[LMBTO] One Of My Regular Eurovision Events - Eurobash 2017...

I think that the only questions I would have added were asking more about Emmelie's PledgeMusic EP, Selma's carpool with Svala and Yohanna, and probably more about Yvie's vocal coaching during the 2016 UK NF.  Having said that, this was a great Guest List - it's always nice to see three people who are obviously very happy with their careers and who gave us all a very entertaining hour and a bit of their time!

The break afterwards did give everyone in the room an amazing opportunity to get selfies/pictures with the stars of our show.  You've already seen one at the start of the article - here are the rest (some of which have already appeared on my Instagram and Facebook pages):

I found out at this stage that the reason for Emmelie not being as available as much as she would like was that she was going to see her cousin play for Manchester City Academy.  What she did do was play the early set during the Battle - I managed to get a decent enough video of her singing, well, what else?



I'm looking forward to being a PledgeMusic VIP at one of her gigs, I can tell you...

It has to be said that the real headline act for this year's Bash was Selma, her whole set being officially recorded for posterity by Robin of OGAE:



A truly wonderful 41 minutes of Eurovision hits, musical theatre, Country & Western and two Eurovision medlies, where she generously shared the stage with the Eurostars contestants.  We even got to hear a specially written English version of “Amar pelos dois”, together with lots of Icelandic versions of songs that makes being a Eurovision fan totally worthwhile.  I've seen some great acts on the Eurobash stage during my four visits and I have to say something here...


It was probably due to her amazing repertoire of performing on stage, screen, tv and Eurovision that has allowed her to build up so much material but I would be delighted to see her perform again if I had the chance.  She was generous with her time with the fans too - she was happy to chat with them all and if I had known that I wasn't going to have an interview slot with her, I would taken advantage of the fact she was at Bar Pop and available all the way throughout Bash day.  A true star...


The Old Favourites were back - Euroquiz and The Battle...
After a year's absence, the Battle was back!  Danny and Paul both presented this event with due aplomb, leaving us to work out who the best UK entry was (or at least from twelve different sub groups!).  My picture of the final scoreboard was pretty poor, so I have borrowed Matthew's picture that shows that the OGAE Bash crowd decided that the UK entry of 1997 was the best ever:
I love the Battle as I always seem to be on the table that gives out a controversial set of scores - see table 6?  That was the SONIA table - Alec, Daniel, Eddie, Harry, Maria, Neil, Nigel, Rob, Robyn and myself.  We had Bardo's "One Step Further" down in 11th (on an individual basis, I did too) and almost certainly cost that entry second place.  My all-time favourite from 1972 at least made it into the top 5 and I was delighted that if that didn't win, that my second favourite of "Love Shine A Light" did.  It was a close run thing though - Katrina had to defeat Gina G to even get into the Final - see what I mean about the sub group issue?  An entertaining session though - not sure what the category will be in 2018...

As for the Euroquiz, I really only came into my own this year in the Final round as we had an assembly of Eurovision trivia experts on the Sonia table.  I managed my usual three this year that counted:
The question setters like Molly - she was who accompanied Stunt with their hit Raindrops...
Oldest living UK Eurovision artist - Teddy Johnson...
And I was never going to forget Alex and Bianca's surnames, seeing they were only at Eurobash two years ago and are FB friends (Larke and Nicholas)!

There was one other that I did know but was outvoted, such is the want of quiz teams - the name of the singer from Bad Boys Inc who sung at Eurovision : You Decide 2016?  Matthew James:
Nathan James is who we went for - there is a singer by that name who fronts a UK rock band called Inglorious but that didn't get us the point.  Which was a shame as we finished joint runner-up with 25 marks, behind the joint leaders who had half a mark extra.  I can't grumble though, I didn't know the other 22 answers everyone else on the table got right!  I am claiming my highest number of right answers to date though - FOUR.  If I go to enough Bashes, maybe I'll break double figures one day!


Eurostarz 2017 - Something us UK fans thought we'd never hear...
Eurovisionary reporter Theo Vatmanidis perfectly captured the moment that Selma was given the envelopes of who was third, second and first at Eurostars 2017.  It was a great contest as usual, with a variety of straight covers of Eurovision entries and a couple of, how shall I put it, more comical ones?  Have a watch of the show - I think you'll go for who I did as the winners...



Ever think you'd hear the words "And Jemini are the winners"?  Me neither but Sylvia and Edward were absolutely superb in their take on "Cry Baby" - it takes real skill to get your act spot on with the worst UK entry ever!  All of the entries were excellent this year - would I ever do it?  Not sure I know a Eurovision song well enough to do it justice...


I missed the EuroDisco...

When I say missed, I mean 'not danced at'.  I have no idea if my choices were played:
I missed all this as I was chatting at the bar and eating chip butties:



I'm sure that everyone else enjoyed these mixes though - I'm now too old for all of that moving and grooving...


And so my fourth Eurobash drew to a close - excellent in ways totally different to the previous four and yet not quite my favourite, mainly due to missing out on 1-2-1 chats with the Guests this year.  Friday night was the best yet, Selma was far and away the stand out Guest performer of all my Bashes and I had my best finish in the Quiz.  Superb organisation as per usual by all the OGAE team - everything that they could control was all in hand and ran wonderfully smoothly.  If the Interviews had gone ahead, I am sure that 2017 would have hit a new high...


Of course I am, although it will be the start of a new era with both the main host of Eurostars (Dean) and the Head Organiser (Paul) stepping down this year.  I wonder whether we will be moving venue - two years at Birmingham, two years at Manchester.  I suppose that all depends where the organisers are based - having it somewhere in Bristol or London would be good though!  And maybe having it a bit later, back where it normally is in early October - just throwing some suggestions out there...