sanndevil

Sorry Freddy, but that is a non sequiteur.

We are of course all entitled to our opinions, and I respect yours, but the reality of it is the acts have been hijacked by non-talents who tend to use the show to launch careers with threadbare talent (transexuals / actresses / performers with wardrobe malfunctions during the heats etc etc). It strikes me the show is getting to the point of diminishing returns - yes there have been notable exceptions but less in recent years. As pointed out in earlier posts, the voting is rigged which undermines the show as a 'contest'. Unless the show can offer something fresh (in terms of quality output as well as allowing entry for new countries) I fail to see why it is worthwhile keeping it going.

Your point about the songs being sung in English is an interesting one - they used to have to sing in their native tongues but this restriction was removed after lobbying by some of the smaller countries who felt they were being disadvantaged.


I just can't get excited about the show and resent it clogging the schedules - yes, once a year is too much for me - stick it on an obscure digital channel if it has to be aired.

I think we have to agree to disagree on this one!

Freddy

Fair dos Sanndevil,

I must have been a bit grouchy after reading another forum, this time football, which was mostly full of back biting and jealousy after Liverpools win

regards
Freddy

The world wags on.

samkydd

I think most people enjoy it but the political voting makes a nonsense of the whole event. It's almost like a tacky and corrupt 1960s seaside bathing beauty competition!

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

Wetherby Pond

Surely buying a television in the first place is "paying on top of the licence fee"? Or do you object to that as well?

This is a more serious point than its apparent flippancy might suggest: there has always been a need to keep up to date with technology over and above the requirements of the licence fee - for instance, the transition from 405-line to 625-line broadcasts, from black and white to colour, from mono to stereo, 4:3 to 16:9, the introduction of Teletext and so on.

So unless you're seriously expecting the BBC to continue broadcasting black-and-white 405-line pictures and mono sound in order to avoid complaints about forcing people to buy new equipment "on top of the licence fee", I don't see what the problem is.

In any case, most programmes that premiere on the digital channels end up on BBC1 and BBC2 at some point, and usually sooner rather than later, so your implication that you're somehow being denied them is hugely misleading.

David Brent

I was surprised to read over here that the Irish entry was voted out in the "semi-finals".
I didn't know there were any preliminary rounds leading up to the Eurovision Song Contest !!!!
The songs in the final are pretty dire so I cannot believe that there were actually songs deemed NOT worthy of the final. How bad were they?

Viewers arn't allowed to vote for performers but I must state that given the chance I'd like to give the young Greek girl one !

Dave.

Wetherby Pond

They had a semi-final for the first time because so many nations were competing that the final would have become hopelessly unwieldy.

A couple of years ago (I think), I thought the Greek song was deliberately dreadful as the result of a dare to Cyprus to give it full marks. Needless to say...

samkydd

Well not quite Catch 22, you buy a telly so you need the licence, if you don't buy a telly you don't need a licence.
Fortunately many new television sets (are they still called "sets") have Freeview built in so as people replace their old ones they won't need to worry about it! Living in a coastal area where terrestrial television reception is often affected by adverse weather conditions, and we can't get Channel 5 anyway, a Freeview box is essential just to get a decent picture! However, if like many households you have more than one telly, you need to buy a box for each one!

Unfortunatley in more remote areas eg the Isle of Man was mentioned, Freeview isn't an option so many licence payers are being deprived of their right to programming (and decent reception).

Perhaps more investment is needed into the technology required to extend its range to give full coverage throughout the British Isles! It's not exactly a huge land mass like Russia or the USA is it? Just a thought!

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

Steve Crook

Has the Isle of Man switched over to colour TV yet?

Steve

samkydd

Only when they get tax relief for it!

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

Freddy

When in the early days of commercial flying and Safety was little known one of the first Manx airlines was operated on a shoestring and no one wore any uniforms. A party trick of the pilot was to get the co pilot to sit amongst the passengers and just after the start of flight the stewardess would come out of the cockpit looking worried and tell the passengers that the pilot was suffering from food poisoning and might not be able to carry on so was there anyone who could fly and more importantly land the plane. There would be a short pause and then the co pilot would put up his hand and go onto the flight deck.

LOL
Freddy

The world wags on.

samkydd

Hey kids, why don't we write next year's entry right here on this forum?
We can put in the usual rinky tinky music to it when the lyrics are finished.

The opening verses and chorus could be something like:

You won't vote for us but we don't care,
You really hate us and Tony Blair.
But we are U-Kay and we're the tops
You can't tell us about topping the pops.

Our music is always in great demand,
You just had ABBA and Plastic Bertrand.
The rest of Europe is pretty useless,
99 Red Balloons and Demis Roussos.

Chorus (female singers rip skirts off)

There's nil point in full points for Ukraine or Greece,
They don't have a Coldplay, The Smiths or Oa-sis
They envy us our chart success
Built on raw talent and nothing less.
Eurovision is such a farce,
You can shove your points tally right up your arse.
We are U-Kay and we're the best
And we just don't care about the rest!

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

David Brent

The Eurovision Song Contest and it's "old pals" style of voting sends out an awful warning to countries like the UK and is just one of the many reasons why smart people should vote NO to the European Constitution.

No, Nein, Non

Dave.

samkydd

Well without getting too political, the EU is only of benefit to those new members who have crap economies and infrastructure so they can get huge financial handouts to pay for things like motorways, public buildings and grants scams etc. EU membership also gives a licence to their citizens to roam and work where they want in Europe, but governmentally their countries still maintain a backward stance on things like equality and human rights. They agree to conform but carry on as they did before.

In the UK we contribute a lot and we do tend to conform to the letter to any EU regulation that comes out. Look at a restaurant kitchen in the UK, it has thousands spent on it just to comply with EU health & safety regs. Pick one at random in Italy or Spain and you wouldn't keep rats in there let alone food, but they get away with it!

Hunting is now banned in the UK, but no-one says anything about the barbaric spectacle of bull fighting in Spain and Portugal! "Oh, it's traditional, the tourists like it!" Bollocks, it's the worst kind of blood lust there is picking on an animal for sport, and no matter how well that bull defends himself he ain't gonna make it out alive! They still have monkeys and chimps on beaches in Greece and Turkey for photographs with tourists, and the poor things are treated very badly indeed! Try that in Brighton and you'd get locked up!

In Spain, local government seems to have more power than central and EU government so much so that they can take people's land and houses from them (usually from Brits) for development, and even make the owner pay for new roads to the development! Corruption is rife and the worst thing is that people just accept it!

There was a story about an EU Minister on his way to a meeting in Brussels and it started to snow. He didn't have a coat with him so he went into a tailors and bought an £800 overcoat and claimed for it on expenses! These sort of people should be stripped of public office and never be allowed to work in government again! Unfortunately there are probably a lot more of the same parasite with that greedy and selfish mentality than there are decent and honest folk in the EU assembly!

So f*** 'em all, I would opt out immediately and become another Switzerland! France will vote "Non!" today and consequently we won't need a referendum!

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

Marky B

I agree totally with the above sentiments of Samkydd and David Brent. As per usual Britain goes by the word of law,whilst the rest stick two fingers up to it and as soon as we do something wrong,we get pounded on.
Ta Ta
Marky B

I am special. The heavens always open for me.

Jeno solar brother

Eurovision in disguise!


Do you mean bouzouki or bazooka? The bouzouki distinguishes Greece and Cyprus, while the latter will be most probably used by countries such as Irak, Iran and Pakistan, a bloody terrorist attempt to bring an end or justice to this song contest, while their candidate sound, bombastic!