Ireland’s most successful girl band are back in action again with the re-release of the hit record that never was. Anne Nolan talks about the band’s 1970s heyday
“One punk group spat outside our dressing room on Top of The Pops,” says Anne Nolan. “It wasn’t because they didn’t like us, they didn’t even know us. It was because back then it was the thing to do.
“We were portrayed as a normal, sweet family band but we fought and swore when we needed to . . .”
Anne, now 75 and with her Irish accent as strong as ever, is recalling the glory days of The Nolans, the six Dublin sisters who are still the biggest selling Irish girl group of all time.
Back in the era of chiffon, spandex and industrial action, they scored hits with I’m in The Mood For Dancing and Attention to Me.
Originally from Raheny via Finglas in Dublin, the band began life singing in the seaside town of Blackpool, Lancashire in the early sixties, performing songs from films and stage shows but what started as a humble family cabaret act developed into a polished pop group as the sisters honed their harmonies and stagecraft.
As the ultimate girls next door, they went on to sell 30 million records worldwide and were a mainstay of light entertainment television in an otherwise bleak 1970s. They even landed a support slot on Frank Sinatra’s 1975 European tour.
Fifty years after their heyday they are remembered fondly and now they have sprung back into action again just in time for Halloween with the re-release of the hit that never was – their 1983 single Dressed to Kill.
But the irony (or not) is: The Nolans rarely felt dressed to kill.
“Our image was given to us, it wasn’t our idea, but as we went along we brought our own style in for Dressed to Kill,” says Anne, who has two daughters Amy and Alex and three grandchildren. “They dressed us all in lace and leather and our make-up was lovely. We had a say in all of that which was great.”
She adds, “When I look back at our television appearances, I think ‘oh my heavens! What on earth did they dress us in?’ We took their advice because we were new to television.
“In our private lives, we all dressed differently because of the differences in age range, Colleen was fifteen years younger than me so she would never have dressed the way I dressed. As our career went on, our image changed and we started wearing clothes that we liked.”
Linda, Maureen, Coleen, and Anne Nolan
But quite apart from image, the success of Dressed to Kill was cut short when it was withdrawn from the charts because the band’s label, Epic, promoted the single with a free Nolans poster, which contravened chart rules at the time.
“Everyone was trying to encourage people to buy their record by giving away free stuff like posters,” Anne recalls. “Everyone was doing it but the charts at that time decided to make an example of us and they took our record out of the charts.
“It went in at a very high spot and they put it back in at No. 79 and by then it was too late, it was kind of lost. They made an example of us.”
This was in an era when the pop charts really mattered and it meant there was a huge degree of rivalry between acts and labels for the top spot.
However, Anne maintains that The Nolans never witnessed any bad vibes. “We get asked that a lot – have we ever met people in our business who were nasty? – and to be 100% honest, I have never come across anyone who was,” she says.
“There were some people who were a bit offish but our attitude was they might be busy; they might be having a hard time. I never met anybody who was nasty and we met a lot of different types of people – bands, duos, comics, dancers.”
By the time Dressed to Kill stiffed in the UK charts, pop music was changing and with the hits drying up, the sisters diversified into television, theatre, and media, while still reuniting periodically for special performances and tours.
In more recent years, several of the sisters have made appearances as panelists on ITV show Loose Women and there have also been the docuseries, The Nolans Go Cruising and spin-off show At Home with The Nolans.
The band’s history is of course tinged with great sadness. Linda and Bernie both passed away after battles with cancer and Anne herself has beaten the disease twice but she maintains a philosophical and realistic attitude.
“I’ve had cancer twice,” she says. “In the year 2000, I got breast cancer and almost exactly to the day twenty years later I got breast cancer again. I went through chemo and radiotherapy and I had a lumpectomy on each breast.
“Linda liked to talk about what she was going thought and knew everything about her cancer whereas I went through it all and if anyone wants to talk to me about it, I am willing to talk about it.
“Other than that, I kind of leave it away from myself and get on with my life. It’s always there in the back of my mind. When you feel ill or if you have something different on your skin you think ‘oh it’s the cancer coming back . . . ‘ That’s something you just live with and you get used to it.
The Nolans in Japan
“It hasn’t impaired my life – I have my children and my grandchildren and they’re the most important things in my life.”
Along with the re-release of Dressed to Kill, further projects are being planned for next year and the band are keen to get back to Ireland to meet their fans.
“I don’t know what’s happening next year,” Anne says. “We are told they’re planning something and if it might happen, they’ll tell us. We do these meet and greet shows. We’re doing five in Blackpool and two in London and we are hoping to bring it to Ireland. That would be fantastic.”
Asked if it’s a bittersweet experience revisiting the band after all these years, Anne says, “It’s absolutely amazing that I can do it. We do Q&A sessions and sing three or four songs and at the last one we did, this woman came up to us afterwards and said ‘please don’t ever stop. You made our lives’.
“It made me want to cry. It made me realise how people have felt about us for all these years and they still come to see us. Being able to do that at my age is wonderful.”