Eurovision Song Contest!

claudine · Post by **claudine** » Mon May 17, 2004 5:45 am

It was all crap, like every year.

Andreas · Post by **Andreas** » Mon May 17, 2004 6:47 am

Wombat wrote: Funny. When I first saw that, he was holding it at about 45 degrees. It looked a bit like he wasn't sure whether he had a low whistle or a transverse flute and was sorta splitting the difference. Then the camera refused to settle on him. What was also a bit confusing was that an instrument playing what sounded like it might be his part was sounding when he wasn't playing. Well, it all adds to the surreal nature of the occasion.

It was a ney. It is usually held at approx. 45 degrees. And it IS a cross between a whistle and a traverse flute; endblown without fipple. So, congratulations on your keen observation skills, Wombat!

GaryKelly · Post by **GaryKelly** » Mon May 17, 2004 6:49 am

Ah there are times when I miss not having a TV... Eurovision isn't one of them

Although Wogan used to make I giggle, as did the voting at the end and the wonderful "neel pwant"... Luxembourg.... nil points....

Didn't Sandy Shaw win it for the UK one year with "Puppet On A String", or did I dream it? Them were the days...boombangabang... sigh.

Edited to add: Ooh! I found information on the "ney" that Andreas kindly mentioned: http://www.xs4all.nl/~kvandoel/ney/

claudine · Post by **claudine** » Mon May 17, 2004 7:15 am

GaryKelly wrote: Although Wogan used to make I giggle, as did the voting at the end and the wonderful "neel pwant"... Luxembourg.... nil points....

hey hey Gary, wait a minute! Luxembourg has won the Eurovision five times! That was in the good old times, when it was still about songs and not about naked skin

GaryKelly · Post by **GaryKelly** » Mon May 17, 2004 7:35 am

Sorry Claudine! I must've been thinking of "Norwege... nil points..." ?

I can remember a girlfriend once becoming incredibly upset that Ear-land gave the Royaume-Uni neel pwant after we'd given them a big twelve... I don't think she understood that the voting had nothing to do with the songs or the performance

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Mon May 17, 2004 7:38 am

Andreas wrote:
Wombat wrote: Funny. When I first saw that, he was holding it at about 45 degrees. It looked a bit like he wasn't sure whether he had a low whistle or a transverse flute and was sorta splitting the difference. Then the camera refused to settle on him. What was also a bit confusing was that an instrument playing what sounded like it might be his part was sounding when he wasn't playing. Well, it all adds to the surreal nature of the occasion.
It was a ney. It is usually held at approx. 45 degrees. And it IS a cross between a whistle and a traverse flute; endblown without fipple. So, congratulations on your keen observation skills, Wombat!

Thanks Andreas. How exactly is that tuned? It didn't sound all that much like the low whistles we are used to but it did sound good to me.

GaryKelly · Post by **GaryKelly** » Mon May 17, 2004 7:58 am

GaryKelly wrote: Edited to add: Ooh! I found information on the "ney" that Andreas kindly mentioned: http://www.xs4all.nl/~kvandoel/ney/

And also here:

http://www.bardoworks.it/ney.html

Which gives tuning information.

Andreas · Post by **Andreas** » Mon May 17, 2004 8:32 am

GaryKelly wrote:
GaryKelly wrote: Edited to add: Ooh! I found information on the "ney" that Andreas kindly mentioned: http://www.xs4all.nl/~kvandoel/ney/
And also here:

http://www.bardoworks.it/ney.html

Which gives tuning information.

And also here:

http://home.att.net/~maged.k.mikhail/

buddhu · Post by **buddhu** » Mon May 17, 2004 8:58 am

GaryKelly wrote: Sorry Claudine! I must've been thinking of "Norwege... nil points..." ?

I can remember a girlfriend once becoming incredibly upset that Ear-land gave the Royaume-Uni neel pwant after we'd given them a big twelve... I don't think she understood that the voting had nothing to do with the songs or the performance

Norwege? Hang on, Gary... I thought it was Belgium. No, wait... perhaps I'm thinking of the worst-word gag from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Yipe - I need a holiday.

Roger O'Keeffe · Post by **Roger O'Keeffe** » Mon May 17, 2004 10:53 am

Yes, it usually is "Belgique nul points" which is not even proper French, but never mind.

Last year they surprised everyone and nearly won with a new-agey but not altogether bad song in a makey-uppy language by a non-country-specific folk band which included a guy who can play pretty good Irish trad when he wants to and another who plays Flemish bagpipes.

This year it was won by a girl in a rawhide miniskirt accompanied by a bunch of appropriately-clad gogo dancers of both sexes, including one who looked like David Beckham, but he wasn't wearing a sarong so it probably wasn't him. I forget which country they came from, and what the song sounded like apart from noisy, but I think they might have been from the Ukraine. It was certainly one of the bits of the former evil empire.

pthouron · Post by **pthouron** » Mon May 17, 2004 3:20 pm

Damn, I'm old enough to remember whan Sandy Shaw won it, bare feet and all.
Thanks for putting things in perspective: in these days of reality TV, I have to remind myself that every generation has its TV crap!