Linda Nolan: Pop star whose life spanned decades of dancing and showbusiness
The singer rose to fame with her sisters in the 1970s.
Linda Nolan and her five singing sisters helped set the mood for dancing across the globe, but her talents also took her to stage and screen.
She died aged 65 on January 15, with her “loving siblings by her bedside, ensuring she was embraced with love and comfort during her final moments”, her manager Dermot McNamara said.
The Irish performer’s family home laid the groundwork for a career in showbusiness spanning decades, where Linda joined Coleen, Maureen, Bernie, Denise and Anne to form pop’s premier sister group.
The Nolans released their most enduring hit I’m In The Mood For Dancing in 1979, and enjoyed a string of further chart successes.
At their height, they toured with Frank Sinatra and were reported to have outsold The Beatles in Japan.
Despite her success, Linda lived a life repeatedly mired by hardship as she battled cancer and was forced to cope with the loss of her husband.
Linda was born the sixth of eight children to Tommy and Maureen Nolan on February 23 1959 in Dublin.
Her parents – both singers – were keen to turn their young family into a musical troupe and Linda made her stage debut at the age of four.
Their relentless efforts, which often led to late-night performances on school nights, soon steered the girls to international success.
Among their chart hits were Gotta Pull Myself Together, Don’t Make Waves and Attention To Me, and they earned their own BBC TV specials.
For Linda, these early years were soured by witnessing her abusive father drunkenly beat their mother.
He was also said to have sexually abused Anne, his eldest daughter, from the age of 11.
“Part of me cried, I’m ashamed to say, because he didn’t do it to me and I didn’t think he loved me enough,” Linda later said of her sister’s torment.
She added: “He was a Jekyll and Hyde, but when he wasn’t drinking he was fabulous and he stopped drinking for many years before he died.”
At 15, she allegedly became a victim to the most sinister side of 1970s showbusiness when she claimed she was groped by Rolf Harris backstage at a concert in South Africa.
Speaking of the alleged assault in 2014, she said it left her feeling “dumbstruck” and “humiliated”.
Linda left the group which made her famous in 1983, but later reformed with her sisters for several comeback performances.
With her new solo career came a new moniker – Naughty Nolan – earned after she posed for a naked photoshoot in which she was covered by just a sheet.
Over the following years, she became a fixture of the stage musical scene, most notably owning the role of Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers for three years in London’s theatreland from 2000.
In 2006, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent surgery to remove her left breast, two days before her 47th birthday.
Her husband of 26 years, Brian Hudson, succumbed to skin cancer in 2007.
She later wrote of the loss: “I hate my life without Brian. Some nights I wake up and reach out for him before I remember he’s not there. I know I can survive. But life is so much less without him.”
The illness came back into her life again when her sister Bernadette, better known as Bernie, died from breast cancer in 2013.
The following year she was exposed to a new audience when she entered the world of reality television in the cast of Celebrity Big Brother.
It followed reports of financial turmoil that dogged Linda for several years afterwards.
In 2015, she was cautioned by Blackpool Council after being accused of being a benefits cheat, repaying the authority £6,000.
At the end of March 2017, Linda said she was going to die in the same manner of her beloved husband and sister – from an incurable cancer.
She was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer after a fall, a decade after she was initially treated for the illness.
“I’m not going to be dying from cancer, I’m going to be living with cancer if that’s what I have to do,” she said in an interview following her diagnosis.
A year later, she revealed she had planned her funeral and chosen the songs she wanted played – including There You’ll Be by Faith Hill – to save her family the anguish of having to arrange it all.
In her memoir, From My Heart, she also said that she had strict orders that she should not be resuscitated.
“I want to be DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) if it is near the end of my life,” she wrote.
“And I want to go to a hospice rather than be looked after by one of my brothers and sisters. I saw how well Bernie was treated in a hospice and I’d be happy with that.
“And then when I’m dressed and fed and cleaned, my brothers and sisters will be able to visit me with a bag of sweets and a movie but none of the worry.”
She said that after discovering the cancer had returned, she “wanted to live more than I had ever wanted anything”.
In July 2020, Linda and sisters Coleen, Maureen and Anne appeared in The Nolans Go Cruising, a TV series that saw them take a journey through the Mediterranean.
Hailed as their first shared trip and singing reunion in decades, the travel show saw all four sisters single for the first time in their adult lives as they embarked on two cruises around the Mediterranean onboard the MSC Grandiosa.
Highlights across the eight-episode series saw them perform their hit single I’m In The Mood For Dancing on their final night on the ship in front of their fellow passengers.
Months later, in August 2020, Linda appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain to talk about her and Anne both being treated for cancer at the same time.
She said learning that they both needed cancer treatment during lockdown was a “double nightmare” as it meant they would be isolated from each other.
Prior to their TV appearance, the pair revealed they were both being treated for the disease at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.
Linda was being treated for liver cancer, her third recurrence of the disease, while Anne was being treated for stage three breast cancer.
Linda appeared on the programme via video call but was not joined by Anne as planned as she was feeling too weak.
“You have heard of the dance DJ group The Chemical Brothers; well, I named me and Anne the Chemo Sisters!” Linda said.
The sisters went on to write Stronger Together, an account of their journey with cancer with no-holds-barred descriptions of their treatments, the side effects, how they coped with losing their hair and how they had emerged on the other side.
The book is interspersed with recollections of how cancer has affected those close to them, including their late sister Bernie and also Linda’s late husband, Brian.
In February 2022, the Nolan sisters suffered another family death at the hands of cancer.
Their Auntie Teresa, described as “the glue that held us together” and the “only person from our parents’ generation left”, died after losing her battle with incurable skin cancer.
Linda revealed in March 2023 that she was to begin treatment as part of a new drug trial, as her cancer had spread to her brain.
In December that year she told ITV’s Good Morning Britain (GMB) that her brain tumours had shrunk and added that she was looking forward to Christmas.
After the Princess of Wales revealed she had been diagnosed with cancer in March 2024, Linda told GMB she thought her video message to the nation “was perfect”.
That summer she revealed she would be starting a new cancer drug, again, after scans showed the tumours in her brain had grown.
Speaking to GMB, she said her family had been through “a rough time” as she revealed her stepson Lloyd had been diagnosed with cancer.
