Guys n' Dolls

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Guys n' Dolls were a 1970s UK vocal group. They secured a couple of Top Ten hits in the UK Singles Chart, with the songs "There's A Whole Lot Of Loving" and "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me".

Guys n' Dolls were formed in 1974, after Ammo Productions held auditions for three girls and three boys to start the band. The six members of the group Paul Griggs, David Van Day, Thereza Bazar, Dominic Grant, Martine Howard, and Julie Forsyth, first met in November 1974. They released their first hit single, "There's a Whole Lot Of Loving" in January 1975 (this was actually recorded by session singers, and the group were later discovered not to have actually recorded the original). In the six years that followed, the group released several more hits, including "Here I Go Again" (1975) and "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" (1976). In 1977 the group had a Number one in both the Netherlands and Flanders with "You're My World", formerly made famous by Cilla Black.

By 1977, Van Day and Bazar had left the band, but continued to have success as Dollar. in 1979, the group took part in the A Song For Europe contest, hoping to represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song How Do You Mend A Broken Heart? Although the show was abandoned due to a BBC strike, the song finished in 10th place of the 12 entries when the judges cast votes on the audio recordings of the songs.

In 1980, Forsyth and Grant had their first child together, plus Howard and the Guys n' Dolls record producer Gerard Stellaard got married and moved to the Netherlands. After marrying, Howard left the group and was replaced by Forsyth's younger sister, Laura early in 1981. The change was short-lived, when she was replaced by Rosie Hetherington. She had previously been a part of the group Legs & Co.

In 1983, Griggs released a solo recording of The Beatles' song "You Won’t See Me", with the help of a Dutch recording studio and record company, Dureco in Weesp.

Guys n' Dolls finished as a unit in December 1985, having spent eleven years together. Grant and Forsyth, the latter being a daughter of Bruce Forsyth, performed as the duo Grant & Forsyth, and had another five hits in the Netherlands. In 1988, Forsyth wrote the UK's Eurovision Song Contest entry Go performed by Scott Fitzgerald. Both Forsyth and Grant, together with ex-Jigsaw member Des Dyer, sang backing vocals for the song's performance at the contest in Dublin, Ireland. According to author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor, the song finished 2nd by a margin of just 1 point behind Celine Dion's song for Switzerland, making it the closest ever run contest. ^[1]

The original line up of 70s chart group Guys n' Dolls, Dominic Grant, Julie Forsyth, Paul David Griggs, Martine Howard, David Van Day and Thereze Bazar are reuniting for the first time in 31 years for a major television show in the Netherlands on 22nd March 2008. This will be preceded on Friday 21st March by a day of press and TV interviews in connection with the possibility of live concerts this summer. For more information go to www.guysndollsfan.co.uk.

[edit] Album discography

• 1975 Guys 'n' Dolls
• 1976 The Good Times
• 1977 Together
• 1980 Our Songs
• 1982 Happy Together

[edit] References