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redfiona99But then I realised I might be the last person left alive who thinks that the Manics are sublime. Anyhow, they performed in BBC Radio 6's Hub (their version of Jo Whiley's live lounge, I think), link here http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/events/hub/
Go have a look. Not only are they in fine fettle (a gorgeous acoustic version of 'Your Love Alone is Not Enough, laughing, smiling, joking, Nicky looking dangerous and JDB being his straight man, people having kendo as their excuse for being absent) but the two new tracks they play make me even more excited for their new album.
Plus, there's a fair few other bands up.
Now for the ridiculous portion of our programming:
Eurovision
Which makes me wish I had a spangly font on here, for if anything deserves spangles it is Eurovision.
I ended up watching this with fencers, which was probably just as well, since the others I would have watch it with were already drunk and well, I have a higher tolerance for booze and they're a little wearisome when drunk.
Bosnia and Herzogovina - Wailing woman 1, there will be more. Pleasant enough, but nothing really stands out about it.
Spain - Bad boy band number 1. I am struck by the feeling that I have heard this 1500 times before, even though this is the first time I have ever heard it.
Belarus - As Stu described it "with different words it would make a decent Bond tune". The second person of the night to have their hair colour questioned, the first was the blond Spanish boy-bander.
Ireland - General concensus was that Ireland are really desperate not to win again. This was awful. Worse grammar than the Belarussian entry, worse singing than me, 'interesting' lyrics.
Finland - Not a bad little song, and the first of what became the night's dominating feature, scary women.
FYR Macedonia - The third wailing woman of the evening. Slightly poppier, but again nothing remarkable.
Slovenia - Another scary, wailing woman, with light up hands this time. But actually a rather good track. We approved.
Hungary - Oh God no. Worst track of the evening by far. It was indeed unsubstansial blues, as it had all the heartfeltness of wet lettuce.
Lithuania - A fetching little tune, well performed. I liked the flamenco guitars and the shadow backdrop.
Greece - Fun little song, poppy, dancy, just that little bit old-fashioned. Although it was suggested that the Turkish song was the Ricky Martin-esque one, this was it, possibly because being as it was called 'Yassou Maria', it brought back memories of 'Une, Dos, Tres'.
Georgia - Odd song, vaguely like Bjork's poppier moments. Dancy, angular, catchy. People approved of her "Cossak" backing troops. But I did end up watching this with fencers so that's to be expected.
Sweden - Our first case of gender confusion of the night, when the blokes all thought that the Swedish lead singer was a woman. Even after he started singing. Blatent T-Rex/'Spirit in the Sky' rip-off, not that that's bad but it wasn't exactly spectactular. Jokes about a worrying kind of what did abound (the song is called 'The Worrying Kind') and also much discussion as to whether they were ripping off Status Quo, whether this was good and whether or not Status Quo were worth ripping off.
France - my favourite song by a mile. They played with words and were silly but not too much and just yes, loved it. And also, I've got to love people who's outfits were designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier, complete with toy cats as lapels, angels wings for the drummer and general insanity. I have been assured I am insane by everybody.
Latvia - Or not Il Divo as they were called by all in attendance. They're better singers than Il Divo, better looking too. They could have done with a better song, although I quite like the insanity of Latvians singing in Italian for Eurovision.
Russia - Bland and boring, soul-less, heartless synthetic pop. Then again, I don't think I'm the target audience ;) So glad they didn't win.
Germany - so you've got Germans singing in German in a rat-pack stylee. Mysteriously, it kind of worked. I also approve of any song entitled 'Women Rule the World'.
Serbia - Was the odd sapphic subtext supposed to be there? She's not a bad singer, didn't think much of the song.
Ukrainian - Oh dear God the madness. Catchy as this is (and dear God I can remember the words), and as often as I've danced to it since, I didn't think it was that good. Somehow, Stu managed to wonder if Verka was actually in drag.
Britain - It was just so annoyingly bad. They were just so smug 'look at us, we can do innuendo' and smirking and it wasn't a good enough song to compete with the good songs and it wasn't mad enough to compete with the mad ones, particularly coming just after the Ukrainian entry. A dud.
Romania - Again with the love of word play and silliness, and I have a love of songs that change pace. Much love to these as well. I really liked how they passed on the 'baton' of the verses and the dance routine.
Bulgaria - Wailing woman number 5, but boy did she have oomph and drums. Danny's favourite. Danny has however had fewer accusations of madness than I have had. Naomi thought it was a dashed odd tune given the song. It did have a certain charm though.
Turkey - Lousy, cheesy, sucky and out of date.
Armenia - the second worst song of the night. Possibly worse than Hungary's but at least it wasn't declaiming to be blues.
Moldova - Another, scary, scary woman, probably the scariest of the night.
Videos of all of these, and those knocked out at the semi-final stage can be found here : http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/eurovision/2007/contestants/
If Fionaland were allowed a vote, the votes would have been distributed as follows:
1 - Belarus
2 - Finland
3 - Sweden
4 - Ukraine
5 - Lithuania
6 - Slovenia
7 - Georgia
8 - Greece
10 - Romania
12 - France
Anyway, because of a general dislike for the British entry and a general love for the madness of the Ukrainian one (me being the dissenting vote cheering for France as I was) the house was cheering for the Ukraine.
So the first couple of nations are Balkan states and Serbia gets a lot more votes than expected but it's quite close between them and the Ukraine. However they start to pull away and mental arithmatic starts having to be used to try and figure out how close the Ukraine are and how the votes would have to go.
Of course, in the end, Serbia won by a lot, and claims were made in the house that there was bribery and corruption. This was funny because the night was started with cries of how pointless and boring Eurovision was.
I really don't get why people are complaining about block voting, hell a good song won. Not my favourite, but one of the best straight songs on show. And really I don't see why Britain is getting it's knickers in a twist given that they sent Scooch a band so laughably bad that they're not funny. Germany and France have long since given up on winning and they don't get their knickers in a twist when the joke acts they send don't win.
Also this whole thing about block votes. Yes, it happens, and Turkey will always get 12 points from Germany etc. But you know what, Lordi won, and okay, yes, the Scandanavians vote for each other, but Lordi got points of everyone else too. If the UK wants to win, it needs to send a good song, that's what wins things.
Go have a look. Not only are they in fine fettle (a gorgeous acoustic version of 'Your Love Alone is Not Enough, laughing, smiling, joking, Nicky looking dangerous and JDB being his straight man, people having kendo as their excuse for being absent) but the two new tracks they play make me even more excited for their new album.
Plus, there's a fair few other bands up.
Now for the ridiculous portion of our programming:
Eurovision
Which makes me wish I had a spangly font on here, for if anything deserves spangles it is Eurovision.
I ended up watching this with fencers, which was probably just as well, since the others I would have watch it with were already drunk and well, I have a higher tolerance for booze and they're a little wearisome when drunk.
Bosnia and Herzogovina - Wailing woman 1, there will be more. Pleasant enough, but nothing really stands out about it.
Spain - Bad boy band number 1. I am struck by the feeling that I have heard this 1500 times before, even though this is the first time I have ever heard it.
Belarus - As Stu described it "with different words it would make a decent Bond tune". The second person of the night to have their hair colour questioned, the first was the blond Spanish boy-bander.
Ireland - General concensus was that Ireland are really desperate not to win again. This was awful. Worse grammar than the Belarussian entry, worse singing than me, 'interesting' lyrics.
Finland - Not a bad little song, and the first of what became the night's dominating feature, scary women.
FYR Macedonia - The third wailing woman of the evening. Slightly poppier, but again nothing remarkable.
Slovenia - Another scary, wailing woman, with light up hands this time. But actually a rather good track. We approved.
Hungary - Oh God no. Worst track of the evening by far. It was indeed unsubstansial blues, as it had all the heartfeltness of wet lettuce.
Lithuania - A fetching little tune, well performed. I liked the flamenco guitars and the shadow backdrop.
Greece - Fun little song, poppy, dancy, just that little bit old-fashioned. Although it was suggested that the Turkish song was the Ricky Martin-esque one, this was it, possibly because being as it was called 'Yassou Maria', it brought back memories of 'Une, Dos, Tres'.
Georgia - Odd song, vaguely like Bjork's poppier moments. Dancy, angular, catchy. People approved of her "Cossak" backing troops. But I did end up watching this with fencers so that's to be expected.
Sweden - Our first case of gender confusion of the night, when the blokes all thought that the Swedish lead singer was a woman. Even after he started singing. Blatent T-Rex/'Spirit in the Sky' rip-off, not that that's bad but it wasn't exactly spectactular. Jokes about a worrying kind of what did abound (the song is called 'The Worrying Kind') and also much discussion as to whether they were ripping off Status Quo, whether this was good and whether or not Status Quo were worth ripping off.
France - my favourite song by a mile. They played with words and were silly but not too much and just yes, loved it. And also, I've got to love people who's outfits were designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier, complete with toy cats as lapels, angels wings for the drummer and general insanity. I have been assured I am insane by everybody.
Latvia - Or not Il Divo as they were called by all in attendance. They're better singers than Il Divo, better looking too. They could have done with a better song, although I quite like the insanity of Latvians singing in Italian for Eurovision.
Russia - Bland and boring, soul-less, heartless synthetic pop. Then again, I don't think I'm the target audience ;) So glad they didn't win.
Germany - so you've got Germans singing in German in a rat-pack stylee. Mysteriously, it kind of worked. I also approve of any song entitled 'Women Rule the World'.
Serbia - Was the odd sapphic subtext supposed to be there? She's not a bad singer, didn't think much of the song.
Ukrainian - Oh dear God the madness. Catchy as this is (and dear God I can remember the words), and as often as I've danced to it since, I didn't think it was that good. Somehow, Stu managed to wonder if Verka was actually in drag.
Britain - It was just so annoyingly bad. They were just so smug 'look at us, we can do innuendo' and smirking and it wasn't a good enough song to compete with the good songs and it wasn't mad enough to compete with the mad ones, particularly coming just after the Ukrainian entry. A dud.
Romania - Again with the love of word play and silliness, and I have a love of songs that change pace. Much love to these as well. I really liked how they passed on the 'baton' of the verses and the dance routine.
Bulgaria - Wailing woman number 5, but boy did she have oomph and drums. Danny's favourite. Danny has however had fewer accusations of madness than I have had. Naomi thought it was a dashed odd tune given the song. It did have a certain charm though.
Turkey - Lousy, cheesy, sucky and out of date.
Armenia - the second worst song of the night. Possibly worse than Hungary's but at least it wasn't declaiming to be blues.
Moldova - Another, scary, scary woman, probably the scariest of the night.
Videos of all of these, and those knocked out at the semi-final stage can be found here : http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/eurovision/2007/contestants/
If Fionaland were allowed a vote, the votes would have been distributed as follows:
1 - Belarus
2 - Finland
3 - Sweden
4 - Ukraine
5 - Lithuania
6 - Slovenia
7 - Georgia
8 - Greece
10 - Romania
12 - France
Anyway, because of a general dislike for the British entry and a general love for the madness of the Ukrainian one (me being the dissenting vote cheering for France as I was) the house was cheering for the Ukraine.
So the first couple of nations are Balkan states and Serbia gets a lot more votes than expected but it's quite close between them and the Ukraine. However they start to pull away and mental arithmatic starts having to be used to try and figure out how close the Ukraine are and how the votes would have to go.
Of course, in the end, Serbia won by a lot, and claims were made in the house that there was bribery and corruption. This was funny because the night was started with cries of how pointless and boring Eurovision was.
I really don't get why people are complaining about block voting, hell a good song won. Not my favourite, but one of the best straight songs on show. And really I don't see why Britain is getting it's knickers in a twist given that they sent Scooch a band so laughably bad that they're not funny. Germany and France have long since given up on winning and they don't get their knickers in a twist when the joke acts they send don't win.
Also this whole thing about block votes. Yes, it happens, and Turkey will always get 12 points from Germany etc. But you know what, Lordi won, and okay, yes, the Scandanavians vote for each other, but Lordi got points of everyone else too. If the UK wants to win, it needs to send a good song, that's what wins things.
