Excitement is building up all around Europe among fans as the next Eurovision Song Contest is less than a month away. Outnorthwest magazine managed to speak to no less than four UK Eurovision winners and two participants, who did not quite make the top, who talked about their fondest memories from their participation and offered their opinion on what the UK has to fill in the blank in “The winner is ……”.
Brotherhood of man, Cheryl Baker of Bucks Fizz, Sandie Shaw, Katrina Leskanich, Nickie French and Carrie Grant spoke to LGF and we will be presenting you with their interviews in three parts.
Brotherhood of Man won the contest in 1976 with Save your kisses for me, the biggest selling Eurovision winner according to John Kennedy O'Connor's The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History. Lee Sheridan of the group told outnorthwest: "The most outstanding memory is the joy of winning something for your country which is still with us today. It's great to win something but to win for your country brings a pride that lasts forever."
Seven years after their victory the band were shortlisted to participate in the UK preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest, A Song for Europe 1983, once more but decided to be remembered for winning the Eurovision Song Contest as opposed to possibly losing a UK qualifying heat says Sandra Stevens.
What can the UK do to win the competition again? Lee Sheriden, member of the band and co writer of Save your kisses for me says: "The answer might seem simple but it is true: we need an outstanding song sung by an outstanding singer or band. Some of our recent entries have been very good but we need to just blow all opposition away."
Currently Brotherhood of man, in the Eurovision winning line-up, are touring with their own theater show "The 70s Story" and in concert with Bucks Fizz throughout this year.Dates and full details of appearances can be found on the groups website here.
Cheryl Baker is a member of the 1981 winning band, Bucks Fizz. Together with Mike Nolan, Bobby G and Jay Aston they won the Contest with legendary Making your mind up,starting a tradition followed byhundreds of similar gimmicks on Eurovision stage with their skirt-ripping dance routine.
"My outstanding lasting memory of taking part in Eurovision was standing on a table surrounded by a sea of photographers – that was when I realised that what we had done was big! " remembers Cheryl. And she goes on to tell Outnorthwest what she thinks has to be done with the contest nowadays: "I believe the competition needs to be split into 3 preliminaries: Southern Europe, Northern Europe, Eastern Europe – with the top five winners of each of the preliminaries going forward to the final."
Cheryl will be taking part in Seussical – the musical, this summer and "I will be ripping my skirt off with Shelley and Mike at various gigs, working as The Original Bucks Fizz (for legal reasons!)" she says. More information on Cheryl Baker's activities in the months to follow can be found here.
In the next article we will be presenting you with the Katrina Leskanich andSandie Shaw interviews so stay tuned!
