Oh crap, forgot it was Eurovision already Oh well, lucky I had two cans of Faxe for breakfast, which got me in the right headspace to judge the first semi final... Qualified Albania - Liked the vibe and the vocals stood out...but who decided to have the villain from a John Wick movie appear mid-song to threaten the singer? Estonia - Somebody tell Sabrina Carpenter it is possible to make an interesting song with a coffee drink as the title. Also, guessing somebody in Estonia is a Night Club fan, as the choreo is similar to the Barbwire Kiss video Iceland - That was...a lot to take in, even before the Minecraft dolphins. Thought, weirdly, I don't hate it...oh wait, there's the Simon Cowell key change Netherlands - Started interesting, and the swapping between French and English didn't jar like it could have...and then the beat kicked in for the chorus and it got stodgy and predictable. Shame the bloke's got a great voice, but the generic beat made the song less than the sum of its parts Norway - ...oh god, what the absolute **** is that beat for the chorus? It's so bad it is distracting me from snarking about his backing dancers being dressed like his CoD clan. This qualified? Really??? Guess the verses did a hard carry, because this was bloody awful Poland - Well that intro was more terrifying than the pre-song Inception Horn. And then it made the Icelandic entry look minimalist. Anyway, off to see the fanfiction that has definitely been written about the singer already... Portugal - You thought what Portugal did to football was bad, look what they did to Incubus. Pleasantly beige aural wallpaper that will no doubt play in Portuguese bars for years, but nobody will know who it is San Marino - Has nobody explained to Colosseum 65 that San Marino isn't Italy? And yes, I'm still irked that last year's Sammarinese entry got screwed over by the organisers... (EDIT: And then it turned out the DJ was actually one of Eiffel 65...) Sweden - I take it that hosting last year was really expensive, as this gives total My Lovely Horse vibes. Denmark and Finland will have to work hard to salvage Scandinavia's musical reputation after this semi, that's all I'm saying... Ukraine - Legit thought my monitor was busted with the oversaturated lighting. Also sure I've heard this song in at least three JRPGs. Another song which is less than the sum of its parts, as there's some impressive vocals going on, but it feels like it's missing something Didn't Qualify Azerbaijan - the tune's pretty good, but my god those vocals tank the song. Also, having it begin with the singer emerge through the screen like Sadako probably cost them votes, as that scared the **** out of me Belgium - For a brief moment I thought Cody Rhodes had revived the Stardust gimmick. Also not a good sign when the Inception Horn heralding every song was the most interesting thing going on musically during the whole thing. Now can somebody remove the mouse trap from the singer's nadgers? Croatia - I legit thought that was the Trent Reznor lookalike that Serbia sent in a couple of years ago. And I could've done without that nursery rhyme bridge, thanks Cyprus - Either they spent their entire budget on getting Andrew Garfield to sing or, more likely, some scaffolding. Maybe pay for a song people can remember once the song finishes next year, eh? Slovenia - Michael Fassbender has a set of pipes on him, doesn't he? No, seriously, how did Norway's absolute ****e get in but this didn't? Totally robbed
Steven Wilson 'The Overview' tour at The Palladium last night was epic...2nd night of 4. Amazing musician and song writer with a band at the peak of their powers Good, relatively intimate venue with great sound, ideal for what was an incredible audio-visual experience. These four shows are the only ones with a support act - and they are all stand-up comedians doing 20 minutes slots. Last night it was Al Murray as the Pub Landlord. Same old hackneyed tired lines, but at least he is a genuine old Prog fan so was able to get some niche references in to please the audience. Have a feeling that there may be some condition applied to the venue that music-only acts must have a non-music support...seems bizarre, but...
Would have done this earlier, but had technical issues. Sounded like somebody switched off the crowd mics and piped in cheers for one of the entrants. Weird... Qualified Armenia - Trying to work out where I heard this before: a deodorant commercial, or when CFO$ were doing all the entrance themes for WWE Austria - Benefit of watching in alphabetical order: this was a real palette cleanser after Australia's ****e. And holy ****, I was not expecting that high note for the chorus - let alone going beyond that for the second. Kudos for the staging, too Denmark - Honestly couldn't watch, as the strobes were threatening to give me a migraine within the first thirty seconds. From what I did hear it sounded decent enough, but not enough to risk a seizure for Finland - We all know exactly why certain people say this deserves all 12 points, and we should not kinkshame them for it. Because I can't see why anyone would suggest giving 12 points to a song that is somehow hilariously bad yet also pretty boring Greece - Clearly the best song of the night, and I'm not saying that because suggesting otherwise would dramatically reduce the nookie supply from LadyC. Though I can't be the only one expecting it to go a bit Lacuna Coil at some point, only it...didn't? Latvia - The song was doing some interesting stuff, but it was hard to focus on as my mind kept asking the same question: why are they dressed as axolotls? Lithuania - Okay, this one lowkey slapped. Also underlined the suspicion I've had for years, that I only like Tool because Adam Jones' guitar tone tickles that certain part of my brain, as this was hitting a very similar note Luxembourg - Weird that we had another demented nursery rhyme, but unlike Croatia's attempt this one didn't give off Stranger Danger vibes. On the other hand, it also didn't give off vibes of the song actually going anywhere, so the staging was doing a hard carry Malta - No Didn't Qualify Australia - The Josh Widdecombe of this year's entries: you're told that it's funny, but you see no evidence of this and find it annoying very quickly. Legit stopped watching after about a minute Czechia - Well now I know what Freddie Mercury would look like if he was a villain in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Except for one small issue: Freddie Mercury might have made something out of the song, as this was pretty dull - and had the exact same irritating beat in its break as Norway's dreck Georgia - Wait, that was part of the song and not the Inception Horn? And that sums up why this didn't qualify: Poland did the same thing, but they went first - though TBH, I'd say Georgia did it better, and not just because it sounded like a mashup of the Bayonetta and Nier: Automata scores... Ireland - Wait, that happened...? Montenegro - Her voice cracking is the sole reason she didn't go through. If only the Armenian entry faceplanted on his treadmill, then she'd have had a chance, as this really did stand out better than some of the dross which qualified Serbia - Okay, haven't asked this before: what's with the aquatic theme this year? Austria, Greece, Latvia and this all went with that theme, and that's just from the second semi. However, the real issue for Roman Reigns with Robbie Savage's hair is that for as good a voice as he has, the arrangement did him no favours as it didn't really go anywhere until SUDDENLY GUITARS, which was too little too late
So, yesterday the Stone Valley Festival South was cancelled...one week before it was due to take place! That's such a ****ing pile of ****. People have accommodation booked - we'd booked 2 days in Ware, after the festival, to explore the local area and see some family. That's now a bit of an incumbrance, rather than a nice wind down after 3 days camping and gigging. The organisers have called it 'a postponement' and said that they'll be back 'bigger and better' next year... We backed them by keeping tickets throughout the Covid problems. Not doing it this time. There's been **** all info from the organisers for months and some of the bands given big slots were people I'd scarcely encountered. Now we're waiting on Forever Now in Milton Keynes falling too. Rumours have been growing for weeks. The remaining 2 - Rebellion and the Sex Pistols in Glasgow look pretty bomb proof...
News from JA that Junior Byles left us on May 15th (he had suffered from mental health issues for much of his life) . In homage to him (and both the Upsetter and John Peel) :
Happy 67th birthday to Mr Weller In a week where we got new music from him and news of an album of cover versions (or reinterpretations as Paul calls them!) coming shortly - includes guest appearances from Declan O’Rourke, Noel Gallagher, Amelia Coburn, Seckou Keita, Robert Plant and more.
Just to prove my brain works in mysterious ways, I have no idea why this just occurred to me. So starting a (hopefully not to be continued) section on songs that should never be combined: =============== I'm leaning on a lamppost on the corner of the street In Winslow Arizona In case a certain little lady comes by In a flat bed Ford slowing down to take a look at me
please log in to view this image Ok, so I'm the muppet on the right . Richie is the muppet on the left...but who is the famous muppet in the middle?
