samkydd

It could have been a bazooka, it has the same effect on my ear drums! I was in Cyprus for a holiday for a few weeks and the same bouzouki band seemed to follow us around to whatever restaurant or hotel we went in to! It was a bit like the pan pipes South Americans on The Fast Show, they just popped up everywhere! The one song that stuck in memory from the Cyprus band had chorus lyrics that sounded like; "Victor Lazlo, Veec-tor Lahz-lo!" who was a character in Casablanca of course!

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

thebilllover

i watched the 2005 Eurovision song contest half way through and got bored due to it being rather crap.

thebilllover

samkydd brilliant lyrics

Marky B

This great country of ours has produced some tunesmiths over the years,Elgar,Vaughn Williams,Noel Coward,Lennon and McCartney,Page and Plant,Elton John,Andrew Lloyd Webber to name but a few. So what is the cult figure expressing the land,the yardstick of present culture,the vision of things to come honoured in the NME no. 1 slot - a stupid,******* frog. Perhaps we should enter it in next year's competition,and with any luck an Al-quaida sniper could be in the audience.
Ta Ta
Marky B

I am special. The heavens always open for me.

samkydd

Perhaps the froggy ringtone is an Al-Quaida plot to drive us all nuts with subliminal mind manipulation so that we all simultaneously go crazy and kill anyone on the tube or in the shopping mall whose 'phone plays that tune! Come back Greensleeves all is forgiven!

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

Marky B

Agreed
Ta Ta
Marky B

I am special. The heavens always open for me.

samkydd

No kidding, I was talking to some old boy the other day and he records the Eurovision Song Contest every year so that when his family visit him from abroad at Christmas they all watch it together! Isn't it about time they brought out a DVD boxed set of the contest? Forty five years of highlights!

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

Steve Crook

Highlights? Of the Eurovision Song Contest? Are there any highlights? Even after 45 years there might not be enough to fill a DVD.

Steve

samkydd

The reading out of the bent scores in every language would fill a boxed set without the songs, it takes forever! The highlights would definitely be Terry Wogan's acerbic commentaries!

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

Jackdaw

Absoluteley hate the bloody ESC.
It never has been what it purports to be,ie.,a mainstream popular music songwriting competition.
In the 50's the British singers tended to be passe variety acts,and in the 60's we entered mainsteam pop stars singing appalling coach-party anthems, occasionally accompanied by Bavarian oom-pah bands.
Since then we've had different combinations of boy/girl acts with the accent on choreography and lowest common denominator catch-penny songs.
How different was the British song contest in 1965.This was televised live,by ITV I think,and was judged by a panel of music professionals,one of whom I remember was Gerry Marsden.The songs were of the chart mainstream variety,and were performed by genuine,respected pop acts.
At this distance I can't remember all the songs,writers and acts,but the first three were :-

1) I'll stay by you - Kenny Lynch (No.29 June 65 -Prob. wriitten by him
2) Leave a little love - Lulu (No.8 June 65) - Not sure of writers
3) Tossing and turning - Ivy League (no.3 June 65) prob. Carter/Lewis

Unfortunately,despite the popular and critical success of the show,to the best of my knowledge it was never staged again.
No chance of anything like this happening again, because it doesn't allow TV companies to rake in undeserved revenue from gullible viewers.

Cheers
Jacky

samkydd

Well I think it should be a festive event broadcast on Christmas night! Everyone's either asleep in a post Christmas dinner, Quality Street and white wine stupor crashed out on the living room floor, or having a family argument in the kitchen whilst emptying the dishwasher with the selfish sister who didn't bother going to your Dad's funeral! Or having a meaningful conversation trying to chat up the neighbour's wife with the handsome cleavage and thighs on the garden bench over a sly cigarette because her old man thinks she's given up, while he's inside your house playing Buckeroo with tireless nephews and nieces! Perfect time for it!

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

samkydd

EUROVISION 2006

Eurovision didn’t disappoint last night, it was one of the funniest I’ve seen in recent years, and as usual the hosts had all the rapport and charm of a railway station announcer and the extent of the woman’s vocabulary was just “amazing�. They were next to useless in their role and it just shows how far behind the rest of the world is when it comes to organising such events, they actually took it seriously and must have thought they were superstars!

The biggest laugh of the night was the German cuntri unt vestern effort, which had me collapsing on the floor in uncontrollable fits of laughter. Their lacklustre effort was complemented with cowboy hats, McCloud suits and cheesy grins, and was definitely more Nuremberg than Nashville!

Some of the countries must have been instructed by their respective governments to promote traditional culture and so folk music, Zorba-type traditional dancing and costume accompanied their pop songs, which doesn’t always work. Can you imagine Oasis performing live with a load of Morris dancers jingling around on the stage with them, accompanied by penny whistle and recorder solos?

The Lithuanian effort “We Are The Winners, of Eurovision� was so unfunny it was laughable, and I suspect satire is not on the list of skills when it comes to song writing, along with the ability to sing or write more than three lines of lyrics. The acappella singing of I think, Latvia was as disjointed as their mechanical robot man that they had on stage with them, but at least the latter brought a bit of personality to the performance.

The UK’s effort was not really my cup of tea, IMWO rap is crap and ever more will be so, and middle class whiteys pretending to be from the New York ghettos is rather sad. Had it been the best song ever we still wouldn’t have got anywhere because we have no friendly neighbouring countries to vote for us. I’m surprised though because of the amount of people living here from the former Eastern Bloc I’d have thought they’d at least support us in something as crucial as Eurovision just to say thank you for all those welfare handouts and many undisturbed years of successful organised crime activities! (Daily Mail influenced comment there, I just wish I hadn't had to buy it every day in order to collect tokens just to get some free DVDs) [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img]

Some of the singers especially Norway, Sweden and the little blonde in the boots from one of the Balkan states were very talented performers (oooh! matron)! I thought Sweden would have won because it did sound like a proper pop song, but I’d forgotten about the ridiculous vote rigging set up to please or appease neighbouring countries.

The saddest performance had to be Turkey, and the “sex bomb� they had singing it looked like one of those slappers you see falling out of night clubs pissed at three in the morning, and she even had the grubby tattoos and beer gut. She wasn’t the prettiest doll in the shop window and 35 years ago she could have been a huge star with Hammer Films!

Russia got a lot of votes from their neighbours, but I suspect it was fear rather than appreciation of good song writing ability, and what’s 12 points in a song contest compared with the threat of 200 tanks crashing through your border posts and destroying everything in their wake! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tank.gif[/img] [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tank.gif[/img] [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tank.gif[/img]

The winners were the Finnish heavy metal band with “Hard Rock Hallelujah�, so memorable I've forgotten their names. Their lead singer was Roy Wood crossed with Windsor Davies, and with lyrics like “….the day of rockening� it was very Spinal Tap!

The only thing that let the evening down was Terry Wogan, his acerbic commentaries have been legendary over the years but this year he seemed rather subdued. If he ever decides to hang up his boots perhaps Jonathan Ross (and his script writers) could take over! Or even better, Stephen Fry!

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

penfold

Definitely the best line of the evening came from the Dutch judge who thought they were Will and Grace... That would improve Oasis considerably....proper Border Morris, or only the best Cotswold sides mind.. At work - where we had to watch as we were betting in running...we had suspicions that falsetto guy with the robot was Michael Jackson without the make-up...he even moonwalked at one stage...well he must need the money now !!??
That doesn't mean you have to read the fascist rag and believe it...seriously, before the event I would have agreed with you about the British entry, but on the night, in context, it sounded quite good, got a hell of a response from the live audience, was performed well, and only the political voting you mention stopped it doing far better, which it merited on reflection.
Dear Lord, you would not want to meet her in an alley on a dark night would you... More to the point Lordi (for it is they) are Spinal Tap meets The Leningrad Cowboys...the Finnish have a great record in sending us up with their ultra-dry Scandinavian humour...great fun, loved the slowly expanding batwings on the lead singer, reminiscent of the non-opening pods in Tap...and I half expected a 18" Stonehenge with dancing Pixies to emerge any moment...Terry mentioned Roy Wood too...fortunately Roy has a great sense of humour, so is unlikely to sue...I quite liked the female ghoul keyboard player/backing singer, who being made to look like one of the living dead brought back for one night only, thus bore a remarkable resemblance to Nana Mouskouri who was trundled on later... Nana wore marginally more make-up...
Some things are just too traditional to touch; leave Tel well alone......

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

Marky B

I only saw bits of it,as I was at work. I can't comment on Terry Wogan's commentary,as I rarely heard it,but over the years,he has been the best thing about the televised show.
Just one question - was that Gollum on the piano for the Russian entry?
Ta Ta
Marky B

I am special. The heavens always open for me.

samkydd

Terry Wogan is brilliant on this show, all I was saying was that he seemed a little subdued in his remarks.

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