Co-Co (band)

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Co-Co were a five piece British band who represented the UK in the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest, staged at the Palais de Congrès' in Paris, France, on April 22, 1978, with the song The Bad Old Days. The song was written by the husband and wife team of Stephanie de Sykes and Stuart Slater. The song placed 11th of the 20 entries, which at the time, was the worst showing ever for a UK entry. It wouldn't be until 1987 that any British song fared worse in Eurovision.

At the time, the group consisted of Terry Bradford, Josie Andrews, Cheryl Baker, Keith Hasler and Paul Rogers. For their performance in Paris, a drummer named 'Charlie' was added to the group. They won the preliminary heat A Song For Europe, having previously placed 2nd (again as a quintet, but with only Bradford, Hasler and Baker in the original line-up) when they appeared in the 1976 UK final, singing Wake Up. Additionally, the group returned as a quartet (minus Andrews and Rogers, but with a new female singer Helen Bailey) as The Main Event, for the 1980 A Song For Europe contest. Oddly, despite this new line-up, Josie Andrews still appeared on stage with the group, providing backing vocals to the main quartet. On this occasion they placed last with the song Gonna Do My Best, written by Bradford. Bradford also wrote a song for the 1979 UK final, Harry, My Honolulu Lover, performed by The Nolan Sisters, which placed 4th. Stephanie de Sykes and Stuart Slater also won the A Song For Europe contest a 2nd time, in 1980, with the song Love Enough For Two performed by Prima Donna, ironically beating the new line up of Co-Co in the process.

In 1981, Cheryl Baker returned to the UK contest, as part of the group Bucks Fizz. When Bucks Fizz won the UK final, Baker thus became only the 3rd singer ever to represent the UK twice, following in the footsteps of Ronnie Carroll and Cliff Richard. When Bucks Fizz went on to win the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Making Your Mind Up, Baker thus became one of the few artists to take part in Eurovision to win at their 2nd attempt. According to The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History by author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor, Baker also made the single biggest improvement by any Eurovision competitor in the contest, moving up from 11th in 1978 to 1st in 1981.^[1]

The Bad Old Days reached number 13 in the UK singles chart. The group had no further hit singles.^[2]