[LMBTO] Eurobash 2016 - Interviews With The Stars...

I'm getting good at not showing any inhibitions about asking for a selfie with any Eurovision stars now!  The gorgeous Krista Siegfrids is obviously totally at ease with the demands of Eurovision fans, young and (in my case) old, and this picture fully deserves to be pride of place as the title piece for my experiences at the latest Eurobash, the annual OGAE UK party held on 1st October in Manchester.  This was the third one for me but the first one away from Birmingham that I had been to in 2014 and 2015.

This being my third 'Bash meant that I was in that weird situation of no longer being a Newbie but not having attended enough to be a veteran.  Even so, when the call came in June to put our names forward for the 2016 show, I was in like a shot - an advantage having been to two previous ones meant that I had no hesitation in applying for this one, even though it was further away from my home.  Over the intervening months, we learnt who our three 'Guests' were going to be and they were certainly top notch ones:

The King of Eurovision Presenting?  This year's UK artists?  My 50th Eurovision Beauty?  I know, I took advantage of the situation to pick Krista a few days before, just in case I got to meet her face to face!  For those of us that had been in Birmingham last year and witnessed the potential downside of the Contest, there was surely no way that four of the most enthusiastic people on planet Eurovision could bring us anything other than joy and happiness!  That was all to come on the day itself but a brief 'setting of the scene' - imagine that Eurobash 2016 mimicked loosely the Eurovision host city experience...

A three hour train journey plus a very lazy 'tourist decision' to get a taxi from Manchester Piccadilly to the hotel found me at the venue with the minimum of fuss.  First impressions of the accommodation were excellent - the Superior rooms shown on the website clearly were that and along with a very spacious double room and a reasonable view:

Top marks for the accommodation at the host venue and the ambience of the waiting area for the big event itself wasn't bad either:

Decent food, liquid refreshments of a reasonable if pricey quality and great companionship, especially now I am getting in the swing of just instigating conversations with those I have only 'met' on social media.  We were all in with the 'mainstream' as far as the venue's clientele were concerned, although they drifted away quite quickly, leaving just the hardcore Eurofans in place!

We all like a challenge, don't we?  With 'Sherpa' Chris Poppe leading the way with his 'guide book' (Google Maps, I think it was), we made it to our Friday night entertainment.  Looks can be deceiving as it was much more spacious inside than out - decent beer too, although it seemed that sports fans might have been its normal trade (although that didn't bother me much).  I suspect that I was one of the only ones there glancing at the big plasma screens due to Rachel Riley being on (helping Jeff Stelling present the Friday Night football) but the music quickly held my attention - DJ Danny Lynch doing a fine job although he did like his Poli...

One of the things I noticed about being at this Eurobash as compared to the previous two (apart from being further north) was that I got to chat with more of the 'movers and shakers' in the Eurovision world.  Earlier that evening I had given JP from Eurovision Radio International a recommendation about the Piri Piri chicken at the hotel and now I was having a good old chat with James Sheen, the driving force behind escSocial, finding out about his European trips and how he danced in the middle of French roads (I've seen the video)!  I will be using some of his work to highlight some of the main events on the Saturday - a picture (or video) painting a thousand words and all that...

Me being an oldie meant that I forewent the dancing and returned to the hotel, surprisingly without getting lost, to get ready for the big event...

It had to be one of my Eurovision-themed t shirts and as the Riga Beaver appears to 'love you', that just had to be the one to go for.  I was even lucky enough not to clash with anyone else - Kylie Wilson would be so proud of me and I know that she knew I had worn it as one of her friends told me that he had passed on the good news...

I've got three of these now - year one has no white spaces on it as it is covered with notes, whereas year two is quite the clean fella as I used my iPad to record titbits of information (I was sitting next to the OGAE UK team who wear typing too, so I felt I could get away with it).  This one is half and half - not pristine enough to sell on eBay but something for posterity nonetheless...

Hey Bitches!  Yep, this year each table was a contestant from Stockholm and no-one rubbish neither!  None of your Serhat nor ManuElla this time (although some fans would have perversely been pleased to have been on the Burgundy Suited Wonder's table), decent talent - a definite step up from Scooch and Macedonia that were my lot in Birmingham (the team names there, NOT the people, I hasten to add!).  Not only that but the Hovi Star delegation had the joy of being one of those near the stage AND had some of the brains of Eurovision there, including the aforementioned JP, who clearly knew their stuff.  The only downside was that we were to be evicted later as we were the 'Green Room' table but hey, that's good too!  Two of our number wouldn't have to go as they ended up being "RiskyKidd and Freaky Fortune"...

I suppose that I could kid myself that I took our team from ninth to joint fourth with those three extra points, up to 31,  but that would be grossly unfair on the more knowledgeable members of the Hovi team!  Best finish yet though - maybe next year I'll break into the Top 3...

For me, this was the best Guest List of any of the three Eurobashes I have attended.  An amazing compère and commentator, our superb duo in Stockholm and one of my favourite Eurovision artists were all on stage, being asked questions by our congenial host, Monty.  I really appreciated the position of the Hovi Star table for this segment:

Money could not buy a view like that...sorry, of course, money DID buy a view like that but I could have been stuck at the back of the room somewhere!  Where was Paddy's flag, I hear you cry?  He didn't need one, he had his beer as he wasn't singing later on!  There was something else that I had worked out the previous evening when I first laid eyes on the gorgeous Ms.Siegfrids, as she smiled at me as we passed each other at reception - she is SO petite!  See those heels?  I always thought that the platforms she wore for 'Marry Me' were for show but they were mainly to make her taller!  She is the first Eurovision Beauty that I have met in real life, got a selfie with and, as you will read later, interviewed.  Those were some of the 'Firsts' I experienced in Manchester...

Monty was kind enough to supply another First - I contributed two questions asked of the Guest List stars!  I'll get to those in a minute but I'll sum up the highlights of the Q&A session:

Now you've already seen this picture at the start of my 2017 UK Selection Process post - Joe & Jake were kind enough to use Joe's long arms to great effect and give me a selfie after my chat with them.  Theirs came later in the day as they had to prepare for their set earlier on but I managed to get interviews with all of the Guests, which I was delighted with.  Now as this was my first attempt at chatting with Eurovision celebs and putting some questions to them, I went for the 'use a Digital Voice Recorder as a note taker' method and that is what I told each of the Guests I was doing.  It would now be very unfair to now post the audio of those conversations, despite the quality being a lot, lot better than I thought it would be and it bringing out an gem of what sounded like a 'Carry On' sketch at the start of one interview!  Jamie McLoughlin, who I have highlighted many times in this blog and who is a bona-fide journalist, gave me one superb piece of advice before doing my interviews - "people want to hear what your interviewee has to say, not you".  Great advice although I did falter slightly with one Guest who I got a little bit star struck with - can you guess who?  So here goes - I think it went well enough that I might do more of these...

It was just Paddy there, believe me, but I stupidly forgot to take a picture or selfie with him.  Schoolboy error, that won't happen again, especially as he was the perfect interviewee and I could not have asked for a better, more informative and insightful person to chat to.  Now some of what I would have asked him had already been covered during the official Guest List (in particular his not wishing to be 'an old man presenting Eurovision') but I did touch on that to a degree.  I listened back to my recording of this interview and perhaps it was down to Paddy being the consummate professional and putting me at ease so much that I didn't sound quite the gibbering fool that I thought I might be!  To be fair, I do talk all the time in my job, extracting information with relevant questions so I can then supply the right information (and/or medicine) so maybe those skills are useful elsewhere...who knew?  Anyway, onto the interview - although I still view them as chats, as I always feel you get more relevant and telling titbits that way. 

The ESC 60th Anniversary Conference:  I repeated my view that he was an excellent compère there.  He explained that it was quite a serious event and obviously less light hearted compared to Eurobash.  He sometimes felt that that some fans want the 'Bash to be a bit more serious but not to the extent of last year, as he had been told by Monty that the mood of the 2015 Guest List was almost funereal!  There were a lot of serious minded people at the Conference but Paddy realised that it was also an entertainment spectacle and a mix was needed.  I asked what his highpoint of the event was - he enjoyed the session on songwriting and having producers of Eurovision discuss their experiences (mine was Andy Knoll presenting an award to the lady above).  He always sees Eurovision as a great show, even 2014 which he described as "the Truman Show on the island"!  I mentioned the amazing statistic of Iceland viewing figures being as high as 99% for the Eurovision Final - he flagged up that "Eurovision favours small nations" and that they fall in love with the show.

Presenting Eurovision again: He had spoken about leaving hosting the Contest and commentating to younger presenters on the Guest List, mentioning Scott Mills having one million Twitter followers and the exposure that this gives the Contest in the UK.  I asked if the BBC should persevere with a younger audience or focus perhaps on a Radio 2 demographic, where some the songs at Eurovision might sit more readily?  He did repeat that he'd love to commentate again but that

as artists don't see it as being cool to perform there and the UK music industry doesn't want to co-operate.  He felt that it was easier to knock the Contest in the UK ("I didn't know Montenegro was a country", "it's a throwback to the 1980s" etc) - Paddy felt it was okay to take the mickey out of ourselves as Brits but 'we should live the Contest'.  He felt that it was better to inject youth, vigour and enthusiasm into our entries but apart from employing Graham Norton, everything else about the BBC approach to Eurovision was tired.  Part of the problem with this was that the Eurovision format was owned by the EBU and not the BBC - he compared this with Strictly Come Dancing, where the BBC owned it all and was continually able to improve it and make it better as time goes on.  He believed that the BBC would be sad if Eurovision was taken away from them but he wondered if the threat of that happening might stimulate 'the BBC suits' into changing their approach.  He pointed out that quite a few formats had left the BBC (he focused on cricket) and they had got better, introduced new technology and approaches to those shows that had moved.  He could see Simon Cowell taking over the selection process for Eurovision and doing it his way - if the Contest moved channels, he would be interested to see what would happen next.  He stated that the BBC were close to giving up Eurovision in the past but they really needed to work out their strategy now.

I asked if he thought The Voice could be used as a selection process if ITV took over the reigns, as in other nations - he highlighted that the issue always seemed to be the timing of the winner being announced after the closing submission date but that it could have easily been used for selecting a winner.  Paddy also pointed out that it would make for tremendous co-operation if the winner could then sing for the BBC at Eurovision but the great rivalry between media and recording companies would have to be overcome.

Could the UK send a non-English language song?  Paddy had mentioned on the Guest List that we in the UK had effectively won each year as all the hosting and almost all the modern winners were sung in English - as an off the wall question, I asked him if we in the UK could send a non-English language song to Eurovision, for instance in Welsh or Gaelic.  He replied that if the entry was authentic that would be fine but if it sounded in the least bit contrived then the idea was doomed to fail.  All the UK entries over the last twenty years had failed to chart and he felt that it was vital for the UK population to be totally behind the entry for us to stand a chance of winning - the fact that we hadn't had any songs in a foreign language in our charts for many years would make the likelihood of that idea being a success unlikely.  When he (and me) was growing up, French songs appeared in the UK chart and any winning Eurovision song would appear in our top 20.  He would personally love to send a song in Welsh, for instance as a five part Welsh choir but he pointed out that I was viewing this all as a 'Eurovision fan' (in other words, perhaps not totally realistically!).  He did suggest a solidarity song in French after what has happened in the past twelve months with terrorist attacks, maybe with a fluent French singer in a similar situation to ZOË from Austria.

This enthralling interview was then over but as a parting comment, Paddy did say that he couldn't see the UK winning for a long time...such a shame I couldn't follow up on that!


Krista Siegfrids
I have to say thank you to Adam King for this superb picture of Krista, taken later on during her Eurobash set, and sorry to Paddy and Joe & Jake for clearly stating that Ms Siegfrids was far and away the most beautiful of the Guest List stars I interviewed.  You knew I was going to say that anyway!  She was very charming, nice and very helpful, even offering to assist me by holding my recording microphone in her hand whilst we were chatting so I could get better sound quality - when I listened to it back though, it sounded like lines from a Carry On film, where a couple are chatting but you can't see what they are talking about:

I apologise to Krista now for revealing this piece of Eurovision comedy gold but I couldn't resist - it sounds so down to earth on the recording too!  One thing I did notice listening to our interview again was that, compared to Paddy where I came across interested but in a professional way, with Krista I came across at times as a major fan who was trying a bit too hard to impress and blathering on about his blogs!  Something to bear in mind if I happen to meet any more of my 'Eurovision Beauties' - stop going all soft and soppy...

I had also learnt a valuable lesson in interviewing people during the Guest List itself - don't give your really good questions to someone else to ask!  I had flagged up the Instagram picture and the classic #sohappyIcouldshitrainbows to Monty and supplied the perfect question for Krista about maybe performing at Melodifestivalen in 2017 - I couldn't ask that again!

Being at events like Eurobash: she always loves attending these sort of events, she finds it so much fun as she 'belongs' here amongst Eurovision fans who have always been so supportive and given her so much love.

The introduction to UMK 2014: as regular readers will know, I think that her lead in the introduction to the UMK Final in 2014 was THE BEST start to any NF ever.  I told her so and said that not enough people had praised her for it, at least in Eurovision and even though I know no Finnish, the visual comedy was superb.  Krista said that she found it so much fun to do and she thanked me for saying that I enjoyed it so much, she was pleased with it and how many people had a laugh about it.

Any disappointment with her Eurovision placing?  she said that she was initially but now it didn't matter as she and her Ding Dong Girls had so much fun and they were all proud of their performance.   She would still stage the song the same way and she is delighted that people still remember her and the song, with the bonus that she can come to these events!  I added to that that there was no way that anyone was going to forget her!

Was she happy with her Melodifestivalen placing?  As she said in the Guest List in response to my question there, she knew that she wasn't going to win but really wanted to use the exposure to get into the Swedish record market and she felt it helped her get her record deal.  She had mentioned in the Guest list about a new single but whilst helping with our selfie, she mentioned that there would also be an EP afterwards.  I asked if she would consider singing in Swedish for Finland but she felt that as it was such a small minority language there that it wouldn't work - her first language is Swedish anyway so singing in Sweden is a natural fit.  As a final question I asked if she enjoyed presenting as much as singing - Krista loved presenting UMK and feels that 'it is part of her wide set of skills'.  What with singing, presenting and other tv work, she never gets bored!

And there my interview ended as we were under tighter time pressure before re-entering the room.  I learnt a big lesson whilst chatting to one of my favourite artists (professionally and physically) - don't whitter on and get tongue tied.  I did it once, I hope that Krista didn't notice but I did on my playback - cringe!  It was a really enjoyable experience and getting so close to such a wonderfully fun and beautiful woman was an experience I'll not forget in a hurry!


Joe & Jake



Now this was the set that meant I had to wait to get my interview with the 2016 UK representatives in Stockholm but it was worth it to get this footage of them singing a matter of feet away - hooray for being on the Hovi Star table!  Apologies for thinking that I could swap easily from portrait to landscape towards the end of this video but it didn't matter as the guys went down a storm!  This meant that, after the Euro Gongs (more of those later), the guys were relaxed with some drinks in front of them and I managed to have a chat with them on their table in front of the tv screen at the edge of the bar!  It seemed noisier then than it sounded on playback and I got an excellent chatty interview - next time I'll ask permission from all my interviewees to put those up instead of summarising it here!

The National Final and Eurovision: I started off the interview by telling J&J that their set earlier was 'a cracking show' (for some reason going all Wallace and Gromit!) but I said that I thought, like a lot of the fans in the room, that they would just be singing "You're Not Alone".  Jake said that "they liked to surprise".  Joe said that they felt really appreciated here and there was nothing like performing in front of Eurovision fans.  I mentioned being at the UK NF and felt that the sound quality at the venue wasn't the best but that they were the best on the night by far.  Joe said that he just cringes watching that show back on tv but they were both really happy with their performance in Stockholm.  Following on, I highlighted them mentioning to Monty how disappointed they were at the televote total they got and wondered if they thought they had sung brilliantly in the Jury Final but less well in the Saturday Final?  J&J both felt the same in that they could have done better on the Friday night but that they nailed the public Final, Joe going as far as to say that it was the best they had ever sung it. Like us all, they felt that the public vote was going to be the big one for them, as they viewed the staging as a sentimental one, what with the selfie wall behind them, showing off how many people supported them.

The Production of "You're Not Alone" : I was forthcoming in saying that I felt that YNA was the only song at the UK NF with instant appeal and that I was singing the chorus word for word before the song itself had finished.  Because of that, I felt that it would work superbly well at Eurovision and that others would get the hook straight away.  Jake indicated that the original demo version was completely different and they had changed it a lot.  They felt that the lyrics were perfect for Eurovision, it being such a close knit and tight community - in the end, they recorded 48 different versions, spending over 50 hours in the studio.  "Were they little tweaks?", I asked.  Jake said that they practically changed the song in its entirety and Joe even sung the original chorus which sounded like a lot of random 'ohs' all over the place.  My comment of "good call to change it from what it was" got a laugh from all concerned (I think that showed how relaxed the interview was)!  The chorus was one issue, as was how to end the song but the producer guided them through the process - a very straight talker and intimidating at first, they quoted him as saying if they got something wrong "how the f*ck are you not getting this?".  Apparently this was the producer of 'Mezzanine' by Massive Attack (I assume that was Neil Davidge?) who had also worked with Cheryl, Kylie, Robbie Williams and Olly Murs so very established.  As for the staging, J&J went for something a lot simpler that Electro Velvet's LCD suits - leather jackets and jeans!  They wanted to stay 'them', not being something that they weren't normally.

Favourite Acts at Stockholm? : I asked each who they liked songwise - Joe went for Poli Genova, even going as far to say that he felt she should have won as she got a great reaction from the crowd and the song seemed very Bieber-ish as far as the effects and production values were concerned.  Jake liked Amir, he bought the song as he really loved the melody.  He also loved Laura Tesoro's staging, although even he thought it sounded a lot like Fleur East!

Why Liverpool? : I threw a football question in for personal interest and asked why they were both Liverpool FC fans, given that Joe is from North Wales (slightly understandable geographically) and Jake from Stoke.  I then found out that Jake's dad is from the Wirral and all his family are from Liverpool so it made absolute sense.  His first kit was a Carlsberg 1994 away kit, whereas Joe started being a fan watching the Liverpool-Man Utd FA Cup Final featuring 'The White Suits'.  My slightly sarcastic comment of "Nice!" got another laugh.  Support of The Reds was how they got chatting on The Voice and it helped 'break a layer of ice', as Jake put it, Joe going as far to say that they rarely spoke of music backstage.  Because of the link, they have never argued...yet!  I said that I was a Portsmouth fan - Joe put his hand on my shoulder and said 'ahhh', whereas Jake said that I wouldn't 'get any stick from them'.  I tried to retaliate by asking when was the last time that they had won the FA Cup - Jake trumped me by asking asking when was the last time Portsmouth had won the Champions League!  Touché!

I wound the interview up there or so I thought - Joe went off for a comfort break but I continued to chat with Jake and their manager for a couple of minutes longer.  I said that I hoped that this was a more relaxed setting for an interview than being in the Eurovision Bubble, where I suspected it was more like the 'two chair setting', with a press person sitting across from them and being asked the same questions time after time.  Jake said that the Eurovision press were fine in Stockholm but he did get annoyed by some of the mainstream press who would throw in questions like "how did you vote in the General Election" and "how are you going to vote in the EU Referendum".  Jake said that Joe was laid back about such things but as far as he was concerned, it was none of their business!  He did sympathize with some as he was told that the reporter HAD to ask those questions or risk the wrath of their Editor.  It was an interesting insight into how the Eurovision and regular press differ in their priorities of reporting.

Overall, J&J were a real pleasure to chat with and interviewing them was a breeze, so much so that it was almost like chatting to some mates down the pub.  I really hope that things turn out brilliantly for them as they are such nice guys...


The Pre-Contest Poll - EuroGongs 2016...
Now this was different to my previous two Eurobash events in Birmingham as we had Battle of The Bash, where we had voted for various acts beforehand and then given our scores per table for each of the Finalists, ending up with a winner after each table had voted.  This year I was one of the 'tens' to vote pre-Bash for various categories relating to Eurovision 2016 - my run of NOT predicting the winners of each category continued (how on earth people put up with reading my ratings for National Finals and at Eurovision, I don't know!) but I'll list the nominees and winners - see how you would have got on (I got three - those with stars - that really seems to be 'my magic number')...


Various people got up to announce the winners, including a certain petite blonde:
All good fun and it will be interesting to see whether this is repeated for next year...


The Contest Itself and a superb Interval Act - Eurostars!

After a very lovely dinner which went down a treat and absorbed some of the alcohol imbibed, we returned to the room for the raffle draw (first year I had actually seen the person selling the tickets but no luck with winning anything) and then onto what a lot of the fans assembled would consider the highpoint of the day - Eurostars!  I like watching the time and effort spent by all the competitors coming to fruition during the show but after my experiences of interviewing all of the Guest List celebs, I was still buzzing from my chats!  The quality of the Stars was top notch however - I realised as they lined up at the start that I now knew quite a few of them personally (as in Facebook personally!):
There's Ben as a certain lady from Albania, Patrick as a doctor from Malta, Philip about to sing about a Russian dog, Elaine (hidden by a camera) ready to be an Irish winning singer but singing her other song and two guys, who were on the Hovi Star table, ready to get out their trampets...but I digress, have a gander at all the acts on this excellent video by escSocial...



What did I think of all the acts?  Excellent in fact but I always go for quality of singing, which might suggest that I take this slightly too seriously...Gianluca from Malta got my top score, followed by the madness of Verka:
But who won, I hear you ask?  You'll have to wait just a little bit longer, as the Eurostars got a chance to cool down and a certain lady in a snug fitting red jumpsuit gave us a show to remember:
That is why she is clearly a Eurovision Beauty!  And her set showed why she is so popular with Eurovision fans everywhere, singing songs with deep emotions for her and also her well known favourites, even getting to 'marry' two men - can you guess which song accompanied that one?



In the end, Krista gave a well deserved winners trophy to Verka Serduchka (Sam) for his excellent portrayal of the madness of "Dancing Lasha Tumbai", where even all the other contestants were praising his performance.  With that done, there was only dancing and drinking to be done:
And chatting with other regulars of the Bash over chip butties at midnight!  And drinks into the small hours...

Like the previous years, Sunday was the sad parting of the ways, a hearty breakfast and then checking out to return to our homes, mine to Bristol but I did get to ride on a tram:
All in all, it was, as promised on the front of the programme, "a day of Eurotastic fun!".  Always a shame when it has to end but end it must...

Three bashes in, three excellent events!  No complaints about the day at all - drinks a bit pricey but we were in a hotel in an area where there didn't appear to be much competition around.  Content-wise, if I was honest, I did miss "Battle Of The Bash" so that might be the only item I'd bring back next year.  As a final comment on Eurobash 2016, I want to say a massive thank you to everyone at OGAE UK involved with the organisation of this as always - great presenting, amazing sourcing of guests, superb organisation to allow me to chat to four extremely interesting Eurovision celebs and a very comfortable venue to boot...