One Step Further: The UK's Post-Bucks Fizz Choreography Template

MAY 15 1982 · 12:00

Bardo · "One Step Further" · United Kingdom · 1982 Placement: 7th · Score: 76 · Language: English · Composers: Simon Jefferis · Venue: Harrogate International Centre · Host: Harrogate, United Kingdom · Type: performance innovation · Broadcast: color crt On April 24, 1982, inside the Harrogate International Centre, the UK's home-ground entry arrived in the shape of Bardo, a freshly assembled male-female duo consisting of the singers Sally Ann Triplett and Stephen Fischer. 'One Step Further' was an uptempo pop song built around a simple hook, and the staging was explicitly modelled on Bucks Fizz's formula: bright colours, synchronised kicks and turns, a short choreographed sequence designed to read instantly on camera. Triplett wore a flared white outfit; Fischer wore a white suit with a coloured stripe; the four bars of synchronised high-kicks were the performance's visual signature. The UK finished seventh with seventy-six points — a disappointing result for a home-ground entry. The song had commercial success in the UK, reaching number two on the singles chart, but the Eurovision underperformance raised early questions about whether the Bucks Fizz template could be replicated on demand. It was, in retrospect, the first clear test of the British Eurovision choreography-first approach that would persist through the Katrina and the Waves era. Context Sally Ann Triplett had already represented the UK the previous year in the group Prima Donna, finishing third, making her one of the relatively few performers to have appeared at Eurovision twice in successive years. Legacy Bardo's 1982 is remembered as the first clear failure of the British post-Bucks Fizz choreography-first template. Triplett had a significant subsequent West End musical theatre career. Mythology Bardo are sometimes described as having been hastily assembled specifically for Eurovision; the duo was indeed formed for the contest but both members had significant prior professional backgrounds.