World of Chig   

17.3.11
It's not Paddy's day

With an uncanny sense of timing for St. Paddy's day, the very lovely Paddy O'Connell has revealed on twitter today that he has been relieved of his Eurovision duties and will not be commentating on the semi-finals this year;
Just heard I'm being refreshed from EUROVISION, so if you're a broadcaster needing commentary in English, French, or my new German plz tweet

'Refreshed' is such a lovely, gentle word for being sacked, isn't it?

Paddy's glamourous assistant, Sarah Cawood, has also twitterised the same news;
Sad news: @paddy_o_c & I are being stood down from Eurovision duties this year:( On the upside: I can now have a Eurovision party! Whoop!

This is sad news for me and also for Paddy, who is quite the enthusiast, and has become more so since he started this job, partly because various London friends of mine have taken him under their wing in the last few years, had him round for various parties, subjected him to long-forgotten Eurovision videos and fed him their Eurovision propaganda helped him with his research.

As it won't be happening again, here is a final picture of Ms Cawood on last year's BBC Eurovision day trip, where a coachload of us journos toured the sights of Oslo with Josh Dubovie and the BBC PR team, as some people interviewed Josh and some of us photographed him. (It had the desired effect, as a larger version of this very pic ended up accompanying one of my pieces for the attitude website, plus another one on another day.) Oh, and your licence fee paid for me to have an ice cream. Tell the Daily Mail. I don't care.

Seconds after this picture was taken, Josh, Sarah, myself and a handful of other people squeezed into a little cube on a spring, in which we were shown a film to experience the thrills (and no spills) of downhill skiing, while being tossed around in the cube, but without having to bother actually getting on Oslo's Olympic ski slope, which was directly above us (and which is highly visible on the city's skyline). Very good fun it was too.

So, farewell Paddy and Sarah. Who will ever forget, "You can't have a ley without a rimi rimi?" and other Paddy commentary classics? But the question is, who will replace them? Who could? My mind is a blank. Any suggestions?

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27.5.10
That sounds terribly disappointing to me.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

I've just checked the Radio 1 chart update page, eager to see where Josh Dubovie's Eurovision entry is in the midweeks, and it isn't in the top 40 at all. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised, after Jade Ewen only made #27 last year, after weeks of publicity on Your Country Needs You, whereas Josh was on one atrocious hour-long programme two months ago - and I don't know if any radio stations, anywhere, are playing the single. Josh doesn't even exist on the hmv website, and the track is only listed on amazon as an album track from the Eurovision compilation, which seems to make the CD copy that the kindly BBC people gave me something of a rarity. iTunes has four versions of the track available, but that seems to be about the only place to buy it.

To miss the Top 40 completely would be a disaster, and unheard of in recent years for our Eurovision entry. There will be a surge of download sales on Saturday night, but will it be enough? Josh is a lovely lad - I'd like to see him with a hit.

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11.5.10
9 days to Oslo

Things to do while we're waiting for Eurovision.

Some of us need cheering up today. Especially those of us who reached the milestone this evening where the Prime Minister is younger than we are, for the first time in our lives. (Five months and three days, since you ask, but even without photoshopping, Babyface Callmedave still looks about a decade younger than I do.)

And those of us who can't believe we have a fucking Tory Prime Minister again.

Here he is, entering number 10 this evening. That's the number 10 where I live, not the other one.



To this end (ie. the cheering up thing), why not visit the lovely Jamie's Boom-Bang-A-Blog and enter his competition, like I have? He's asked people to design the outfit that UK Eurovision entrant Josh Dubovie will wear on stage in Oslo. Jamie's a proper journalist, so I imagine he holds proper sway with people at the BBC and it's 99% certain that the winner's design will be implemented. Deffo.

Anyway, here's my design. I can't do photoshop, but I'm a dab hand with google, scissors and glue.



Now, pedants and unfashionable people may claim that it is entirely derivative and unoriginal. However, I defy anyone to find an occasion where these three 'pieces' have been worn before in this ravishingly edgy combination.

Furthermore, the wearers of these items du mode finished first, first again and thirteenth in Eurovision, giving an average of fifth, thereby virtually guaranteeing Josh a top five finish.

Go on, you know you want to.

Body may not be model's own.

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