United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1986

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[edit] A Song for Europe 1986

The 1986 Song For Europe contest was held on April 2, 1986, live from the BBC Television Centre, hosted by a suited Terry Wogan, the suit would later become the butt of many of the regional juries' jokes.

The final opened with 1985 Eurovision winners, Bobbysocks, singing an English rendition of their winning song. They were joined onstage by a large number of backing dancers, choreographed by Anthony van Laast.

The first song of the contest was the catchy Dreamer, performed by Vanity Fair. Having already had a career stretching back nearly twenty years, the group were on good form, and ended up in third place, although jury voting was polarised, earning top marks from some juries and the bottom mark from others.

Next came the ballad Dancing with you again,from three boys called Palace. The lead singer Michael Palace was better known to Eurovision fans as Dan Duskey, a member of The Duskeys who represented Ireland in 1982. This song was in a lowly position throughout the voting, but a 15 pointer from the London jury put them into 4th place.

Colin Heywood sang a powerful Eurovision ballad called No easy way to love, written by Bradley and Stuart James, and Tony Hiller, the man who wrote the 1976 UK winner "Save Your Kisses for Me". Bradley and Stuart James would later reappear in 1989 as the writers and part of the backing group of Frankie Johnson's "Back in the groove". According to Tony Hiller's website, this song was originally written as a demo back in 1984, with the artists being "The James Brothers", presumably the writers of the song along with Hiller.

Colin Heywood was credited by Terry Wogan as being an actor, his previous credits being in the little known horror movie Bloody New Year. He would then go on to host But first this, the children's BBC programme for the summer holidays, but only lasted one season in 1988. He later reappeared under the new name of Daniel James and was in the short lived group Yell! who had a hit with "Instant Replay", although their short lived success was tainted by newspaper reports as to how old Colin Heywood/Daniel James actually was.

A rock ballad was next performed by Chad Brown. "I'm sorry" was written by Paul Griggs, who appeared on stage as the guitarist. He also appeared in the 1979 contest, as part of the group "Guys n dolls" although that contest was never broadcast.

Tongue tied was a pleasant number sung by Kenny Charles and was in stark contrast to the sixth song, Runner in the night by the group Ryder. This was a bombastic piece of shouting, upbeat and different. Ryder were formed specially for the contest, headed up by Maynard Williams, whose father Bill Maynard appeared in the earliest Song For Europe Contest in 1957.

Jump were the archetypal song contest group, three girls in pink and two likely lads with knowing smiles. Don't hang up on love was uptempo and all the right key changes. The audience loved it. The song was written by Paul Curtis.

They were left a little perplexed though by the final entry, War of the roses, from the group Future.

Terry then came back on stage to chat to Bobbysocks, a somewhat bizarre conversation about the delights of Bergen.

[edit] The voting

Terry was on fine form as he bantered with the jury spokesman, almost causing Leeds' Linda Dryborough-Smith to dry. In a close competition, Ryder emerged victorious with 145 points, followed by Jump with 137 and Vanity Fair with 99. Palace took the fourth spot with 91 points followed by Kenny Charles with 86, Colin Heywood with 80, Chad Brown with 78 and finally Future with 76.

[edit] Eurovision Song Contest 1986

After a brief trip to the heady heights of fourth place in the 1985 Eurovision Song Contest, the UK slumped back to 6th or 7th place (see 1982, 1983 and 1984) in 1986. The song Runner In The Night by Ryder failed to wow judges and it only received 72 points overall.

Belgian 13-year-old Sandra Kim won with "J'aime la vie".