The 1970's arrived and Eurovision became even more popular, and the UK's hopes of more winning entrants grew. A succession of popular singers were chosen to participate on our behalf and special TV shows to choose the songs by public vote appeared on our TV screens in the run up to the competition.

1970 Mary Hopkin "Knock knock who's there", 1971 Clodagh Rodgers "Jack in the box", 1972 The New Seekers "Beg steal or borrow" all finished in the top four but once again the winning spot eluded us.

1970 saw an unknown Irish singer called Dana win with "All kind's of everything" that also went on to be a UK number one and make the Dana an international singing star, who on retiring from singing many years later became a member of the Irish parliament. 

Mary Hopkin Knock Knock

Dana All kinds of everything

Clodagh Rodgers Jack in the box

New Seekers Beg steal or borrow

 

Several  winners from this period became chart hits here in the UK, 1971's winner by Severine and 1972's "Apres toi" from Vicki Leandros was re-recorded in English as "Come what may" to become a favourite here.

1973 saw Cliff Richard chosen to be our entrant and the song was "Power to all our friends", surely Cliff would win this time around, but sadly not.  This time around he could only manage fourth place, yet once again the song went on to be a number one here in the UK and several other countries.

Cliff Richard Power to all our friends

1974 saw Olivia Newton John chosen to enter with the song "Long live love" and with the contest being held in Brighton we had high hopes of winning ...................  until along came a group from Sweden who took the competition and the world by storm. ABBA who were already stars in Scandanavia won easily with what would become their first UK number one hit "Waterloo"  

ABBA Waterloo

Olivia Newton John Long live love

                                                                    

    1975 saw the Shadows, Cliff's long time backing band enter with "let me be the one" beaten into second spot by Netherland's Teach in and the song "Ding-a-dong"

1976 saw the UK eventually winning again with the song "Save all your kisses for me" sung by The Brotherhood of Man, a group that had had many UK hits begining in the sixties with a changing line up. But this was the line up that would once again bring success to the UK.

Brotherhood of Man Save all your kisses for me

By now the list of entrants was growing and The European Television Union included some very non European countries one of which Israel went on to win two years running in 1978 - 79. This was the point at which I lost interest in the competition and only briefly took notice or watched. The UK went onto win twice more with Bucks Fizz in 1981 with "Makin your mind up" and 1997 with Katrina and the Waves ""Love shine alight". Since which we have had an ever growing list of failures despite trying in recent years to enter with established artists such as Blue, Englebert and this years entrant Bonnie Tyler. Perhaps it is time for us to go back to the way of choosing our entrants like we used to with a more open competition, allowing more up and coming writers to enter. Who knows maybe one day we will once agin win ..............

Meanwhile how about this one, most likely the weirdest winner of the competition so far, Finland's 2006 entry by Lordi "Hard rock hallelujah"

Part Two of my trawl through the wonderful wacky world of Eurovision.

After the Allisons relative success the UK carried on with upbeat songs and for the following two years was represented by Ronnie Carroll, in 1962 with "Ring a ding girl" and 1963 with "Say wonderful things". Both songs finishing in fourth place.

Ronnie Carroll Ring a ding girl

        

Ronnie Carroll Say wonderful things to me

 Ronnie had huge chart success with both songs here in the UK and is also remembered for his version of "Roses are red"

1964 saw us move from wonderful things to little things when Matt Monro was chosen to sing the song "I love the little things" Matt was an ever present performer on British TV and a popular choice with the UK public with his gentle but powerful singing style. Could this be the time for our first UK winner of the contest, sadly not, once again we only achieved second spot behind Italy.

Matt Monro I love the little things

The UK finished in second place yet again the following year in Naples when Kathy Kirby finished behind France Gall singing a Serge Gainsbourg song "Poup de cire, poupée de son".

Kathy had a massive UK hit with the song "I belong" 

The following year in retrospect was a disaster for the UK when Kenneth McKellar finished ninth with "A man without love" This prompted the UK committee to rethink and the following year 1967 saw our first winner.

By choosing one of the UK's most popular singers of the time who had a solid run of chart hits behind her, the choice of Sandie Shaw was genius. The song though not Sandie's own favourite was of course "Puppet on a string" The song was such a popular winner that Sandie was asked in 1970 to perform it once again at the finals in Spain, singing partly in Spanish much to the enjoyment of the audience.

Sandie Shaw Puppet on a string

The following year London hosted the contest as previous years winners and looked certain to win again with the Peter Pan of pop Cliff Richard singing the number one hit "Congratulations" Cliff however only managed second place behind Spain's "La la la". So onto Madrid in 1969 and a real close contest with four songs eventually finishing in joint first place including the Uk's Lulu with "Boom bang a bang" another instant Eurovision favourite. Once again it was an inspired choice with Lulu already an international singing star.

Lulu Boom bang a bang

So by the end of the sixties the UK had now won twice. What would the seventies do? Could we carry on the success? More to follow in the next blog.

Most weeks I spend a few hours with a group of friends who I I have now known for a good few years, most who used to be old customers when we had the shop at Sutton. We get together and take it in turns to produce a general knowledge quiz. Amongst the regular questions that crop up are ones about music and with a fair regularity ones about Eurovision Song Contest winners, so I thought it time to take a look at this much maligned (in this country) competition.

The first competition was in 1956, the countries competing were, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Switzerland, the hosts who went on to win with the song "Refrain" sung by Lys Assia.

Lys Assia

The United Kingdom joined in the competition the following year along with Austria & Denmark.  Our entry was sung by Patricia Bredin with a song called "All"

Patricia Bredin

Patricia finished in seventh place with just six points, but did at least avoid what was to become the dreaded "Nil Point" For whatever reason we didn't take part in the following years competition, but came back in 1959 to finish in second place with "Sing little birdie" by Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson. This is the first contest I remember seeing on TV at a family friends house, we didn't have a TV at home yet. The song also gained some notoriety years later when it was subject of a question in a Monty Python spoof Quiz.

Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson

Monty Python "Sing ritle Birdie"

The following year Teddy Johnson's younger brother Bryan also came second with "Looking high, high, high"

Bryan Johnson

The first really popular song that I remember buying as a single was the following years entry by the Allisons, "Are you sure". By now Sweden, Monaco, Norway, Finland, Spain & Yugoslavia had joined the fold and the competition was being shown all over Europe.

The Allisons

   The Allisons went on to have a huge chart hit with this entry and supported many of the UKs top groups during the early sixties including The Beatles.

This seems to be a good time to take a break from this wander down memory lane for now, but more to follow, with the UKs first Eurovision winner soon to come.