Eurovision 1976: Britain’s Waterloo | Song super cut and animated scoreboard
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ก.ค. 2024
- UK VERSION - Check below
An edited down version of the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 from The Hague, with a scoreboard using today’s technology. This all started as a lockdown project!
This edit will give a flavour of the evening (Sat 3 April, 9pm) with a rare copy of Michael Aspel’s BBC commentary, courtesy of Joris Peters, and another wonderful treatment done by @SvenskTV.
The Hague sits about 2-and-a-half hours drive north of Waterloo, the site of Napoleon’s defeat at the hands of the Seventh Coalition, led by Britain in 1815. Britain’s victory there led to an unparalleled 99-year dominance around the world and relative peace on the continent of Europe. Of the battle, the Duke of Wellington said it was “the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life”.
Of course, I’m not really talking about that Waterloo but ABBA’s ‘Waterloo’ instead, but Eurovision did witness a British victory over the French, which was a ‘near-run thing’ for the first half of the voting at least, even though any statistical analysis confirms a ‘damn good thrashing’!
Although ABBA had greater cultural impact and commercial success, ‘Save Your Kisses For Me’ seem to have soundly beaten them in terms of Eurovision winning single sales. Some 6 million were shifted making the song the biggest selling of 1976 in the UK, and it led to it being on the top of many European charts for a number of weeks, including a 5 week run in France. No winner has come close to this, before or since. The song, and the slick performance by a band who’d had a successful career prior to the Contest still remains one of the key constituent parts of any re-telling of Eurovision history - the dance routine as significant to Eurovision fans as Wellington’s victory is to European history fans.
The setting for Brotherhood of Man’s victory was the Congresgebouw in The Hague. NOS provided a spectacular show in which Roland de Groot’s second set design (1970) shape-shifted so remarkably, I had to recreate. There was lots of ‘modern’ twists include the improved camera work - for the first time we see camera shots that react more to the music. The use of shaped wipes can often date a production of course, and it does so too in this instance but the employment of the multi-lingual Hans van Willigenburg in the green room catapults the show into the 21st Century, complete with lack of insightful answers. A former champion hosting was safe and modern choice in this instance.
In 1975 I noticed a number of problems facing Eurovision, one being the blinking light on the dashboard of Teach-In’s lack of chart success. This light was firmly extinguished, although I think 1976 is the year that ‘novelty’ really becomes noticeable (Switzerland’s ‘Djambo’ and Finland’s Pump Pump). Overall the board lacked some quality, which was reflected by the juries who had opened up a massive 54 point difference between France and Monaco. This was a two horse race, but with only 3 juries not giving the UK the top three marks of 8, 10 or 12, it wasn’t a photo finish.
The other problems were solved in two different ways. There was general upset in the UK about how the BBC were selecting acts, and this was immediately rectified by the so called ‘all comers’ format - last seen in 1963 - returning with numerous acts with their songs competing. A tinker that had immediate results. In Sweden, the political disgruntlement of the 1975 hosting, along with the financial burden meant they became a high profile absentee.
Eurovision left The Hague much richer, not only because of NOS’s fabulous production, but also the high profile winners (who even kept Elton John off the #1 spot in the summer). As Aspel comments, the UK were no longer the bridesmaids, but the bride once again…and they were awaiting a safe honeymoon with the BBC in 1977.
DESIGN AND THE BOARD
For the first time we have an animating logo! Although we saw the first use of this one in 1970, it’s great to see it come to life. The other main modernisation is the animating postcards which reveal a flag heavy design. It looks to me the use of magnets made this happen. The board in the hall remains very separate in terms of design (see comments below) but I borrowed the very safe ‘Univers’ (Adrian Frutiger, 1957) for the bulk, with Book Antiqua/Palatino (Hermann Zapf, 1949) doing the rest, although it’s not entirely accurate - I couldn’t match the font used by NOS exactly. The bulk of my design is the background of course, animating to the various states and the main challenge was making the board readable, and also configuring the new ‘song bar’, which I hope helps navigating the performance order period a little easier.
TRANSFER NEWS
OUT: MLT, SWE, TUR
BACK: AUT, GRE
(19-3) + 2 = 18
INTERVAL ACT
The DSCB.
CREDITS
@SvenskTV for the footage
Joris Peters for BBC commentary
Flags: countryflags.com
00:00 Intro
06:00 Song super-cut
39:35 Interval
44:46 Voting intro
45:45 The reorder board 76
1:13:28 Recap, data & reprise - เพลง
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I am both a Eurovision and numbers nerd and the work you do on these is simply fantastic. I enjoy this so much, your work is very very much appreciated!
Thanks very much for the kind comment, I hope you enjoy the channel!
I echo these sentiments
Gosh, you're editing is so good. The way you subtitle the lyrics and their translation is so classy too. Bravo!... Loved France that year.
Thank you! I'm glad you've enjoyed them!
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR WORK
Lovely animated scoreboard! I am excited for the 1977 edition!
This was worth the wait - an amazing scoreboard from you as always. I love the stage moving in the background.
This was a good production from the Dutch. As for the songs, to be honest I only care about my Top 3 and am mostly indifferent to the rest.
My points for 76:
1 point - Yugoslavia
2 points - Netherlands
3 points - Norway
4 points - Belgium
5 points - Monaco
6 points - Finland
7 points - Portugal
8 points - Greece (amazing)
10 points - United Kingdom (TOTALLY deserving winner, but not my favourite)
and finally…
FRANCE 12 POINTS
thank you for sharing this :)
The quality of the video footage in this is astounding. I'm so used to seeing the older footage looking as if it was a grainy-filmed movie this was the first time I've seen old footage in such superb quality. I had no idea until now that the light bars used weren't just one solid piece of (presumably) plastic, but several sections connected together. That's detail that couldn't be made out on regular videos. Being able to see their eye makeup, their lipstick, the details on their clothing... just, wow. The credits at the end were interesting -- that first 'flip' of the first credit page briefly revealed a hand flicking the slide down, so I'm guessing that's how the titles were shown in order (though I'm not sure how superimposition was done way back in the old days); usually it's text scrolling up the screen.
I think you did a fantastic job with this. It took me a while to work out that the countries below the scoring bar were in their running order. Using the Greek flag that was in use at the time was also a good attention to detail. I'd forgotten Michael Aspel commentated 1976; he was a fantastic 'Give Us a Clue' host in the 70s/early 80s too.
I really like how you’ve altered the style of the lower thirds for each song!
You've done great work on this! I love the song title and performer's name coming down from the top of the screen during an appropriate wide shot of the stage. The recreation of the stage during the voting and the song bar are great too. (I'm not a particular fan of Roland de Groot's sets, but this is the most successful of them and he certainly brings out the best in your graphics!)
Well done too on the mystery of the correct Greek flag. I've read and reread the Wikipedia page on the flag of Greece and I'm still not sure what it means. Very clever to think of checking the Olympic opening ceremony!
To really complicate matters, the scoreboard in 1977 used the same flag NOS used here (the one that looks familiar to the one we know from the present day), but when all the flags were on stage at the end of the contest, the ‘on land’ flag was displayed.
This has to be my favourite 20th century stage. The moving parts are so interesting and change a lot with each song, giving each one a distinct flavour. NOS held as usual, a well run contest.
Thank you😊
I’ve only just noticed Al Bano forgets some of the words of the Italian song, he mumbles soon after his bit begins.
Just a reminder if you think the chat is a little smaller than usual...it's because our friends beyond the remit of UK television are seeing a version on TH-cam that doesn't include the blocked out parts. Apologies for having to divide you in this way!
So I’ll have access to both when I go on holiday next month?
Why you put this Greek flag in scoreboard? Greece in 1976 had the same flag as it has now. It showed it in the logo of EUROVISION 1976.
@@giannis93FUL th-cam.com/video/AsJOKRjqMbM/w-d-xo.html
Another brilliant scoreboard as always. Nice to see the order of the songs so we don't get confused with all the mix up of the votes. I hope you don't mind me using this vid or some of your vids for a future video I have in mind. These are amazing.
I assume you'll be doing 77 after this years contest. You need a break after all this time. Enjoy this years contest and fingers crossed we get a decent result this year.
All the best
Dentistry has come along way since 1976.
OK I will try again:
Very nicely done, thanks.
Hope it won't get deleted this time. 😉
NOS do a fine job with this production - Corry Brokken is lovely and the graphics for the postcards are nicely done. I don't think the camera work is up to the standards of 74 and 75, but the occasional wipes from the vision mixer are fun.
Michael Aspel is very amusing. It's interesting to imagine him doing the job for the next twenty years instead of Terry Wogan, although his presenting of A Song For Europe is perhaps even less respectful that Terry ever was.
I first saw this contest on VHS years ago with the RTE commentary and opt outs during the interval act. Commentator Mike Murphy was very good too and I can't see Peter, Sue and Marc now without thinking of his claim that Sue only speaks in 1950s American beatnik slang - 'man, dig that crazy beat!'.
I took a look at the upload of 1976 on here with RTÉ commentary, interesting to see the opt-out, which they were entitled to do, wasn’t used for ads but for a very useful explanation of the voting system and to introduce the jury members. A great idea (though a shame they missed the interval act with the interviews.) Showing Brendan Balfe on screen while he gave the Irish results was great too.
@@mrjdsworld80 Each country showing its own spokesperson in vision like RTE did in 76 seems like an obvious idea. But I haven't come across it being done any other time.
@@Starfilter1 between 1975 and 1979 (with the exception of 1976), RTÉ aired a 10-minute programme just before the contest called “Meet the Jury” I’m guessing in 1976 they just incorporated it into the contest and opted-out during the interval.
One word - Yay!
That comment during the irish postcard LOL
Amazing work especially on the falling song title graphics!
Some Euro Geek Stuff
I remember very clearly watching this contest live. I was hoping the UK wouldn't win as the song annoyed the hell out of me, but I didn't want France's jingle to win either. I went to Yugoslavia that summer and was lazing on a beach and SYKFM came on someones transistor radio and everyone, and I mean everyone, on the beach under the age of 20 jumped up and did the actions to the song. It had such appeal and became the biggest Eurovision selling single ever [Waterloo is the biggest selling song when album tracks are counted ].
Netherlands complained that as they were holding the contest they shouldn't have to pay a participants fee. This was waived for them but the EBU made clear that in future the host would still have to pay their entry fee.
Morocco applied to enter and were mentioned as possible participants in minutes of September 1975. Sweden of course withdrew.
Malta had an NF and chose Sing Your Song Country Boy by Enzo Gusman but withdrew due to lack of finance. The Maltese government had withdrawn a lot of their financing of participation as it hadn't brought the tourist trade they'd hoped. Enzo Gusman had also been chosen to represent Malta in 1974 before they withdrew then. Despite entering many more Maltese NF's poor Enzo never made it to Eurovision.
Turkey were planning on entering but withdrew in October.
Sing Sang Song came second in the German NF but the original winner Der Star - Tony Marshall was disqualified as having been sung in public before the cut off date. Sing Sang Song was co-written by Ralph Siegel but not with his usual writing partner Bernd Meinunger. They wouldn't start their Eurovision song factory for a couple of years.
Italy didn't confirm at all and it wasn't until they announced they'd chosen their entry that the EBU was sure they were coming. They'd been a change of the head of light entertainment department at RAI who didn't know confirmation was required.
The draw for running order was made on 7th January so countries knew where they would sing before they chose their entrant.
On 2 April TRT Turkey officially complained to the EBU about the political content of the Greek entry. The EBU replied saying they had no rules or control over the texts of entrants and therefore could do nothing. It would be many years before the EBU brought in such rules. As it was, Turkey cut transmission of the Greek song. The EBU decided to take no action. The passive North African countries had cut the transmission of the Israeli song also.
There's an interesting piece of lost Eurovision history in that there are two Preview Videos for Monaco, one with Mary Christy singing in a studio and another where she sings and walks along the shorefront at Monte Carlo. It is the studio one that is shown and available with the other lost someplace. Interestingly though in the UK previews the presenter Michael Aspel has clearly seen the Monte Carlo video as he refers to it in his introduction but it is the studio version that is shown.
UK were favourites at 3/1, Netherlands 5/1, Finland 7/1 and Monaco and Germany at 8/1. France was off the betting at 10/1.
The BBC complained that the scoreboard said Gr Brittannie and not United Kingdom [Verenigd Koninkrijk] and demanded it be changed. There were lots of arguments going back and forth. The producer said they couldn't change it, and anyway the full name wouldn't fit in. Eventually the Dutch won the day and GB stayed.
This was the last time the scoreboard wasn't in French or English.
From 1976 we have sadly lost:
Pierre Rapsat - Belgium
Jimmy Bilsbury - Germany
Sandra Reemer - Netherlands
Jurgen Marcus - Luxembourg
Corry Brokken - Presenter
Slobodan Vujovic - Yugoslavia
Carlos do Carmo - Portugal
Fredi - Finland
John Lawton - Germany
1976 contains two of my Top Ten Eurovision songs, Greece and Yugoslavia. I also like Belgium and the Netherlands.
France had the best song! I was so disappointed I remember, that Catherine Ferry did not win that year.
When will 1977 come? Love
"Chocolat menta mastik... which means the chocolate girls". PLEASE... It means Chocolate Mint CHEWING GUM
Here are my personal votes/rankings, i'am from the Netherlands
12 points: Belgium - Pierre Rapsat - Judy et cie
10 points: United Kingdom - Brotherhood of Man - Save your kisses for me
8 points: Finland - Fredi & the Friends - Pump pump
7 points: Monaco - Mary Christy - Toi, la musique et moi
6 points: Norway - Anne Karine Strom - Mata Hari
5 points: Italy - Al Bano & Romina Power - We'll live it all again
4 points: Israël - Chocolate, Menta, Mastik - Emor shalom
3 points: Spain - Braulio - Sobran las palabras
2 points: Yugoslavia - Ambasadori - Ne mogu skriti svoju bol
1 point : Luxembourg - Jürgen Marcus - Chansons pour ceux qui s'aiment
Why uploading twice?
You uploaded this video twice.
Eurovision Gold has an upscaled version of Save Your Kisses For Me over on his channel (that apparently I can watch in UK):
th-cam.com/video/mWsKmx7uUbk/w-d-xo.html
I'm happy with the result this year. The UK is my winner - Save Your Kisses is just so catchy and so slickly performed! And it's not even my favourite song from what was probably the best ever UK national final. France, Monaco, Belgium and Ireland all rate highly for me too. (Speaking of Ireland it's not at all obvious to me that Red Hurley is named for his hair!)
As I posted on the other upload (for us non-UK viewers), it was a great year for the Francophone countries. Monaco is my favourite song of the year, and Belgium had a fantastic entry too.
@@mrjdsworld80 Thank heavens you came over to see us here! This partition is most unfortunate!!
I always forgot that France did pretty good and that the top 2 were far away from the the 3rd
Sobran Las Palabras deserved a lot more points
Amazingly, having an average score of 8.65 points for France wasn't enough to win.
I have a question
What does the Monegasque spokesperson say when referring to the UK? I can’t make it out at all!
When she awarded it 10 points? She said “Angleterre” (England.)
It's just a Holland/Netherlands thing. Nothing to get any knickers in a twist about.
Weird the scoring wernt from 12 to 1 instead of 1 to 12
I'm sure the French jury mixed up lines and intended to give 12 to Monaco instead of Portugal.
The 12 to Portugal doesn’t surprise me one jot though.
I don't agree with your opinion. Many times, french juries gave strange points (see 1979, 1978,1988...) and quite often Portugal was into their favourites (1976,77,79,91....). Obviously, the monegasque entry was much better than the portuguese but there'snt any mix up.
A few other things I couldn’t fit in the description: 1/3
COPYRIGHT: If you’re watching in the UK, Channel 5 and LDS own the performance on TH-cam in the UK, I think this is because the bot thinks I am copying a clip from ‘Eurovision Greatest Moments: 5 Goes to Eurovision’. To see the whole video, you’ll find it through ko-fi.com/thereorderboard (no donation necessary).
Phew…this took a while. Work is not relenting right now and you may remember this is a lockdown project…we’re distinctly very far from lockdowns and the time freedoms that the pandemic brought! This project took a weekend making the background, then another getting the new song bar correct…so it’s not that I haven’t been attentive, but I haven’t been able to steal time from other projects as much as I usually do. Everyone has plenty of Eurovision to devour at the moment, so I think it might be better to finish the last three Contests after that, possibly at 1 a month. I do want to revisit some of my early boards again too, especially if @SvenskTV has upscaled the footage. The channel isn’t going anywhere, and I’d like to also create some infographics etc over on Twitter too, @thereorderboard. Design updates will continue on ko-fi and I want to thank those who’ve donated recently, it’s very kind of you!
@SvenskTV brings me to my thanks - for this one, the quality of the footage and sound is amazing. Great too, the Joris Peters from the Netherland’s has the UK commentary in his archive too. That’s been a great addition - unfortunately it was only in mono, which I’ve adjusted in editing but I’ve tried to keep the superior sound from the upscaled footage as much as possible. Thanks to Joris for helping with the Dutch translations on this one too!
You can’t do better for a full review of the original scoreboard used in The Hague than here: euroscoreboards.wordpress.com/2021/08/08/the-hague-1976/ Keen eyes will notice I’ve gone for ‘United Kingdom’ and ‘Germany’ to keep the channel consistent. I’ve also used the correct Greek flag…luckily it was quite easy to replace and to verify…the Montreal Olympics were the same year and Greece always comes out at the Opening Ceremony first…the first flag: what you see on my board, not what’s used in programme. The Greek flag has gone through quite a few changes, and the version used in the programme titles was actually a variant of the Greek flag we know today, but far too light…the official Greek flag of 1970-75 (under the military junta) was very dark blue.
I’ve already mentioned why Sweden were sitting out this year. Malta decided to withdraw from the Contest. It’s not immediately obvious to me that’s a result of anything other than poor results, although I expect budgetary concerns were also a part. The Maltese language entries in 1971 and 1972 had both finished last with their one attempt last year in English ending in 12th. Things had improved, but obviously not by much. Malta would be locked out of the Contest when they wanted to return some 10 years later due to restrictions on the number of countries entering. Their return in 1991 proved much more successful, partly because they chose to sing in English when everyone else couldn’t: from 1991 to 2005, the island nation finished outside the top 10 only twice (1999 & 2003). Results post 2005 have been more mixed.
I wonder how close we came to having Greece and Turkey in the same Contest this year, but so close to the invasion of Cyprus and the political nature of Greece’s song ‘Panagia Mou’. Turkey did broadcast the final, but censored the Greek entry, playing a nationalist song ‘Memleketim’ - a symbol of the invasion. Austria make their return finally, having last competed in 1972. To my ears, it’s one of the worst songs there, but it was Austria’s first English only entry and they were rewarded with another 5th place (they finished 5th at their last appearance in Edinburgh). Austria would have a few words in English in 1977 and then switch back to German because of the rule changes until 1999.
1976 seems to be the year of contested spellings. Greece’s controversial song subject also reveals a couple of different spellings of ‘Panagia’…I think, based on the Greek, ‘Panagia’ is correct, although several places have it as ‘Panaghia’. Monaco’s singer…Christy or Cristy? Holland or The Netherlands? England, Great Britain or the United Kingdom? West Germany or Germany? Italy’s song is listed both with its Italian and English name. I ended up splitting the difference with Israel’s Chocolate Menta Mastik…comma or no commas!?
2/3 I found this scoring sequence fascinating, particularly because it looked so close and you start to ignore the rest of the pack falling back quite sharply. ‘Save All Your Kisses’ ended up taking home 80.39% of the points available, just a behind 1973’s ‘Tu the reconnaîtras’ for Luxembourg that got 80.63%. As mentioned above, only Ireland, Italy and France gave the UK below 8 points. Needless to say, the UK scored in every round, together with France. France however, had six countries who gave them below 8 points, giving them an average 1 point per round deficit over the UK (8.65 v 9.65). Compare this to third place Monaco who scored 5.47 per round and only achieved 3 eight points, and 1 twelve. A top heavy race, but thrilling to watch which really only turned until the second half of the voting. Remarkably, and perhaps annoyingly for purists, the scoreboard only highlights the UK’s winning amount on a tie-break! Of course the count back doesn’t exist in Eurovision until the late 1980s, but it’s the UK’s dominance in the high value points that mean it can be declared the winner despite it being mathematically possible for a tie when Monaco give the UK 10 points. France go on to get the 12 of course, and the code knows that’s possible when the UK start flashing…however, even if France then get 12 from their remaining jury, Yugoslavia and France give the UK nothing AND Yugoslavia give the UK zero, both would be on 147 points but with the UK having an advantage in the count back. Thus we get a flashing Union Jack. Obviously that is immediately broken by France awarding the UK 7 points in the next round but that’s why the UK starts flashing when it does.
I would have thought Italy’s entry is one of the most low energy and vocally ropey songs I’ve heard on a Eurovision stage. Of course Al Bano slightly forgetting the words wasn’t great and perhaps the pair thought very little of the Contest. You might be surprised to know, based on that performance, that they’ve sold 150 million copies of albums over the 6 decades they’ve been active. They do indeed return to Eurovision in 1985 (finishing 7th with ‘Magic Oh Magic’). Somehow this song made it to number 2 in France, but failed to chart elsewhere. Their breakthrough hit didn’t come until 1981 to be fair, after which they released a Spanish language album. In 1999 the couple separated, but they did reunited professionally, even appearing at San Remo 2015. Al Bano is about to be 79 years old in May 2022, with Romina turning 71 in October 2022.
Germany had had an eventful build up to the Contest, and as you can tell on stage, a chaotic performance in the final. ‘Ein Lied für Den Haag’ had selected ‘Der Star’ as the 1976 entry, but it was later found to have been performed in public before the national final and therefore was disqualified after the public had voted for it (the full final is here: th-cam.com/video/YeGvXD1AWK8/w-d-xo.html ) The result was the ‘Les Humphries Singers’, a name I originally thought was French - but no…the group, which often had up to 20 members on stage, was formed by Croydon born Les Humphries, who had formed the group in Hamburg in 1969. They had had a couple of hits prior the ESC, including appearing in a German movie in 1974. Les is pictured here on ZDF Disko in 1972: th-cam.com/video/oKrCmj22XUo/w-d-xo.html The Song Contest rules reduced them to 6 on stage of course, and well, perhaps the lack of Gospel realness on stage robbed ‘Sing Sang Song’ of greatness…or perhaps not. This was songwriter and producer Ralph Siegel’s second entry at the Eurovision final, after ‘Bye Bye I Love You’ (Ireen Sheer for Luxembourg in Brighton 1974). Of course, together with Bernd Meinunger, they’d write plenty of Eurovision songs and have a particularly successful period in the early 1980s, taking two second places and the trophy itself in 1982. Ralph would also be responsible for all the fun Valentina Monetta San Marino entries between 2012’s ‘Social Network Song’ and 2017’s ‘Spirit of the Night’. Only ‘Maybe’ got through to the final in Copenhagen 2014, finishing 24th.
I’m always thankful that Terry Wogan became the UK’s regular commentator, but I do think Michael Aspel might have been great had he stuck around. He’s got the right mix of information and wit, with a little boyish/English country gentleman charm that takes a Wogan-like side swipe at things. His mention of the bouzouki, and the ‘small nudist’ was great, as well as the comment about ‘a man’s shame’. Aspel is a man that if you were born in the 1980s like me, was always on programmes for old people, namely ‘Antiques Roadshow’ and ‘This Is Your Life’, but he actually had a very mixed career. Starting in BBC Wales acting in children’s show, he quickly became on the BBC’s main newsreaders. Counter to this ‘straight’ career, he also presented ‘Come Dancing’ (the amateur version of Strictly), anarchic children’s sketch show ‘Crackerjack’ and also the Miss World contest, which he covered 14 times. He appeared in The Morecambe & Wise show doing a dance routine, just like fellow newsreader and 1977 host, Angela Rippon. He was a presenter who could also turn his hands to documentaries, doing some on radio about the then compulsory British National Service. He narrated the Oscar winning ‘The War Game’ documentary about a nuclear attack on the UK in 1966 - it was not shown on British television until 1966.
Brotherhood of Man: Please don’t tell me that they look 24 and 25 years old in their postcard!? I’ve already mentioned their previous chart success. ‘United We Stand’ became a top 20 hit in the UK, US, Australia and Canada in January 1970. After Eurovision, Pye Records decided against releasing the soulful music from the groups up coming album but instead sticking with pop. ‘My Sweet Rosaline’ was a carbon copy song with the lyrical twist that the song was about a dog, rather than a child - it failed to chart highly. In 1977 a more female led ‘Oh Boy (The Mood I’m In) lead to more success. By 1979 three singles released in the first 6 months of the year all failed to chart. In 1980, the group produced a cover album (the result of a deal) that covered some top-20 hits from previous years. This was met with middling success, but performed much better than anything in the 1977-9 period. In 1982, one of the male members (Lee Sheridan) left the group and Barry Upton would join. Barry would go on to write many hits for 1993 Eurovision entrant Sonia, and then Steps. In 1983 three members of the group wrote ‘When the Kissing Stops’ and entered it into A Song For Europe. The group decided not to perform it themselves: "We all agreed it would be better to be remembered as winners, and we couldn't bear to lose!”. The band reformed in 1990s largely performing on the cabaret circuit, including teaming up with Bucks Fizz. In 2006 they appeared at the 50th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest in Denmark.
3/3 HISTORY: Plenty going on in 1976: In January, the first commercial Concorde flight between London and Bahrain and Paris to Rio. In March, Harold Wilson suddenly resigns as Prime Minister of the UK. He had claimed to intimate friends that he was exhausted by the job (he had served from 1964-70, and then again from 1974. By this time, Wilson was drinking brandy during the day to deal with the stress, and doctors would detect problems that would lead to a colon cancer diagnosis and perhaps Wilson himself was aware of the symptoms of early onset dementia that were troubling his usually exemplary memory. A few weeks later, Star Wars would start filming in Tunisia. On April 1st a little known two Steves, Jobs & Wozniak form ‘Apple Computer Company’., releasing the ‘Apple 1’ days later. Two days after Eurovision on April 3rd, Jim Callaghan succeeds Harold Wilson. If you’re ever asked about Labour Party leaders called James, remember James Callaghan is not one of the 4 answers as Callaghan’s first name is Leonard. In the summer, as Wilson had resigned, when the G6 nations met, the German Chancellor and US President Gerald Ford decided they needed another experienced English speaker in the group, so they invited long time Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Trudeau…the G7 was born. Portugal enact a new constitution on their road to democracy. In June the long running dispute between Iceland and the UK over fishing rights ends. At the end of June Palestinians hijack an Air France plane with 246 passengers and 12 crew and fly it to Entebbe, Uganda. Days later, Israeli operatives free 103 of the hostages. On July 2nd, North and South Vietnam reunite. The UK suffers a heat wave, with associated water shortages. An explosion in Seveso Italy causes pollution over large parts of Milan. Also in July, the Montreal Olympics are held and the USA celebrates it’s 200th birthday. Delegates attending an American Legion convention at The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia begin falling ill with a form of pneumonia: this will eventually be recognised as the first outbreak of Legionnaires' disease and will end in the deaths of 29 attendees. Ebola is identified in Zaire in August. In September, Mao Zedong dies of a heart attack, aged 82. The Muppet Show is broadcast for the first time on ITV- two pilot shows produced by Jim Henson had failed to be picked up by American broadcaster ABC, meanwhile UK producer Lew Grade agreed to co-produce the programme in the UK. Henson was aware he was being typecast as a children’s entertainer by being in Sesame Street. By Christmas 1976, the Muppet Show series in the UK saw around 14 million viewers tuning in on Sunday evenings. In January 1977, over 100 countries had either acquired the series or were making offers, which had resulted in over £6 million in overseas sales. In October, during the Presidential race between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, Ford stumbles when he declares that "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe. October 18th, Ford begin producing its ‘Fiesta’ car at its Valencia plant. October 22nd: Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, the 5th President of Ireland, resigns after being publicly insulted by the Minister for Defense. November 2nd: Carter beats incumbent Gerald Ford, becoming the first candidate from the Deep South to win the US Presidency since the Civil War. November 26th, ‘Microsoft’ is registered in New Mexico. In December, Denis Healey announces to the British Parliament that he has successfully negotiated a £2.3bn loan from the International Monetary Fund - often seen as the one of the lowest points of the UK’s post-war period.
CONDUCTOR 1/2 : www.andtheconductoris.eu/ Tony Rallo - FRA
Rallo: With ‘Un, deux, trois’ being due to be performed on nationwide television, Cara and Rallo were in need of a singer - and they had to find someone fast. For Rallo, this was an opportunity to reward a friend in the business: “In those days, I extensively worked with Léo Missir, a producer at the Barclay record company. Thanks to him, a lot of arranging work, including Daniel Guichard’s repertoire, was coming my way. I felt it would be right to ask him first if there was an artiste he wanted to promote and who was perhaps suitable to embark on our Eurovision project. He invited me over to the Barclay studios, where an attractive young blond girl was waiting for us: Cathérine Ferry. She did not have a record deal - nothing. She turned out to be the girlfriend of Daniel Balavoine, one of Léo’s protégés, but who, at that time, was desperately unsuccessful. When Cathérine sang the song with a pianist accompanying her, I immediately realized she was exactly the kind of girl we needed. Formidable!. Shortly after, we recorded ‘Un, deux, trois’ with Cathérine. Léo Missir asked me for another favour: to include Daniel Balavoine and his brother in the group of backing singers accompanying Cathérine. Moreover, for the B side of the single release of ‘Un, deux, trois’, one of Daniel’s compositions was used. To be honest, I had never heard of Balavoine before.”
What were Rallo’s emotions after finishing second behind the UK’s Brotherhood of Man? “Being up front with the British during the entire voting procedure, we were slightly disappointed to lose out against them in the end. ‘Save your kisses for me’ was a good song too… a light song, like ours - that was the style which sold well in those years! Of course, we were happy with the hit success of ‘Un, deux, trois’ in so many different European countries. For Daniel Balavoine, who was trying so hard to make a career in music, it was slightly painful to see his girlfriend rising to stardom all of a sudden. In the end, however, Daniel became a successful recording artist, while Cathérine faded away, unable to top the success of that one Eurovision hit. With ‘Un, deux, trois’, her career was launched beautifully, but, understandably, she did not want to continue recording songs in that style for the rest of her life… and perhaps that is what audiences expected of her.”
Although Rallo did not make a second appearance in the Eurovision Song Contest as a composer, arranger, or conductor, there are two footnotes to add to his festival record. In 1981, he arranged ‘Moi je dis stop’ for Julie Bataille, the French cover version of ‘Making your mind up’, with which UK’s Bucks Fizz had won that year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Five years later, in 1986, Rallo again submitted a composition to the French selection committee, with lyrics by the renowned Eddy Marnay: ‘Tout commence et recommence’. The song was rejected by the selection committee, all the more incredible when realizing the interpreter was none other than… Céline Dion, the Canadian songstress who was to win the Eurovision Song Contest for Switzerland two years later with ‘Ne partez pas sans moi’ and then went on to worldwide stardom in the 1990s.
“I must be the only producer in the world”, Rallo chuckles, “who has a Céline Dion recording on the shelf which has never been released! The project was Eddy Marnay’s brainchild. He had the lyrics ready and wanted me to compose and arrange the music to it. He came up with Céline Dion… we recorded the demo down here in my home studio. It was a gentle ballad. I cannot begin to understand why our recording was rejected by French television. I have often thought about passing it onto Michel Drucker (famous French TV host of music programmes, BT), who could then surprise Céline with it during his show… she has no doubt forgotten about the song altogether. So far, I have not done that, though - the demo is still here on the shelf.”
www.andtheconductoris.eu/ Ossi Runne - FIN
In Ossi Runne’s case, this was more true than ever in 1976, when Finland entered a simple schlager sing-a-long with an equally evocative title: ‘Pump-pump’, performed by Fredi (Matti Siitonen). Runne: “This song was visually well thought out: a huge singer with two pretty girls by his side. Of course it was not a personal favourite of mine, but my job was to do the best I could with the orchestra and keep the singers happy. All the rest was unimportant.” The amount of professional enthusiasm Runne put into this song can be deduced from his flamboyant style of conducting the orchestra in The Hague. “I wanted to convey the happy message of the song to the orchestra”, he explains. “During rehearsals, I always tried to bring about a good atmosphere between me and the orchestra right away. A happy feeling, no bad words... this is your job, this is my job: let’s make music. Though I cannot remember names, there were those fellows, other conductors, who behaved as bullies by shouting the musicians down, but that is a method which can only be counterproductive.”
CONDUCTOR 2/2: www.andtheconductoris.eu/ Jan Stulen - NED
Quite unexpectedly, Jan Stulen received the invitation to be the chief conductor of the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest in The Hague. Stulen had not been involved at all in the Dutch preliminary contest, in which Hans van Hemert’s composition ‘The party is over’, interpreted by Sandra Reemer, was chosen as the Netherlands’ representative for the international festival. What was more, the then thirty-four year old maestro had never conducted the Metropole Orchestra before in his life and seemed a tabula rasa in the world of light entertainment music. Stulen: “It is fair to say that my musical upbringing was entirely classical.
Jan Stulen: “It was Dolf van der Linden himself who wanted me to take over for this commission of musical director of the Eurovision Song Contest! Frankly speaking, Dolf admitted he was fed up with the festival. The year before, he had had a conflict with Vicky Leandros, who, in the rehearsals for some television show, had arrogantly tried to explain him how she wanted him to conduct the orchestra for her. He felt genuinely insulted, for who was Vicky Leandros to tell him, with decades of experience under his belt, how to handle a group of musicians? Dolf frowned upon being lectured for an entire week by self-willed teenage pop singers - and to my mind, he had every right to say so. Therefore, he declined working on the Eurovision Song Contest in ’76. For some strange reason, Dolf wanted me to stand in. Feeling responsible for his orchestra, he suggested me to the organizing committee. He must have seen me at work with other broadcasting orchestras and felt that this young talent should be given the opportunity of working with his orchestra. It was only a couple of months later that I was contracted by the broadcaster, meaning they had to pay me for this Eurovision commission, but apparently that was not a problem.”
As the Netherlands’ entry ‘The party is over’ was conducted by its arranger, Harry van Hoof, and all other delegations had brought along a conductor as well, Stulen did not conduct any of the participating songs. This makes Stulen one of only four maestros in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest who did not conduct one single entry, the other ones being Malcolm Lockyer, Yitzhak Graziani, and Igor Kuljerić. The interval music was played by Peter Schilperoort’s Dutch Swing College Band, meaning Stulen’s main job in the rehearsal week was to help out the guest conductors from all participating countries if need be: “No, we did not rehearse the songs before the guest conductors arrived. I am not sure whether Dolf had taken care of this as well or if it was up to the guest conductors to familiarize the orchestra’s musicians with their respective scores. My duty was to be there while the guest conductors rehearsed. Amazingly, strict care was taken that all countries were given exactly the same amount of time to rehearse their songs… fifteen or twenty minutes a day. All delegations were expected to rehearse their respective items within the time which had been allotted to them - and not one second more. After all, the Eurovision Song Contest is a competition and even a suspicion of bias had to be avoided!”
During the week of rehearsals, Stulen observed the guest conductors at work: “I was the watchdog, so to speak, who had to avoid any hiccups from occurring. One guest was more successful than the other, but no disasters happened. The pieces that did not go well on Monday yet, sounded well on Tuesday. Mostly, in a Eurovision Song Contest, the arrangers conducted the songs - usually excellent musicians, but no trained conductors… and conducting is a profession! These pop songs are usually played in one tempo; if a conductor counts in the orchestra correctly and the drummer picks up the right tempo, virtually nothing can go wrong. For such simple songs, musicians hardly pay attention to the conductor… they need a conductor for changes of tempo; for example, ballads with rubato, in other words: a slight speeding up and slowing down of the tempo, require strict guidance from a conductor - the rhythm section cannot help out in such cases! But even when a guest conductor lacked the required technique, the Metropole Orchestra players were extremely skilled in guiding themselves through the music…
“In the course of the week”, Stulen continues, “the contact with the orchestra musicians got closer and closer. This was nice - after all, they had never worked with me before. During the rehearsals, I was there all the time and there was ample time for a chat. When they had just had to work with one of those non-conductors, some of them asked me for my opinion. “This guy was hopeless… can’t you teach him a lesson?”, is what some of them wondered. Somewhat differently from what I was used to with musicians from symphony orchestras, they liked being quite informal. The worst conductor they had to work with for this contest was without a doubt Les Humphries, who participated for West Germany with his vocal group. He was extremely bad-tempered, venting his dissatisfaction about the orchestra, but about his own singers as well; they were rebuked by him in the rudest of manners. At the same time, his conducting technique was nothing to speak of… with his antics in front of the orchestra, he gave the impression of a lumberjack rather than a conductor.”
“What struck me most about this Eurovision Song Contest”, Stulen recalls, “was the huge number of security officers walking around in and outside the concert hall. Nowadays, every musician is perfectly used to having to show an accreditation before being allowed into the hall, but in those days, it was a totally new experience. With Israel participating in the contest just four years after the massacre at the Munich Olympics, our local authorities were not keen to leave anything to chance. All those cocktail parties and receptions were a new feature for me as well… and I was expected to turn up on all these occasions. I believe I never drank more alcohol in one week!”
In the international final, Jan Stulen conducted the opening tune and finale, both of which had been composed and arranged by Bert Paige, one of the most experienced arrangers to work for the Metropole Orchestra in those years. When Stulen was introduced to the international television audience by host Corry Brokken, he looked quite tense. “Appearances can be deceptive!”, Stulen comments. “I cannot remember being nervous. The most difficult part of my task was to make sure the overture had to be played in tune with the introduction film which opened the programme. This can be a tricky business - much later in my career, I conducted countless film scores on stage with the Brabants Orkest while the film itself was running. If you discover, just sixteen bars before the end of the piece, that you are trailing the image by eight bars or that you have played it eight bars too fast, you find yourself in a nasty situation. In the Eurovision Song Contest, however, everything went exactly according to plan”.
Looking back, Stulen adds: “In a way, this Eurovision Song Contest was a special moment in my working life. Quite opposite to nowadays, the programme used to have a huge status; I could not help but noticing this in the days and weeks after the programme, when my wife came home telling me that all kinds of acquaintances had told her how they had seen her husband on television in the Eurovision Song Contest - they probably thought I could not rise much higher than that. Realistically speaking, I had not done more than conducting two nice pieces of music which had been composed and arranged by someone else… that was it. The best part of the whole episode was that Dolf van der Linden was apparently pleased by my performance, because, in the months and years which followed, he regularly invited me to perform as a guest with his Metropole Orchestra.
Hi:)
Great graphics. Why did you choose that specific flag for Greece? In the intro for Eurovision 1976, the recent flag for Greece is shown.
A rather cheesy year, but I’ll take this over some of the years down the line. We didn’t deserve to win this year, I don’t think, nor do I quite understand how SYKFM sold so well. It’s slick, but too saccharine for my taste. My mum loves the song though! My points for Den Haag:
1p 🇦🇹 Austria
2p 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
3p 🇩🇪 Germany
4p 🇨🇭 Switzerland
5p 🇧🇦 Yugoslavia
6p 🇮🇱 Israel
7p 🇫🇮 Finland
8p 🇧🇪 Belgium
10p 🇲🇨 Monaco
12p 🇫🇷 France
2 for the UK?! You're meaner than the Irish jury!!
@@Starfilter1 I know. It’s slickly performed, but feels awfully twee and dated for me to get into. It’s probably an age thing, though, as my mum absolutely adores Save Your Kisses for Me.
@@JeSuisRene I think everybody's mum loves Save Your Kisses for Me!
Your mum is right, you're not.
No Terry Wogan this year?
He was doing comms on BBC Radio 2.
Betting odds according to the Irish commentator back then: UK 3-1, Italy/Norway 6-1, then come Germany, France, Israel (no odds mentioned), and then Monaco/Ireland 25-1. I still hate the UK jury spokesperson for saying Monaaaaaaaco, prompting the insufferable Corry Brokken school mum to do the same during the entire voting. Too bad the scoreboard is in Dutch, the same goes for the all the boards in the language of the host nations on this channel (for no apparent reason). Takes away a lot of fascination off the otherwise well made videos.
Anyone any clue why Bruce Forsyth was in the audience? Very random indeed. Perhaps he'd mistaken Brotherhood Of Man for Guys 'n' Dolls and thought his daughter was taking part?
He was there aswell in 1988 when it was down to the final vote to decide if Celine Dion of Switzerland or Scott Fitzgerald of the United Kingdom where to win even Jimmy Tarbuck was beside him
@@wrestlingfan87 well in 88 he had a vested interest in the contest as his daughter Julie wrote and/or composed the UK entry.
@@wrestlingfan87 Jimmy Tarbuck was not at ESC 1988. You may be mistaking James Moir, the Head of BBC Light Entertainment for Tarbuck possibly? Forsyth was sitting with his wife (Miss World 1975) and Moir was in the row in front with BBC1 controller Jonathan Powell. No Tarbuck in sight. And as Terry Baker writes, of course Forsyth was there in 88. His daughter wrote and sang the UK entry.
@@JKMMOC Wrote and composed, yes -- but I think we'd have noticed if she'd been on stage singing instead of Scott Fitzgerald!
@@ChakatSandwalker I suggest you check the video. You will see Julie on stage, singing with her husband Dominic Grant and session singer Des Dyer as clear as day. In case you can't spot her, she's wearing a pink jacket and a pink mini skirt. So even if you didn't notice... I think "we" did.
Never understood why Sing Sang Song is the most hated 70s ESC entry
Sure, making a mini version of Les Humphries Singers was a bad idea, but I don't see what was so bad about the actual song/performance.
To me, it sounds all too similar to the previous year's winner, Ding Dinge Dong. I'd assume the resemblance might've rubbed the juries the wrong way. Les Humphries carried a bit of infamy on his own as well.
Fantastic video thanks. Really like the way you have done the scoreboard..brilliant...
Looking back on it now I have no idea how the UK won though in 1976... and the presenter referring to the UK song as the English song ! 🙁..that not great.. Thought France 🇫🇷 and Switzerland 🇨🇭 were much better....Still...it's not always the best song wins....
Here's to Oslo 🇳🇴 or Vienna 🇦🇹 2023 🎼...
"and the presenter referring to the UK song as the English song !" Yeah, three of the four members are from England, but Nicky Stevens is a Welsh.
@@MiroHeinonen exactly! ..England, the UK and Great Britain are not the same thing....
You're just another Anglophobe mate. Next!
The presenter said that the GRREK song is about the future, suicide and other irrelevant things. Of course he knew that song was about the TURKISH INVASION TO CUPRUS and many innocent victims. But, he did not choose to say that. If it were the Russians, he would probably comment that the song is about blood-thirsty Russians, killers Russians. I bet.
Weak year
Cry harder.
@@artsed08 go back to your bed 🤡
Whatever