Although they often don’t get the recognition they deserve, sisters Ann, Linda, Colleen, Denise and Bernie Nolan claim the title of Ireland’s number one music family. One of the most memorable pop outfits of the mid-1970s, the group was originally named The Singing Nolans, The Nolan Sisters, and later The Nolans, but was released in 1973 as Christmas Black. A big step to fame came thanks to the performance at the Cliffs Hotel in Poole. A day witnessed by entertainment impresario Joe Louis. The sisters’ father, Tommy Nolan, persuaded the London-based businessman to let them sing at his club above the New London Theater in the West End.
In early 1974, the whole family moved to London to work at the London Room in Drury Lane, and eventually came to the attention of Cliff Richard’s associates, and was invited to appear on Cliff Richard’s own TV show “Stuck on” on BBC One. He was booked to perform “You.” They then became regular guests on the show and grew a huge fan base in both Ireland and the UK.
Their 1980 record, Making Waves, was their biggest album, selling 5 million copies. It was the first album by a girl group to reach number one in New Zealand, and the first international album to reach number one in Japan.
The Nolans began work on the album shortly after changing their name (from the Nolan Sisters) in early 1980. Making Waves includes “Don’t Make Waves,” “Attention to Me,” and “Gotta Pull Myself Together.”
The track “Sexy Music” won the prestigious Tokyo Music Festival in 1981, and the group continues to enjoy incredible success in Japan to this day.
“A lot of young people don’t realize how great we were,” Linda Nolan beams over Zoom from her home in Blackpool.
“Especially in Japan, because we were so far away. Even if we won a big festival in Tokyo, we would barely make it into the local newspaper. But in reality, we were ahead of the Beatles.”
Making Waves was the first album where the Nolans felt things were really coming together, Linda claims.
“It was the first time we’d done a proper big video. You know, we’ve done little things before, we’ve done ads here and there, we’ve done things to go with the album, but… “This was the first time I really thought…God, this is working. It’s happening,” she recalls.
At that stage in their careers, Bernie was the only Nolan sister whose name appeared in the screenwriting credits. “It was very mechanical back then,” Nolan says.
“We heard the song, they [songwriters Ben Findon, Mike Myers and Bob Puzey] We arranged it, we produced it, we heard it and we were like, “Oh, they left out my harmonies on that part,” or we didn’t tell them if we didn’t like it. I also told them. “Who’s Gonna Rock You” was one of the songs they often played, Linda says. “Billy Ocean wrote it and very kindly reached out to me to let me use it.”
As punk gave way to new wave, popular music at the time was moving in directions that didn’t necessarily suit the Nolan sisters, but they still discovered the pop-disco sound they sought for at least a year. brought success. for a while. The album’s “Don’t Make Waves” leans into the groove of the time and is played at 106 beats per minute.
“It was a really, really exciting time and we got to make some great music. I still listen to ‘Sexy Music’.” At the time, we were doing the Tokyo Music Festival, and Randy Crawford was singing “One Day I’ll Fly Away,” and Jermaine Jackson was also performing, and he was singing “Sexy Music.” I won,” she laughs.
“And when we won, the six of us were dancing around the stage. We weren’t just in it to win, we wanted to win.”
However, at the stage of the album’s release, the band was the victim of intense snobbery. “We were commercially successful and we worked with Cliff Richard, but it wasn’t fashionable to like us at the time. Punk stuff was coming in, and you know… , we were six Irish Catholic girls singing nice harmonies, and it came with imagery, but we understood it and were repulsed by it.
“Once they asked us to wear pantsuits on Top of the Pops, and as six feisty Irish women, we said no. But Do you remember the band The Skids? One time they walked past our dressing room and spat at the door! This was many years ago, but we… I thought… really?”
At the time, misogyny was rampant in the music industry and society as a whole. “People talked about us like we didn’t really exist or that we weren’t that important,” Linda says. “We were very young. Like when Making Waves came out, I was only 21, and then the Nolan Sisters. [1975] I was only 16 years old. Colleen’s first appearance on television was when she was eight years old. But she was definitely the worst woman ever. ”
Considering the recent Grammy Awards and the number of women at the top of the music world, Linda is heartened to see things turn around. She added, “On the charts, it’s all women, like Taylor Swift. Dua Lipa…it’s amazing. But it’s still completely difficult for women in this industry.”
Linda recalls the group’s battles with record labels. “They are [our record company] We kept singing ‘Paddy McGinty’s Goat’ and things like that and wanted to get into the charts. If they had their way when we first went from Blackpool to London, I think we would have been singing Irish songs. There was nothing wrong with them, but we wanted charts. So we had to put on our big girl pants and get to work. And the proof is actually in the pudding. ”
Robert ‘Bob’ Pusey, who wrote many of Nolan’s most iconic hits, remembers those days well. One sunny Sunday morning in 1979, church bells rang in the distance. I wanted to write a song for the Nolan Sisters and one that would evoke the glorious spirit of this day. I took my acoustic guitar out onto the balcony. I quickly found a chord progression that I liked and sang “Mood for Dancing” almost all the way through for the first time. ”
Following Top of the Pops on Christmas Day 1979, The Nolans soared to number three in the UK charts. “Mood for Dancing” was the best-selling single from the group’s self-titled album and was the beginning of a heyday that culminated with the Making Waves records.
Since then, the lives of the members of the group have not always been rosy, and they have been plagued by family discord, illness, and the tragic death of Bernie at the age of 52. But fans will always remember Making Waves and those perfect pop moments from their happier days. era.
In July 2023, former band vocalist and youngest sister, Loose Women star Coleen Nolan, 58, revealed that she had been diagnosed with melanoma after a routine test. She was the fourth Nolan sister to die from cancer, with Bernie dying of breast cancer in 2013 and Linda announcing last year that her cancer had spread to her brain.
“It’s metastasizing,” she says. “But I’m doing the best I can.” Ann was the first of her siblings to be diagnosed in 2000. Anne, 73, continued her battle with stage 3 breast cancer in April 2020.
Dennis, who left the girl group in 1978 following the success of her platinum-selling album 20 Giant Hits, has appeared in nearly 40 pantomimes and released her first solo album, For You, in 2022. My Love” was released. “She was the first solo performer of a Nolan film to reach No. 1 on the jazz charts,” says her sister Linda, beaming with sibling pride. “She’s so happy because she has such a great voice. And you know what? She’s got another one ready.”