29. Linda Nolan

[Bibliogryphon 9,597]

13 hours ago, NotTheNagsHeadReading said:

 

Harsh but fair, for a bunch of sqauwkers who had a brief burst of fame in the early 80's and then a bit of a run off a tragic TV show in the 00's they have outsized media coverage. Their agent is a genius.

The Nolens were effectively what you fill summer season bills with when UK holidays were the norm. I saw them supporting Mike Yarwood in Blackpool in 1980. Clever marketing have lifted their profile above this albeit not their talent.

[natquen 46]

18 hours ago, NotTheNagsHeadReading said:

 

Harsh but fair, for a bunch of sqauwkers who had a brief burst of fame in the early 80's and then a bit of a run off a tragic TV show in the 00's they have outsized media coverage. Their agent is a genius.

 

I think I've posted this here before, but I'm a big music fan, born in the late 70s, from Australia... and even I had never heard of The Nolans until the mid-late 2000s, after encountering some weirdo (and not in a good way) from the UK on a music forum who is a big fan.  Granted, they (I later discovered) only had one real hit here, when I was 2.

 

The UK seems to love tabloid gutter trashy acts/nobodies, so I'm not that surprised they still have a profile there.

[Toast 16,161]

15 minutes ago, natquen said:

The UK seems to love tabloid gutter trashy acts/nobodies

 

The tabloid media thinks we do.

[natquen 46]

1 minute ago, Toast said:

 

The tabloid media thinks we do.

 

Obviously not all UK-ers, but a sizable chunk...  relative to other, otherwise-similar nations.  I speculate it stems from being keenly interested in the lives of the Royal Family.

[En Passant 3,743]

I speculate that gross over-generalizations often come from the same folk that read tabloids. Go figure.

[Beachy Head 33]

23 hours ago, NotTheNagsHeadReading said:

 

Harsh but fair, for a bunch of sqauwkers who had a brief burst of fame in the early 80's and then a bit of a run off a tragic TV show in the 00's they have outsized media coverage. Their agent is a genius.

 

Ultimately why did not die with a bit of dignity.  Look at Bowie, Alan Rickman,  Diana Rigg etc.  You didn't see them selling their chemo photos to the highest paying tabloid!

[Bibliogryphon 9,597]

7 minutes ago, Beachy Head said:

 

Ultimately why did not die with a bit of dignity.  Look at Bowie, Alan Rickman,  Diana Rigg etc.  You didn't see them selling their chemo photos to the highest paying tabloid!

The three you mention were all probably comfortable leaving behind a body of work as their legacy. Aside from ten minutes singing the refrains of I'm in the Mood for Dancing and Don't Make Waves which she merely sang one fifth of, there is little substantial to leave as an artistic legacy

[natquen 46]

15 hours ago, En Passant said:

I speculate that gross over-generalizations often come from the same folk that read tabloids. Go figure.

 

OK, who is the American equivalent of The Nolans?  The Australian equivalent?  Sorry, only the UK cares about people like them who had 2.5 hits 40 years ago and who were 'big in Japan'.

 

Sure, one hit wonders (and I know The Nolans weren't, in the UK) can be fun and fondly-remembered, but nowhere else on earth do they make front page news with their ongoing cancer battles and love lives 40 years after the fact and get stints on daytime talk shows.  That is a uniquely British phenomenon.

[CaptainChorizo 1,990]

The only American equivalent I can think of Is The Osmonds(albeit that's a bunch of brothers and 1 sister).

[Gooseberry Crumble 5,347]

40 minutes ago, CaptainChorizo said:

The only American equivalent I can think of Is The Osmonds(albeit that's a bunch of brothers and 1 sister).

The Pointer sisters perhaps?

[Lafaucheuse 4,052]

1 hour ago, natquen said:

 

OK, who is the American equivalent of The Nolans?  The Australian equivalent?  Sorry, only the UK cares about people like them who had 2.5 hits 40 years ago and who were 'big in Japan'.

 

Sure, one hit wonders (and I know The Nolans weren't, in the UK) can be fun and fondly-remembered, but nowhere else on earth do they make front page news with their ongoing cancer battles and love lives 40 years after the fact and get stints on daytime talk shows.  That is a uniquely British phenomenon.

Couldn’t agree more, never heard of the Nolans, Linda’s death would barely be reported in France...

[Toast 16,161]

1 hour ago, natquen said:

 

OK, who is the American equivalent of The Nolans?  The Australian equivalent?  Sorry, only the UK cares about people like them who had 2.5 hits 40 years ago and who were 'big in Japan'.

 

Sure, one hit wonders (and I know The Nolans weren't, in the UK) can be fun and fondly-remembered, but nowhere else on earth do they make front page news with their ongoing cancer battles and love lives 40 years after the fact and get stints on daytime talk shows.  That is a uniquely British phenomenon.

 

There's a bit more to it than that.  One of the sisters was an actress who was in a popular soap (she died of cancer some years ago) and another sister is a TV presenter and regular panellist on a daytime chat show (not just an occasional guest).  So public awareness of the family as a whole has been fairly continuous .

[harrymcnallysblueandwhitearmy 1,695]

In 1979, the pop world lay at the feet of The Dooleys, but where are they now?! (Rhetorical question, no answers on postcards please)

 

 

Personally, I was never caught by the Dooleys. 

[Bibliogryphon 9,597]

3 hours ago, natquen said:

 

OK, who is the American equivalent of The Nolans?  The Australian equivalent?  Sorry, only the UK cares about people like them who had 2.5 hits 40 years ago and who were 'big in Japan'.

 

Sure, one hit wonders (and I know The Nolans weren't, in the UK) can be fun and fondly-remembered, but nowhere else on earth do they make front page news with their ongoing cancer battles and love lives 40 years after the fact and get stints on daytime talk shows.  That is a uniquely British phenomenon.

I think this has to do with the UK's relationship with light entertainment. The concept of the music hall variety show transferred onto early television and lingered until the early eighties. Many comedy sketch shows would feature a musical number from a special guest but these would be inoffensive middle of the road acts so not as to offend the Mary Whitehouse types. So acts like the Nolan's would be instantly recognisable but not necessarily heavily bought or listened to.

[CoffinLodger 1,248]

On 28/10/2020 at 12:17, The Old Crem said:

Mirror

Linda reveals her fears this Christmas might be her last.

she's just winding deathlistt up again.I bet she'll be bungee jumping off a bridge for charity next christmas!

[waynet 9]

3 hours ago, natquen said:

 

OK, who is the American equivalent of The Nolans?  The Australian equivalent?  Sorry, only the UK cares about people like them who had 2.5 hits 40 years ago and who were 'big in Japan'.

 

Sure, one hit wonders (and I know The Nolans weren't, in the UK) can be fun and fondly-remembered, but nowhere else on earth do they make front page news with their ongoing cancer battles and love lives 40 years after the fact and get stints on daytime talk shows.  That is a uniquely British phenomenon.

In Australia we had the Moir Sisters.  Basically one hit wonders with Good Morning How Are You , and yes it was as lame as the title suggests.

One of them passed back in 2015

[msc 18,490]

1 hour ago, Bibliogryphon said:

I think this has to do with the UK's relationship with light entertainment. The concept of the music hall variety show transferred onto early television and lingered until the early eighties.

 

There's the story of the Mike and Bernie Winters bombing at the Green's Playhouse in Glasgow. One started to stony silence, and when the other walked on, up shouted a loud voice: "Aww shite, there's two of them!"

 

(Although this links to another Playhouse story where the act before a young Nicholas Parsons was due to go on stage was getting killed by the Glasgow crowd. So on walks a very nervous Parsons who stammered through his opening line. "Don't worry, son"!" yelled a voice from the back of the crowd. "We like you!"

 

Anyhow, does anyone remember when Tony Blair won in 1997 and got D: Ream (with future astronomer Professor Brian Cox) to do a concert where they played Things Can Only Get Better over and over again? Just that one song. 10th circle of Hell as Dante put it. Well, that's exactly how I picture a Nolans gig. Their greatest hit - singular.

[harrymcnallysblueandwhitearmy 1,695]

On 03/08/2020 at 20:53, maryportfuncity said:

 

 

 

 

Grim all round and they're not exactly hiding the severity having posed for this picture in The Sun. 

 

 

At first glance I was thinking they were Right Said Fred

 

That reminds me, must get some Cinderella panto tickets...

[the_engineer 1,415]

19 minutes ago, harrymcnallysblueandwhitearmy said:

 

That reminds me, must get some Cinderella panto tickets...

 

Actually they're starring in a panto of 'the witches' this year.

 

[Slackhurst Broadcasting 374]

I imagine every country has its crummy local celebrities - people who are household names there but unheard of anywhere else, or just known for one or two fluky international hits.

[Toast 16,161]

 

16 minutes ago, Slackhurst Broadcasting said:

I imagine every country has its crummy local celebrities - people who are household names there but unheard of anywhere else, or just known for one or two fluky international hits.

 

As I explained, there are other reasons why members of the Nolans have remained in the public eye, otherwise they would have been forgotten like the Dooleys.

[The Old Crem 3,611]

They also got lots of tabloid coverage during their heyday - In Anne's book she recalls an incident with her infant daughter getting injured and being rushed to hospital making front pages and that being how one of the other sisters found out after seeing the headline at Heathrow airport.

[natquen 46]

On 16/12/2020 at 20:47, waynet said:

In Australia we had the Moir Sisters.  Basically one hit wonders with Good Morning How Are You , and yes it was as lame as the title suggests.

One of them passed back in 2015

 

Yes, I remember that (the passing in 2015)... but had never heard of them before (born '78).  The Nolans seem to have had a continued media presence/fascination in the UK, despite achieving relatively little.

[time 8,641]

7 minutes ago, natquen said:

 

Yes, I remember that (the passing in 2015)... but had never heard of them before (born '78).  The Nolans seem to have had a continued media presence/fascination in the UK, despite achieving relatively little.

The Nolans were easily as big as Kobe Bryant.

[En Passant 3,743]

1 hour ago, time said:

The Nolans were easily as big as Kobe Bryant.

 

 

Do you search for a stick whenever you see a wasps nest?