Brotherhood of Man sang Save your kisses for me in 1976.

Originally, Tony Hiller created Brotherhod of Man as a cover name for a variety of performers. Their first performances were in 1969. In 1973 it was decided that a permanent line-up should be established and Martin Lee, Lee Sheriden, Nicky Stevens and Sandra Stevens were chosen to be those people.

The rest of the 1970s were full of success for them and songs like Angelo and Figaro were amongst their most successful, but at the end of that decade their popularity reduced and they went through some years of a hiatus.

In 1985, a one off television performance brought them back together and they decided to officially reform and do some live performances. 1991 saw an album mix of both original hits and new songs. Extraordinarily this wasn’t released in the UK but in some other European countries including  Spain. Cabaret performances, along with those in UK holiday resorts, kept things going nicely, and another album was released. At the turn of the century they agreed to reduce the number of performances but a new show, called The Seventies Story, proved popular.

In this current wave of nostalgia for all things from the 70s they continue to go on the road and were part of the 50th celebration of Eurovision in Copenhagen.

The Eurovision Song Contest 1976 was the twenty first edition of the show.

It was staged in The Hague, Netherlands. The venue, the Nederlands Congrescentrum, is now called the World Forum. It was built in 1969 and is situated in the northern part of The Hague, called Zorgvliet. The host broadcaster was NOS and eighteen countries took part.

This was the year that Sweden withdrew. The state broadcaster, Sveriges Radio, was concerned about the cost, should they win again. At that time the whole financial venture was born by the host but, since then, part of the cost is shared by the other participating countries. Also Malta withdrew from the event, as they had done in 1973, even though they had selected their participant and song. This was to be a long break for them, only taking part again in 1991.

We also saw some performers represent their countries again. Sandra Reemer for the Netherlands, Fredi for Finland, Anne-Karine Strøm for Norway and Peter, Sue and Marc for Switzerland.

First and second place points were close. Out of 1044 points allocated only 17 separated the French entry and that of the United Kingdom. Catherine Ferry sang Un, deux, trios and received 147 points with the UK getting 164. The rest of the field was far behind with the third place song, Toi, la musique et moi sung by Mary Christy for Monaco, accumulating 93.

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