Cheryl Baker has done so many things in her career from winning Eurovision with Bucks Fizz to presenting high-profile TV programmes such as Record Breakers, you’d think that nothing would phase her.
But as she prepares to bring her new one-woman show, Wearing Cheryl Baker, to the Lowry next week she’s approaching it with trepidation.
A clue to her being nervous is in the show’s title.
"Usually when I go on stage I’m wearing Cheryl Baker,” she said, “But away from the stage or the studio I’m Rita Stroud. Cheryl can go on stage at the Royal Albert Hall and leap about and perform. Put Rita in there and I’d be so nervous.
“That’s what’s different about the show I’m doing at the Lowry; it’s a solo show with Rita telling the stories.”
For more than 50 years Cheryl has balanced her stage life with her home life.
“I quite like having two personas,” she laughed. “I quite like both of them. It means I can do the things that other people do. When I go to have my nails done or go to Asda I’m Rita. It’s only when I’m in the dressing room putting on the make-up that I become Cheryl.”
The seeds for the stage show which covers her entire career have been sown in recent years when she has been invited to give talks on several cruises.
“It’s always gone down so well on the ships that I wanted to see what would happen if we took it into theatres,” she said. “If it takes off then maybe we’ll extend it and do a bigger tour.
“It does make me incredibly nervous working on my own. For a start, I don’t have the safety net of that band around me. But I always like to challenge myself - and then ask myself why. But I suspect there’s a lot of people in this industry like that.”
The show will be a chronological look at Cheryl’s career featuring video footage and photos, many which have not been seen before.
“I know my life, I know what I’ve done,” she said. “That’s one bonus. And I never script anything when I do these shows.
“There will be certain anecdotes that I have in the back of my mind, not that they ever come out exactly the same, but there’s certain anecdotes I have which are quite funny. Apart from that I literally speak as I think about it.
“It is a story with an awful lot to tell, I’ve done a lot in my life so I have to edit it as I’m going along because of time.”
Over the past 18 months Cheryl has been working on her autobiography.
“I’ve actually enjoyed it,” she said. “I suppose I’ve always been a storyteller. I used to win prizes for my writing at school, But you do wonder is my story going to be interesting to anyone else?
“My editor has read everything and says it’s excellent so I trust her judgement.”
For the stage show, Cheryl says that there will be ‘some singing’ as well as a chance for the audience to ask questions.
“I like it when the audience comes up with a question you didn’t expect,” she said.
Given that she has done so much in her career, what does Cheryl see as particular highlights?
“Winning Eurovision in 1981 of course,” she said, “but also my time presenting Record Breakers with Roy Castle.
“We would regularly get seven million viewers for a show that was shown at 5pm on a Friday. It also gave me the chance to do some amazing things like wing walking and to attempt some world records.”
Cheryl set a world record for the longest rope slide, descending from Blackpool Tower, and was part of the longest ever Riverdance line.
As well we looking at some of these massive highs, Cheryl will not stray away from some of the lows of her career.
“I will talk about the coach crash we had in 1984; I will show some photos of it and they will make me cry,” she said.
Bucks Fizz were travelling to a gig in Newcastle in December that year when their coach collided with a lorry. Singer Mike Nolan was thrown through the windscreen and was left in a coma.
“We could have lost Mike but thankfully he slowly recovered,” said Cheryl. “But I think if I’m going out there talking about my life I have to talk about something that majorly affected me like this. It could have ended my life so easily.”
Cheryl continues to perform as a member of The Fizz alongside Jay Aston and Matthew Pateman and Nikk Mager. They were one of the big hits at least year’s Brit Fest and have festival dates lined up this summer.
“That’s my happy place,” she said. “I can go on stage and not feel nervous, that’s Cheryl Baker. When I do the intimate shows; that is really Rita Stroud talking about Cheryl Baker.
“Maybe that’s why when I do these solo shows it goes down so well. Maybe people can relate to me. They’ve seen me on the telly or whatever but when I do my show they see the stripped down Rita Stroud version of me and they appreciate it.
“When you look at my career some people might think of me as a pop star or a presenter. I’d say I suppose I come under the umbrella of entertainer.
“But the funny thing is I don’t think of myself under any of those things, I just think I am who I am. I do what I do and I really enjoy what I do but I’m just an ordinary person with an extraordinary life.”
Wearing Cheryl Baker is at the Lowry, Salford on Wednesday, March 25. Details from www.thelowry.com
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