Born in Toronto in 1955, Thereza Bazar became one half – with David Van Day – of the late 70s, early 80s pop duo Dollar. The pair enjoyed huge success between 1978 and 1982 with hits including “Mirror Mirror” and “Oh L’amour” before the band split. Thereza’s solo career was less successful and she emigrated to Australia in the late 80s. Now divorced and performing again as Dollar without David Van Day, she lives in Sydney and has a son, Sam, from a previous relationship.
WHAT’S IN YOUR WALLET?
I’ve got my Apple wallet and do use that a lot but I’m still old school, so I do have a purse with credit cards and actual cash in it too. I have a 97-year-old mum who occasionally needs to pay the cleaner or for her sitting dancing class and she needs AUS$15, so I always have a little bit of excess for her.
ARE YOU FLASHY OR FRUGAL?
Frugal. I’m very respectful of the price of things and I always have been. Where I live in the eastern suburbs of Sydney my local shopping centre has an expensive supermarket upstairs and a cheaper one downstairs. If I’ve got the energy I’ll go downstairs to buy something at a cheaper price.
DO YOU OWN A PROPERTY?
I own two properties in the UK. One is my flat in London which I rent and the other is a cottage in the Cotswolds, close to where I was brought up in Cheltenham. That’s my happy place. The house I’m in now is owned by my partner so I don’t own any property in Australia. When David Van Day and I got our first Dollar contract – I was about 21 – I remember saying to him, “we’ve got a lot of money suddenly, we should buy a property”, as it felt like something of substance in the crazy pop world we were inhabiting at that time. We bought a little mews house in West Hampstead and I’m glad we did as I was aware even then how easy it is to fritter things away.
HOW WAS IT FOR YOU GROWING UP?
My mum and dad were middle class. We were probably part of the slightly snobbish middle classes with aspirations to become upper class, but we were actually a bit stretched. My dad was a furrier (someone who sells animal fur) and mum worked for his business so their clientele were well-to-do. We were basically brought up by a nanny called Mrs James – we called her Jim Jams – who was very strict. I was off with the fairies most of the time.
HAVE YOU EVER STRUGGLED FINANCIALLY?
When I emigrated to Australia in December 1988, I came here because I’d met a bloke and I needed to get away from the madness of London. We were engaged but it didn’t work out, and I became pregnant. I was a single parent with Sam for two or three years, with no support network in a new continent.
I was very frugal and very careful. I used to think, I’m not buying a piece of fish as it’s too expensive, so I’ll just live on potatoes, olive oil and feta but it was fine. I adapted. Eventually I married a barrister who I had kids with. I was at home baking cakes and whenever David Van Day called me to ask for a reunion I said, “no thanks, I’m happy here thanks”. I just wanted to be a responsible mum.
HOW MUCH WERE YOU PAID FOR YOUR FIRST JOB?
I was 14 and I got a job stacking shelves for a supermarket called MacFisheries in Surbiton. It was probably about £1.10 for the whole Saturday, but I worked so hard I got promoted to staff sandwich maker. I can’t remember how much we got paid for our first record deal for a small boutique label. For the second one we signed in 1979 with WEA (now Warner Music Group) after our first four big hits, for £60,000, which was a huge amount of money.
WHAT’S BEEN YOUR MOST LUCRATIVE WORK?
Even at Dollar’s peak we were never drowning in money because even though the record sales were very big, so was the expenditure on videos and promotion and sadly we never transitioned into a live act, although I am doing that now. But the Trevor Horn era was incredible. He was our music producer. Were we ever making millions? No. Hundreds of thousands? Not even that. Tens of thousands but never more than that. The single biggest royalty cheque I ever received was for “Love’s Got a Hold of Me”, which I wrote, and that was £7,000. The most lucrative single performance was to play in this nightclub in Israel for an extortionate amount of money.
WHAT’S YOUR BEST BUSINESS DECISION?
Buying that first property in West Hampstead. I can’t remember the figures but when me and David Van Day split up we split the proceeds of that house and I bought another property on the Fulham Road close to Chelsea Football Club that same day for £60,000. Eighteen months later a man knocked on my door saying he’d bought the house opposite for his daughter and wanted to buy mine for his other daughter and offered me £90,000 which I accepted. I then bought a mansion flat in West Kensington for £60,000 and kept £30,000 in the bank and 18 months later sold that for £120,000. That’s when I bought my little cottage in the Cotswolds.
WORST INVESTMENT?
I paid too much for a property in Australia up the coast. It was an up and coming area, but things weren’t going well in my marriage and ultimately I sold it at a loss. The silver lining side is though that there is a net loss to carry forward so if ever I make a profit, I can offset that, tax wise. It was an indulgent decision to make me happy. It wasn’t my primary residence.
Professionally, when I went solo, Foreigner’s manager Bud Pragar managed me, and my album cost a million dollars to produce. It just bombed, which I still feel guilty about. They wanted me to be the English answer to Madonna, but it just wasn’t promoted properly and everything fell apart. The album didn’t make a penny, but you just never know with pop music. If you’re in it for the money only you’re a mug. You have to do it for the passion. Any financial reward should be a bonus.
MONEY WEAKNESS?
Sushi. I’m very careful about my fitness and my weight. I’m a pescatarian and sushi is very, very good for you.
WHAT’S YOUR GREATEST EXTRAVAGANCE?
For my 23rd birthday I went into a jewellers’ shop in Cheltenham and bought an emerald cut diamond for £2,300. I’ve had it ever since though so it’s actually a sensible purchase as it’s a forever thing.
WHAT’S YOUR BEST FOR RETIREMENT: PROPERTY OR PENSION?
Property absolutely. I understand it, even though since a couple of upticks in 2013 and 2015 I don’t think my flat in zone one London has changed in value in nine years. But they’re not making any more of them so if I can hold onto it, it’ll come good.
WHAT ARE YOUR FINANCIAL PRIORITIES FOR 2024?
Try not to lose money by coming to the UK and doing as many live shows as I possibly can. And writing more music, and you never know I might get lucky and have a global hit. Who knows?
Thereza Bazar’s Dollar are performing at the Let’s Rock: The Retro Festival across the UK this summer. Check https://letsrock80s.com for details