Cats U.K. were a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

four-piece

all-female band An all-female band is a musical ensemble, musical group in popular music that is exclusively composed of female musicians. This is distinct from a girl group, in which the female members are solely vocalists, though this terminology is not universa ...

who had a hit with the single "

Luton Airport London Luton Airport is an international airport located in Luton, England, situated east of the town centre, and is the fourth-busiest airport serving London. The airport is owned by London Luton Airport Limited, a company wholly owned by ...

" in October 1979. The record, which reached No. 22 in the UK Singles Chart, was inspired by the 1977

Campari Campari () is an Italian alcoholic liqueur, considered an aperitif, apéritif of the ''bitter'' variety (and not an amaro) by Italians while considered an apéritif of the Amaro (liqueur), amaro variety by Americans, obtained from the infusion of ...

television commercial in which

cockney Cockney is a dialect of the English language, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by Londoners with working-class and lower middle class roots. The term ''Cockney'' is also used as a demonym for a person from the East End, ...

model and actress

Lorraine Chase Lorraine Chase (born 16 July 1951) is an English actress and former model. She became well known for her strong south east London accent and frequent use of cockney slang, and found fame through a series of television adverts for Campari bef ...

responds to

Jeremy Clyde Michael Jeremy Thomas Clyde (born 22 March 1941) is an English actor and musician. During the 1960s, he was one-half of the folk duo Chad & Jeremy (with Chad Stuart). Their first song was the 1963 hit " Yesterday’s Gone". The duo became mor ...

's romantic line "Were you truly wafted here from paradise?" with the reply, ''"Nahh,

!"''. The band featured

Deena Payne Diane Margaret "Deena" Payne (born 29 August 1954) is an English actress and former singer. She is best known for playing Viv Hope in the long-running ITV soap opera ''Emmerdale''. Life and career Payne was born in Orpington, Kent. She used ...

, who coincidentally went on to appear with Chase in the long-running

soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...

Emmerdale ''Emmerdale'' (known as ''Emmerdale Farm'' until 1989) is a British television soap opera that is broadcast on ITV (TV network), ITV. The show is set in Emmerdale (known as Beckindale until 1994), a List of fictional towns and villages, fict ...

''. The lead singer was Bea Rowley as

did not want to sing the song. The track was written by Paul Curtis, known amongst UK

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

fans due to his many and varied attempts at writing the UK entry each year, and John Worsley. The writers approached Jill Shirley about finding suitable singers for the group. Shirley had been involved with the UK heats for Eurovision for a number of years and would go on to form

Bucks Fizz Bucks Fizz were an English pop group, that achieved success in the 1980s, most notably for winning the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest with the song " Making Your Mind Up". The group was formed in January 1981 specifically for the contest and c ...

, Gem and

Bardo In some schools of Buddhism, ''bardo'' ( Wylie: ''bar do'') or ''antarābhava'' (Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese: 中有, romanized in Chinese as ''zhōng yǒu'' and in Japanese as ''chū'u'') is an intermediate, transitional, or liminal state b ...

. The group had to rename itself to Cats U.K. because of the existence of the

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

band

The Cats The Cats may refer to: * The Cats (Dutch band), a Dutch rock band * The Cats (reggae band), a British reggae band * Cats U.K., a British pop band * ''The Cats'' (album), a 1957 jazz album featuring Tommy Flanagan and John Coltrane * ''The Cats'' (1 ...

. However, this still does not uniquely identify them because of the existence of the reggae band of the same name, who were also from the UK."Swan Lake Different Yet (Ballet and Swan Lake in Popular Culture, Vol. 3) from balletphotography.com
/ref> The group went on to record their second single "Holiday Camp" in 1980 with a third single "16, Looking for Love" ending their singing career.

References

English girl groups English pop music groups {{UK-band-stub