World of Chig |
24.5.10
Pining for the fjords
We are sailing, we are sailing... Not at the moment - I'm just sitting in my undies in our bijou Oslo apartment, but you didn't need (or want) to know that. No, this afternoon. Chig is off on a boat trip for something like four hours, cruising the fjords with the lovely people of the BBC, including our Josh, 'our' dancers and 'our' backing singers. The sun is shining again here in Oslo, where it has been hot for the last few days, with the occasional cloudburst to spoil the fun, most notably during the UK's only media conference so far. The rain was so heavy on the temporary structure of the media centre that it was practically impossible to hear any journalists' questions or the answers that Josh was giving. Last night saw the official Eurovision opening party at the Oslo city hall, where uncle Svante declared Eurovision 'open'. (The previous 7 days, 78 rehearsals and 73 media conferences were a mere preliminary to the main events, which start on your telly tomorrow. Yikes, it's tomorrow!) The foyer of Oslo city hall is a glory to behold, as was the 'pink' (it may have been cerise) carpet, on which we had to tread to get inside. The old-fashioned grandiosity and almost-Soviet murals adorning the massive internal walls were an interesting contrast to the minimalist, post-modern spaciousness of the Georgian party the night before, which was held inside the enormous opera house (with lots of time spent just outside it, admiring its in-yer-face slopingness). On some measures, the Georgian party has won hands down as the liggers' choice of the week. Most notably, for the two of us here who are vegetarian, it won the food battle. Not only was there more than enough for us assembled gannets and impoverished foreigners, but I now know that it IS possible to survive a day without buying a main meal on a new mortgage, because you can survive on mini-mushroom tartlets and olives, when served by Georgians. The tartlets were gorgeous. If only Georgian Independence Day - the excuse for the party - were every day. However, the official party last night won out on the music front. (Georgian jazz-funbk is so not my thing, I have discovered.) The Norvegians didn't overdo it, but focussed on quality, not quantity, so we had Bobbysocks, Eurovision's winners for Norway in 1985, still alive and able to bang out the schlagertastic tune, doing it this time with a group who looked exactly like the Brighton Gay Men's Chorus and were presumably the Oslo equivalent. Then we had Alexander Rybak chatting to the host and performing two songs with three female fellow fiddlers (alliteration overload!), including Fairytale, which he had conspicuously NOT performed when I saw him at the Euroclub on Thursday night, a few hours after my arrival. After the official launch party ended last night, we wound our way just down the road to the Euroclub again, for the now daily 'six quid and not even a pint' of lager, making it last as long as possible. I had a good chat with one of the UK's backing singers. This is her in the middle, on set at yesterday's rehearsal. She was lovely, and will be on the boat trip later. ![]() There was also one of those magic moments, where the DJ plays an artist's song while they're in the room and the cameras converge. The UK song was played while Josh, his singers and his dancers were all together, so we got a 'playback' performance with a 'let's do the whole show right here' kinda vibe. A TV camera was shoved in Josh's face, with the backing singers behind him. If you see this on TV or on the internet at any point, you may see that *I* seem to have joined the backing singers, with my own enthusiastic bellowing of the song in the presence of trained singers. I'd quite like to see it though. If the footage turns up anywhere, please do let me know. Labels: Eurovision 2010, UK · link
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Eurovision 2011 Düsseldorf, Germany 10th, 12th, 14th May Eurovision 2008 Semi-Final 1 – Tue 20 May 01 Montenegro - Zauvijek volim te – Stefan Filipović 02 Israel – The Fire In Your Eyes (Ke’ilo Kan) – Bo'az Ma'uda 03 Estonia – Leto Svet – Kreisiraadio 04 Moldova – A Century Of Love – Geta Burlacu 05 San Marino - Complice - Miodio 06 Belgium - O Julissi - Ishtar 07 Azerbaijan – Day After Day – Elnur Hüseynov & Samir Javadzadeh 08 Slovenia – Vrag Naj Vzame – Rebeka Dremelj 09 Norway – Hold On, Be Strong – Maria Haukaas Storeng 10 Poland – For Life – Isis Gee 11 Ireland – Irelande, Douze Pointe – Dustin The Turkey 12 Andorra – Casanova – Gisela 13 Bosnia-Herzegovina – Pokušaj – Laka 14 Armenia – Qele Qele – Sirusho 15 Netherlands – Your Heart Belongs To Me – Hind 16 Finland - Missä miehet ratsastaa – Teräsbetoni 17 Romania – Pe-o Margine de Lume – Nico & Vlad Mirita 18 Russia - Dima Bilan - Believe 19 Greece – Secret Combination – Kalomira Semi-Final 2 – Thu 22 May 01 Iceland – This Is My Life – Eurobandið 02 Sweden - Hero - Charlotte Perrelli 03 Turkey – Deli – Mor ve Ötesi 04 Ukraine – Shady Lady – Ani Lorak 05 Lithuania – Nomads In The Night – Jeronimas Milius 06 Albania – Zemrën e lamë peng – Olta Boka 07 Switzerland – Era Stupendo – Paolo Meneguzzi 08 Czech Republic – Have Some Fun – Tereza Kerndlová 09 Belarus – Hasta La Vista – Ruslan Alekhno 10 Latvia – Wolves Of The Sea – Pirates Of The Sea 11 Croatia – Romanca – Kraljevi Ulice & 75 Cents 12 Bulgaria – DJ, Take Me Away – Deep Zone & Balthazar 13 Denmark – All Night Long – Simon Mathew 14 Georgia – Peace Will Come – Diana Gurtskaya 15 Hungary – Candlelight – Csézy 16 Malta – Vodka - Morena 17 Cyprus – Femme Fatale – Evdokia Kadi 18 FYR Macedonia – Let Me Love You – Tamara, Vrčak & Adrian 19 Portugal - Senhora do Mar (Negras Águas) - Vânia Fernandes Final – Sat 24 May 02 United Kingdom – Even If – Andy Abraham 04 Germany – Disappear – No Angels 19 France – Divine – Sébastien Tellier 22 Spain - Baila el Chiki Chiki - Rodolfo Chikilicuatre 23 Serbia - Oro - Jelena Tomašević ft. Bora Dugić
Chig's Gigs & stuff 2007-2008
Coming Up: 11/12 Steel City Tour: ABC, Heaven 17, The Human League - Wolves Civic Gone Down: 21/01 Sing Live! - B'ham Symphony Hall 05/02 Mika - Berkeley Square, London 13/02 Shayne Ward - Nott'm Arena 21/02 X Factor - Nott'm Arena 04/05 Scooch-Nightingale, B'ham 12/05 Hosting Eurovision night @ The Nightingale 17/05 Jason Donovan-Nott'm Royal Concert Hall 25/05 Pet Shop Boys - Wolves Civic 26/05 Liberty X - Nightingale, B'ham 27/05 Scooch & Björn Again - B'ham Pride 16/06 Muse, The Streets, Dirty Pretty Things, Rodrigo y Gabriela & Zane Lowe - Wembley Stadium 28/06 Brotherhood of Man & Buck's Fizz - Nott'm Royal Concert Hall 14/07 Sing Live! - Summer in the '60s & '70s - Royal Leamington Spa Centre 14/09 Rise - Leek Wootton Village Hall 16/09 Erasure & Onetwo - Wolves Civic 17/09 The Twang & The Priory - B'ham Carling Academy 2 (private gig - Janice Long's Radio2 show) 20/09 Turisas & Abgott - B'ham Carling Academy 2 27/09 McFly - Wolves Civic 10/11 Buck's Fizz & Futureproof (The X Factor), Nightingale, B'ham 17/11 Vengaboys & Andy Williams (The X Factor) - Nightingale, B'ham 01/12 The Human League plays Dare! - Hammersmith Apollo 10/03 Gary Numan Replicas Tour & Daggers - Wolves Wulfrun 18/03 Russell Howard, Alexandra, Brum 20+22+24/05 Eurovision Song Contest, Beograd, Srbija 10/06 Eurobeat-Almost Eurovision, B'ham Hippodrome 12/06 Yazoo - Wolves Civic 14/06-16/06 Bingham Cup, DCU, Dublin 24/06 Westlife & Hope - Nottingham Arena 07/07 Duran Duran & The Duke Spirit - NIA, B'ham 01/08 kd lang - Symphony Hall, B'ham ![]() Who is Chig? Contact me: chig at cmdh dot freeserve dot co dot uk My Wish List Front page Archive RSS feed
Chig is Nicki French's official stalker...but she doesn't seem to mind.
Chig's life can sometimes be a right pain in the balls...
Chig watches...
Dogtown, The Amazing Mrs Pritchard, Robin Hood, The X Factor, Spooks, Extras, Mock The Week, Popworld, Ideal, Deal Or No Deal, Eggheads, Hollyoaks, Never Mind The Full Stops, Doctor Who series 2 repeats on BBC3, The Bill, Match Of The Day, Ant'n'Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway. Chig has failed at two attempts to watch the whole series of Invasion, so if you have it on DVD... Chig still fancies Jesse Metcalfe... ![]() ...and Brandon Flowers, Roman Sebrle, Jonas Armstrong, Matthew Fox, Stefan Booth, Stuart Manning, Gary Lucy...
49= 49= 48 46= 46= 45 44 43 40= 40= 40= 39 38 37 36 35 33= 33= 31= 31= 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Where I live:
Birmingham: It's Not Shit icBirmingham BBC Birmingham The Nightingale Club DV8
Interests:
Flickr gaytimes Popjustice The Official Charts Co. Launch (UK charts) British Hit Singles Aston Villa FC GFSN Eurovision 2006 Eurovision 2005 in Kyiv Popjustice Eurovision Friends Reunited Mr Gay UK
Eurovision 2007:
Official EBU Eurovision Helsinki 2007 Official DotEurovision (News) ESC Today (News) Eurovision Songs OGAE Malta Norway: Melodi Grand Prix AsianMissionToEurovision(Blog) Eurovision 2007 acts: Qualifier: Albania: Aida & Frederik Ndoci Andorra: Anonymous Austria: Eric Papilaya Belarus: Dima Koldun Belgium: The KMGs Bulgaria: Elitsa Todorova & Stoyan Yankulov Croatia: Dragonfly ft. Dado Topić Czech Republic: Kabát Cyprus: Evridiki Denmark: DQ Estonia: Gerli Padar Georgia: Sopho Khalvashi Hungary: Magdi Rúzsa Iceland: Eiríkur Hauksson Israel: Teapacks Latvia: bonaparti.lv FYR Macedonia: Karolina Gočeva Malta: Olivia Lewis Moldova: Natalia Barbu Montenegro: Stevan Faddy Netherlands: Edsilia Rombley Norway: Guri Schanke Poland: The Jet Set Portugal: Sabrina Serbia: Marija Šerifović Slovenia: Alenka Gotar Switzerland: DJ Bobo Turkey: Kenan Doğulu Final: Armenia: Hayko Bosnia-Herzegovina: Marija Šestić Finland: Hanna Pakarinen France: Les Fatals Picards Germany: Roger Cicero Greece: Sarbel Ireland: Dervish Lithuania: 4Fun Romania: Todomondo Russia: Serebro Spain: NASH Sweden: The Ark Ukraine: Verka Serduchka UK MYMU entrants Big Brovaz Brian Harvey Cyndi Hawkins & Brown Liz McClarnon Scooch(!)
Artists:
Prata Vetra (Brainstorm) Marc Almond Pet Shop Boys Scissor Sisters
Family history:
Chig is directly descended from the following families. If you have one of these surnames, we're possibly related, so feel free to get in touch: Crowe, Harborne/Harbourne, Higgins, Hutchins, O'Sullivan/Sullivan, Talliss/Tallis.
Above: My Gran with her Gran. Snitterfield, Warwickshire, c.1930.
Shameless exhibitionism:
Chig's January 1999 Gay Times article, behind the scenes filming 'Queer As Folk'
People we know:
After The Boyf B-Boy Blues Bitful Daren & Justin David Belbin Glenn Ball I'm Hip To You Loobynet Melodimen Over Your Head Poplicious Quarter Hours Reluctant Nomad Schlagerboys Simon & The City Thoughts From Fish Island Troubled Diva
Other people we like:
AceDiscoVery Come Into My World Club Contact Following Adam Diamond Geezer My Ace Life Naked Blog TheSnowInTheSummerOrSo-So Welshcake Zbornak
Archives:
February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 December 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002 January 2002 November 2001 |