She may have been the sixth of eight siblings in her larger-than-life family of crooners, but Linda Nolan was never destined to be a middle child lost in the crowd.
Even aged three the ‘naughty Nolan’s‘ light shone brightly, a blonde toddler clip-clopping along the pavement outside her parents’ Dublin council estate home in one of her mum’s glittery stage stilettos – her “hee-highs” as she called them – and singing her version of ‘Molly Malone’ at the top of her lungs.
“What I lacked in years I more than made up for in style. And volume,” she said. “Mum used to call me our street’s alarm clock.
“Performing was what I did before I even knew what performing meant.”
She was the “blingy Nolan”, she claimed with a laugh. And Linda – who passed away today aged 65 in hospital surrounded by her close-knit siblings from double pneumonia following a long battle with cancer – kept performing until the very end. Until the grand show of life which she adored so passionately could no longer, despite her monumental efforts, go on.
The irrepressible Nolan sister, who moved to the seaside town with her family as a child, rose to stardom with her siblings as part of The Nolan Sisters in the 1970s, amassing global fans and going onto sell 30million records with hits including I’m In The Mood For Dancing, Spirit, Body and Soul, and Gotta Pull Myself Together.
But it was for the honest, open approach she took to discussing her health battles after she was first diagnosed with breast cancer twenty years ago, in 2005, that she came to be equally, if not more, admired.
Over the years, she helped raise more than £20million for breast cancer and mental health charities, as well as Samaritans.
The disease was to return as secondary cancer in 2017, and in early 2023 Linda revealed tumours had been discovered in her brain. Becoming a Daily Mirror columnist at that time and charting weekly her ongoing treatment and fifth loss of her hair, always with a laugh, she was praised for the unflinching honesty which helped others living with the disease.
One well-wisher at hospital once praised her admiringly for “doing a Linda Nolan” and inspiring his own wife. It made her chuckle – but impelled her, in turn, to keep talking, confronting the end of her life on her own terms.
“I think everybody’s journey – I hate the word – is different. But if there is anything I can say that can help someone, I will,” she said.
“I have my moments when I slide down the wall in a heap,” she added. “I’m frightened to cry in case I don’t stop sometimes… But I’ll take anything, I’ll try anything, to stay alive.”
Born on February 23, 1959, Linda followed eldest brother Tommy, now 75, sisters Anne, now 74, Denise, 72, and Maureen, 70, and her second brother, Brian, 69, into the Nolan family. Sister Bernie, who passed away in 2013 after her own cancer fight, followed, and finally the baby, Coleen, now 59.
Her father Tommy and mother Maureen were both singers, and toured pubs and clubs together. In 1962, the family moved to Blackpool, driven by the desire to find more work, and soon the family formed the Singing Nolans, the older siblings accompanying their parents on stage. Aged five, Linda joined them after begging to take part.
“I could belt out a song like a kid twice my age,” she described.
Bernie soon joined too, and eventually Coleen, aged four. Linda’s childhood solo was Shirley Bassey’s Big Spender – the irony of which wasn’t lost on the star who, even in her final months, couldn’t resist an online shopping spree, even when money was tight.
Despite late nights and bleary mornings at school, which she left early, she adored her family and their shows. Money was scant at home – her mother would sometimes skip the stew she made her brood so there was enough to go around – but Linda recalls “a typical Irish mother” who “totally spoilt” her kids.
The band’s break came in 1973 when their dad agreed the family would perform at Blackpool’s Cliffs Hotel on Christmas Day – usually a holiday they kept sacred.
In knee-length socks they lined up to sing. They were being watched by a showbiz mogul from London, (billionaire Joe Lewis, the owner of Spurs) who afterwards offered the girls a regular gig in London at his cabaret theatre, the London Rooms, in Drury Lane.
Linda was just 14 and Bernie 13, but the family moved to the capital, only Coleen remaining in Blackpool initially with her older brothers and aunt.
The Nolans was born, and a makeover in bell bottoms and floaty dresses, new dance routines, and regular shows followed. Coleen eventually joined them, and household stardom hit when they were picked to star on Cliff Richard’s new BBC show.
Then the sisters were chosen to accompany Frank Sinatra on tour. “We were screaming when we found out,” Linda said.
More TV appearances with The Two Ronnies and Val Doonican followed. There were also personal performances for The Queen Mother, The Princess Royal and US President Gerald Ford.
In 1977, the group toured South Africa with Rolf Harris, comedian Stu Francis and ventriloquist Ray Alan. Linda told one hilarious anecdote about she and her sisters finding themselves in a sauna with Tom Jones.
“‘Oh my goodness,’ he said, ‘Can you imagine what the tabloids would make of me in a sauna with six Nolan sisters!’ He was lovely and we sat and chatted for ages.”
In 1979, Linda was to meet the love of her life, Brian Hudson. Denise had left the band to go solo, and he was her new agent. Older, and previously married with two children, Linda initially resisted his advances, but their attraction was instant. She described it like “a lightning bolt”.
Brian became the group’s tour manager as they found top-three chart success with I’m In The Mood in 1980, made Top Of The Pops appearances and shot to number one in Japan, South Africa and Hong Kong. In Japan, the Nolans have outsold Beyonce, Michael Jackson and The Beatles combined.
The couple married in 1981, but relations between Linda and her sisters broke down, in part as her bond with Brian tightened and caused fissures between them. The singer decided to go solo in 1983 and said the family rift lasted around a year.
Marking her new career with a risque photoshoot in a sheet was Linda’s way of saying she was breaking free from The Nolans’ wholesome image. Singing tours followed, along with a ten-year stint on stage as Maggie May in Blackpool, and musicals including Blood Brothers and Prisoner Cell Block H – The Musical alongside pal Paul O’Grady, always with Brian as her manager by her side. She later appeared in Menopause the Musical and Rumpy Pumpy, where she played a madame, and was the only Nolan Sister to be honoured with a Madame Tussauds waxwork.
As Linda focussed on her career, the couple postponed having children – a decision Linda, who adored her nieces, nephews and great nieces and nephews, always called her ‘one regret’. She later tried fostering.
Money troubles caught up with the couple. In 1995 their bankruptcy made headlines. And health issues began to dog them, too. Brian was drinking heavily, and was then diagnosed with skin cancer, ahead of Linda’s first diagnosis with breast cancer in 2005, triggering a mastectomy and 18 rounds of chemotherapy.
It was alcoholism which finally caused Brian’s devastating death from liver failure in 2007, and combined with the loss of her mother to Alzheimer’s Disease just months later, her own cancer, and her sister Bernie’s diagnosis of breast cancer in 2010, Linda suffered clinical depression and suicidal thoughts.
Again, she chose to talk about it honestly. Bravely, she described lining up tablets and writing a letter to her siblings. “I never tell people it gets better quickly,” she said of grief.
But Linda pushed back with the support of her close family, “the cavalry”, and her work, reuniting for an eagerly-anticipated tour with sisters Bernie, Coleen and Maureen in 2009, and appearing on Celebrity Big Brother in 2014.
It was in 2017 Linda fell, fracturing her hip, and her secondary cancer was discovered. Radiotherapy followed, but in 2020 she was told it had spread to her liver. She moved in with her sister Denise in Blackpool as she became increasingly unsteady and in March 2023 tumours were found in her brain.
Faced with a wheelchair, walking sticks and a stairlift, the star still managed to maintain her joie de vivre, arranging holidays with her family – ‘familymoons’ as she dubbed them – and enjoying regular lunches with old school pals. A game of bingo, a Mr Whippy ice-cream, and a tipple of gin remained firm favourites.
She never shied from admitting she struggled with “the big grey cloud” some days, but couldn’t resist cracking a joke as she relayed her struggles, even as chemo continued and she lost her hair for the fifth time while the tumours eroded her memory and caused her to regularly fall.
“I’m identifying as a sheep,” she often joked as her close crop began to grow back.
The star often mused about her fear of death. “What happens? Is it dark, are you on your own? I’m frightened of the unknown and being on my own, I have always been with people,” she said.
But her positivity and zest for life ultimately always rose to the top.
“I feel so grateful to be feeling well again,” she wrote in her final Mirror column last week, after suffering a bout of flu over Christmas – a temporary boost before deteriorating with pneumonia.
“I wake up every morning and I think this is another day to celebrate,” she said.
Linda was a passionate ambassador for Breast Cancer Now. To find out how you can support the charity or to get help and advice for you or a loved one, visit breastcancernow.org.uk.
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