia Van Day. He started a relationship with the beauty editor of The Sun newspaper, Sue Moxley, but initially ended it on the Channel 5 TV show The Wright Stuff , [13] They reunited soon after and married in Orsett, Essex, on 21 February 2010. [14] [15] They are currently living together in South Ockendon, Essex.
During the early 2000s Van Day operated a burger van with his best friend Les Cole in Brighton, earning him the nickname "Burger Van Day" [16]
In late October 2016, Van Day suffered a heart attack. He was taken to a hospital in Essex, England, where a stent was fitted. [17]
Reborn in the USA is a British reality television show broadcast on ITV, in which ten British pop acts were transported to the US, where they were supposedly not known in the hope of revitalising their music career.
Rita Maria Stroud, known professionally as Cheryl Baker, is an English singer and television presenter. She was a member of pop group Bucks Fizz, which won the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest and, for legal reasons, now performs under the name the Fizz. The group had 20 singles reach the UK top 60 between 1981 and 1988, including three number one hits with "Making Your Mind Up" (1981), "The Land of Make Believe" (1981) and "My Camera Never Lies" (1982). Baker left the group in 1993. She had previously represented the UK at the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest as a member of the band Co-Co.
Bucks Fizz were an English pop group that achieved success in the 1980s, most notably for winning the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Making Your Mind Up". The group was formed in January 1981 specifically for the contest and comprised four vocalists: Bobby G, Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan and Jay Aston. They received attention for the dance routine which accompanied the song, in which the male members of the group ripped the female members' outer skirts off to reveal much shorter mini-skirts beneath. The group went on to have a successful career around the world, but the UK remained their biggest market, where they had three No.1 singles with "Making Your Mind Up" (1981), "The Land of Make Believe" (1981) and "My Camera Never Lies" (1982) and became one of the top-selling groups of the 1980s. They also had UK Top 10 hits with "Now Those Days Are Gone" (1982), "If You Can't Stand the Heat" (1982), "When We Were Young" (1983) and "New Beginning " (1986). Bucks Fizz have sold over 50 million records worldwide.
Thurrock is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Jackie Doyle-Price, a Conservative.
Guys 'n' Dolls were a UK pop group, initially comprising a three-girl/three-boy line-up and later becoming two-girl/two-boy. In the mid-1970s, they scored UK top-ten hits with the singles "There's a Whole Lot of Loving" and "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me". In the late 1970s they found further success in the Netherlands, where they had a number-one hit with "You're My World".
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. 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.
Michael Mary Nolan is an Irish singer who is best known as one of the four original members of the British pop group, Bucks Fizz, who now perform as The Fizz. He was born in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, but brought up in the UK, where he still resides. As a member of Bucks Fizz, he won the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest and achieved 20 UK top 60 singles between 1981 and 1988, including three number one hits. He was a member of the group until 1996. Since 2004, he has been a member of the group The Fizz, along with other former Bucks Fizz members Cheryl Baker, Shelley Preston and Jay Aston.
Bobby G, also known as Bobby Gee, is a member of pop group Bucks Fizz, best known for winning the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest and for achieving three UK number one hits with "Making Your Mind Up" (1981), "The Land of Make Believe" (1981) and "My Camera Never Lies" (1982).
Dollar were a pop vocal duo from the United Kingdom, consisting of David Van Day and Canadian-born Thereza Bazar. The duo were successful in the late 1970s and 1980s, achieving ten UK top-40 singles, including the top-10 hits "Love's Gotta Hold on Me" (1979), "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" (1979), "Mirror Mirror" (1981), "Give Me Back My Heart" (1982) and "O L'amour" (1987).
Shelley Preston is a singer who is famous for being a former member of the pop group Bucks Fizz, when she replaced Jay Aston in June 1985. Her biggest hit as a member of the band was the 1986 track "New Beginning", which reached the UK top ten. She left the group in 1990. From 2004 to 2009, she was a member of the group The Original Bucks Fizz, along with former Bucks Fizz members Cheryl Baker and Mike Nolan.
Theresa Lorraine Bazar is a Canadian-born singer, best known as a member of the pop duo Dollar.
"One of Those Nights" is a 1981 single by UK pop group Bucks Fizz. Written by Steve Glen, Mike Burns and Dave Most, it was the group's third single and their third UK top 20 hit.
Shooting Stars is the debut album by the pop duo Dollar.
The Paris Collection is the second album released by the pop duo Dollar. It was released in December 1980, their first album on WEA Records.
The Dollar Album is the third and final studio album by pop vocal duo Dollar, released on 22 October 1982 by WEA Records. The album featured five Top 40 hit singles, including their biggest "Mirror Mirror".
Josh James Dubovie is a British singer. Dubovie is most notable for having represented the UK at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest, held in Oslo, Norway, in May 2010, after winning the UK national selection competition with "That Sounds Good to Me", a song by Mike Stock, Pete Waterman and Steve Crosby.
"Mirror Mirror" (also titled as "Mirror Mirror (Mon Amour)") is a song by British pop duo Dollar, released in 1981 as the second single from their third album, The Dollar Album. The song was co-written by Trevor Horn and Bruce Woolley, and produced by Horn.
"Love's Gotta Hold on Me" is a 1979 single by British pop duo Dollar. It was released in July 1979 and became one of the duo's biggest hits, peaking at number four in the UK Singles Charts. The song was written by the duo themselves and produced by Christopher Neil. It was included on their debut album Shooting Stars.
Timür Mark "Tim" Aker is a British politician who was a Member of the European Parliament for the East of England region. He was elected as a UK Independence Party (UKIP) candidate in 2014. He was head of UKIP's Policy Unit from August 2013 to January 2015, and was UKIP's candidate for the Thurrock constituency in the 2015 general election, coming third in a close 3-way election. Aker left UKIP and joined the Thurrock Independents where he also successfully sought election a councillor in 2018, before later joining the Brexit Party.
The Thurrock Independents, also known as the Thurrock Independents Party (TIP), was a localist and populist British political party based in Thurrock, Essex, England. It was formed in January 2018 when seventeen Thurrock councillors, including then-East of England MEP Tim Aker, broke-away from the UK Independence Party (UKIP) after claiming to have grown disillusioned with party politics. At its height in 2018, the party was Thurrock Council's official opposition group and had two members in the European Parliament. It declined after multiple defections and election defeats and was left with only one councillor after the 2023 elections. The party disbanded later that year.