Pre-Black Lace (1969–1973) Terry Dobson and his school-friend Ian Howarth formed the Impact as a five-piece pop group in 1969, the other members being
Alan Barton, Steve Scholey and Nigel Scott. The group also performed under the names Penny Arcade and Love or Confusion. Howarth left the band for a short while but returned to the line-up in 1973. Dobson also left and was replaced briefly by Neil Hardcastle. Dobson then rejoined, and Scott left in 1973; in the same year, the band adopted the name Black Lace.
Black Lace (1973–1981) Ian Howarth was replaced by Colin Routh during late spring 1976 and after turning professional, the band toured the majority of the UK, managed by Keith Mills, commencing their first summer season at the Skegness Central Pier Bier. The following year their summer season would take them to
Butlins in Filey, North Yorkshire and
Skegness, Lincolnshire. An
EP was recorded and produced by comedian
Freddie 'Parrot face' Davies at his studio, which was to be sold at their shows. The group were voted Yorkshire Band of the Year by
BBC Radio Leeds, and best clubland group playing at the
Winter Gardens, Blackpool. In 1979, Black Lace recorded their first single, "Mary Ann", for
ATV Music; a recording contract followed with
EMI. As the song required a more 'throaty' vocal, it was decided that Alan Barton would be lead singer on the band's recordings, with Steve Scholey on backing vocals, but that Scholey would remain as lead singer for live performances. The song won
BBC Television's
A Song For Europe and the band went on to represent the UK at the 1979
Eurovision Song Contest held in Israel, where they finished seventh. Other television appearances around this time included
Nationwide,
Multi-Coloured Swap Shop,
Top of the Pops and
Juke Box Jury. "Mary Ann" reached No. 42 on the
UK Singles Chart. The band's follow-up single, "So Long Suzy Baby", failed to chart in the UK (as EMI could not decide on which track should be used, and delayed the planned release date), but achieved success in Europe. Black Lace found success with live performances and TV shows, notably the
Sopot International Song Festival in Poland, the
Golden Orpheus festival in Bulgaria, and on TV in East Germany, West Germany and Spain. The band toured Denmark in 1980, supporting
Suzi Quatro and working with
Tommy Seebach, a Danish entertainer. Black Lace and Seebach recorded "Hey Hey Jock McRay" for the Danish singles market, but an intended 1980 tour of Poland was called off because of political unrest in the country.
Chart success (1981–1987) In 1981, the band split. Dobson joined the
Castleford rock band Stormer, who had a recording contract with
Ringo Starr, while Scholey left the music industry. Routh and Barton were left to settle huge debts incurred whilst touring. They continued as a duo However, the record was beaten to the charts by another version of the song by The Tweets, released as "The Birdie Song". "Birds Dance" has since been retitled "The Birdie Song" and included on Black Lace albums. Black Lace's 1983 "
Superman" single was their first one under their own name on the Flair label, "Agadoo" was a hit in Europe, South Africa and Australia. Having been presented with a gold disc for sales in the UK, presenter
Richard Whiteley forgot Routh's name and referred to him as "Mr Agadoo" (the name Dene Michael later adopted for himself, despite having no involvement with the record). The duo recorded their first album,
Black Lace, at Stuck Ranch studios in Denmark. Around this time, their record distribution company
Pinnacle went into receivership, leading to Black Lace and their record company losing an estimated quarter of a million pounds in unpaid
royalties for "Agadoo". The band's follow-up single, "Do The Conga", reached No. 10 in the UK chart, Black Lace's second album,
Party Party 2, was released for Christmas 1985, and television appearances included
The Old Grey Whistle Test,
3-2-1,
ITV Telethon,
Miss Yorkshire Television,
International Disco Dance Championship,
Pebble Mill at One and the
Top of the Pops Christmas Special. Because of such a demanding work schedule, Barton and Routh found it necessary to charter a private aircraft to meet the deadlines, but the band's success led to a tax demand in excess of £100,000. In 1986, Routh stepped back from publicly performing with Black Lace after a court case resulting from his relationship with an under-age girl. He was replaced by Dene Michael Betteridge (also known as Michael Dene, as well as Dene Michael). Another single, "Wig Wam Bam", featuring Barton, Routh and Betteridge reached No. 63 in the UK chart, In 1995, Barton died as a result of a coach crash in Germany while touring with Smokie. Black Lace played one-off shows in 1996 at DJ conventions in Canada and
Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States. They also released the
Action Party and
Best of albums that year. Gibb was presented with a special Agadoo guitar to celebrate the band's 20th anniversary, but he was also made bankrupt by the
Inland Revenue. 15 August 1997 was dubbed Agadoo Day. Black Lace played twenty shows in 24 hours in Manchester, London, Watford, Northampton, Sheffield, Barnsley, Wakefield and Leeds, finishing at the Frontier Club, Batley. The event raised more than £25,000 for
Marie Curie Cancer Care.
Peugeot used "Agadoo" in a TV advertisement for the new
106 car, and Black Lace re-recorded the track, renaming it "Agadoo 106 mix", donating all their royalties to
Marie Curie Cancer Care. The record spent a week in the UK chart. the latter the daughter of the band's manager John Wagstaff. This line-up released a cover of The Soca Boys' Dutch hit "Follow the Leader", a song which would become a Top 10 hit by Nigel & Marvin when remixed as "Follow Da Leader", with the tune from
Chocolate Puma's hit "I Wanna Be U". In 2002, Colin Gibb chose to end the official Black Lace and take his new act, dubbed "The Original Black Lace", to Tenerife, playing the now internationally famous "party shows" in hotels and restaurants on the island, occasionally visiting the UK for TV appearances. The 4-episode show featured Gibb and manager John Wagstaff as the judges, and was shown on ITV's regional
Yorkshire TV service, with the winners, under the name "The New Black Lace", releasing a version of Kool and the Gang's "Celebration" as their winner's single. In this year, Betteridge had also appeared alongside
Esmée Denters and Eurovision hopeful
Joe Woolford on an episode of BBC One's
The Voice UK. By this time, Gibb had started to perform Original Black Lace shows in
Playa de las Américas and
Los Cristianos with Scottish singer and Oasis FM radio presenter Gordon King, an artist who had issued a solo album under his real name, Gordon Quinn, in the 1970s. In 2016, Dene Michael Betteridge was jailed for six months for benefit fraud after falsely claiming almost £25,000 for his sciatica, with his wife and "carer", Karen, getting a 12-month community order for her role in the scam, with the judge sentencing her to 100 hours of unpaid work. By 2018, Betteridge was back performing in the clubs, having teamed up with a Kylie Minogue tribute act called Vikki B and a duo called Party Crazy. Betteridge had been billing himself as "Mr Agadoo" by this point in his career, even though he did not appear on the original record, and would find himself back in the official Wagstaff-managed version of Black Lace later in the year. In 2019, Gibb's Tenerife based Original Black Lace became associated with UK dressage team The Agadoo Girls, consisting of seven members, with Gibb's cousin Debbie Cox as team captain. They came top at their debut Team Quest competition at Richmond Equestrian Centre in June that year.
Colin Gibb's retirement and death On 13 May 2024, Colin Gibb announced his retirement on Facebook. His last performance was at the San Eugenio Villa Adeje Beach Hotel in Spain, on 16 May. On 3 June 2024, the band, alongside Gibb's wife, revealed Gibb had died aged 70 the previous day.
Recent career (2024–present) As of 2025, the official Flair Entertainments/N.O.W. Music Co. version of Black Lace comprises Phil Temple at
Radio 2 in the Park, Preston 2024 as part of ''Paddy McGuinness' Sunday School Disco''. In November 2024, the duo appeared on the BBC One Children in Need programme
Paddy: The Ride of My Life, where they were seen performing "
Agadoo" alongside
Paddy McGuinness and
Sir Chris Hoy in the car park of Westmorland's
Cairn Lodge Services. In November 2025, a documentary called
Still Pushing Pineappples by Kim Hopkins was released; it follows former member Dene Michael as he performs Black Lace's hits from Blackpool to Benidorm. The film received 3 stars in Peter Bradshaw's
Guardian review, with Bradshaw noting that the documentary "has a kind of melancholy that
Martin Parr might have wanted to photograph". ==Personnel==