Dark side to The Nolans' success as sisters were pushed to stardom by 'brutal' father
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The late Linda Nolan was part of the UK's first 'millionaire girl band', which rode high with hits like I'm in the Mood for Dancing. The singer, who died on Wednesday at the age of 65 following a long journey with secondary breast cancer, and her sisters achieved global fame in The Nolans. But behind the girl group's rise to the top lay painful secrets, none more so than the horror that came at the hands of their father Tommy Nolan.
For Tommy had sexually abused his older daughter Anne, a fact she only revealed in 2008, ten years after he died. Growing up, the sisters' father had regularly beaten up their mother, his wife Maureen, as well as turning his hand to his children. He had also been instrumental in their rise to fame.
Maureen and Tommy, who first met at a gig in Dublin's Clery's Ballroom, were originally a duo before they moved to Blackpool and became keen to turn their young family into a musical troupe. As Bernie Nolan, who died from breast cancer in 2013, joked: "By the time Coleen and I came along, the question Mum and Dad would ask was not 'Will it be a boy or a girl?' but whether the baby could sing.".
Spotted performing in a hotel in the North West seaside town by a London exec, The Nolans never looked back. Chart hits included Gotta Pull Myself Together, Don't Make Waves and Attention To Me, with their own BBC TV specials too. But in her autobiography Anne's Song, the oldest sibling opened up about her father's sickening abuse. "At 11-years-old I trusted him," she wrote. "Maybe this was something dads did with their daughters. My overwhelming reaction was one of puzzlement. I remember thinking to myself: 'Why is Dad doing this?'.".
