Oh let our hearts go free

Sad news. Another Nolan Sister has departed for the sprung dancefloor and glitter curtains of the Fabulon Country Club "Dinner'n'Dance Nights" today - Linda [far left, above], once tastefully described in the tabloids as "The Naughty Nolan" because some of the publicity shots for the launch of her attempt at a solo career were considered a bit rauchy.

The poor girls are cursed, it seems. Their lead singing sister Bernie (Bernadette) died with breast cancer in 2013, the eldest Anne was also treated for the disease, and sadly Linda was given the all-clear in 2011 after years of treatment, but the cancer returned.

In memory of happier times, here are the girls with their follow-up to the mega-hit I'm In The Mood For Dancing - live on the Lena Zavaroni Show!

The Nolans - Don't Make Waves

RIP, Linda Nolan (23rd February 1959 – 15th January 2025)!

I feel the pressure buildin' up

Very often on Tacky Music Mondays I feature some cheap-as-chips girly group or other, from Holland, Italy or Spain.

Lest we forget, we in the British Isles produced our own cheesy version in the 1980s, as a close-harmony singing group of Irish colleens (brought up in Blackpool) transformed themselves from "The Nolan Sisters" into the much more trendy Nolans and had a string of hits. I don't remember this one (thankfully), however...

The Nolans - Breakin' Out (Summertime Special, 1986)

Have a good week, dear reader.

Ooh I'm giving it all tonight

Another long, busy, soul-destroying week in the office drags its way slowly to a close, and we need to gather our skirts to celebrate the weekend to come in an appropriate fashion.

This Sunday being Paddy's Day - the day when for some strange reason, people across the globe think that somehow a small damp island off the coast of Great Britain [a source of huge problems for us, even now; but that's another story] is the "land of their fathers", and get together to drink "Black Gold" (aka Guinness) and generally act like idiots - I thought I'd combine the two celebrations with one of the early 1980s' most remarkably enduring (and mega-popular to this day) Disco hits.

It is, of course, by those good-Irish-Catholic-girls-gone-"bad", The Nolans - and everyone can sing along to every single word of it...

The Nolans - I'm In The Mood For Dancing

Thank Disco It's Friday!

Myth-busting facts about Paddy's Day "traditions":

• Porter or stout is a drink invented in London around the 1720s (possibly earlier); Arthur Guinness only started marketing his brand of the drink in Dublin in 1778.
• Saint Patrick was Welsh.
• There was no real link between the 5th century missionary activities of St Patrick and the Shamrock until a botanist wrote about it in 1726.
• Scotland as whole has a higher percentage of ginger people than Ireland.
• Many believe that the Paddy's Day celebrations in March were in fact invented as a way to lift the usual fasting restrictions of Lent and provide an excuse for a day's drinking.
• St Patrick's Day parades began in North America in the 18th century but did not spread to Ireland until the 20th century.

Have a good craic, whatever you get up to, dear reader!

Ooh from head to my toes

It's my first day back in work after the extended break. Bizarre, I know - one day, then another weekend.

Speaking of weekends... Still feeling the after-glow of our grand New Year's Eve party, there is still partying to look forward to (I'm at Fascinating Aida tonight, and a celebration "do" tomorrow, both for our friend Jim's birthday) - so what better way to celebrate than with a trip in our magic time machine back thirty-five years?

For this week in 1980, the ever-lovely Nolans (newly evolved from their origins as close-harmony-singing "good Catholic girls" The Nolan Sisters, having discovered the joys of Spandex) first entered the UK charts with the song that would forever remain a staple of family weddings and nights at G-A-Y nightclub even to this day - it's I'm In The Mood For Dancing!

Thank Disco It's Friday...

The Nolans - I'm In The Mood For Dancing

I'm in the mood for dancing, romancing
Ooh I'm giving it all tonight
I'm in the mood for chancing
I feel like dancing
Ooh so come on and hold me tight

Dancing, (dancing) I'm in the mood, babe
So let the music play
Ooh I'm dancing, (dancing) I'm in the groove, babe
So get on up and let your body sway (body sway)

I'm in the mood for dancing, romancing
You know I shan't ever stop tonight
I'm in the mood for chancing
I feel like dancing
Ooh from head to my toes
Take me again
And heaven who knows
Just where it will end

So dance, yeah let's dance, come on and dance
Dance, yeah let's dance, come on and dance

Ooh I'm in the mood for dancing, romancing
Ooh I'm giving it all tonight
I'm in the mood for chancing
I feel like dancing
Ooh so come on and hold me tight

Dancing, (dancing) just feel the beat, babe
That's all you've gotta do
I can't stop dancing (dancing)
So move your feet, babe
'Cos honey when I get up close to you (close to you)

I'm in the mood for dancing, romancing
You know I shan't ever stop tonight
I'm in the mood, I'm in the mood
I'm in the mood to dance
Yeah let's dance, come on and dance!

They just don't write lyrics like that any more.

Actually, they probably do.

The Nolans on Wikipedia

Special?

Very often on Tacky Music Mondays I feature some ghastly girlie group or other, from Holland, Italy or Spain.

Lest we forget, we in the British Isles produced our own cheesy version in the 1980s, as a close-harmony singing group of Irish colleens transformed themselves from "The Nolan Sisters" into the much more trendy Nolans and had a string of hits. I don't remember this one (thankfully), however...

The Nolans - Breakin' Out (Summertime Special, 1986)