Kevin Bishop, Executive Producer, Light Entertainment for the BBC announced at the draw in November,that the method of selection of the British song for 1998 will be the same as for 1997.

On this page there's news of Hale & Pace's song, a picture of Ulrika, and now two new pictures!

Here are the eight songs chosen, announced 21st January; since then, performers have been announced, with the four chosen by Radio 2 listeners on February 6th marked with ‡. This indicates the song is through to round 2 - weekly appearances on the lottery show from 21st February:

1. Dont' it make you feel so good (Paul Brown, Mike Connaris), Performed by Alberta‡
2. Give it up (Gary Benson, Livingstone Brown, Lisa Millet), Performed by Lisa Millet
3. I'll never be lonely again (Richard Simmons, Stephen Jones), Performed by Kate Cameron (Kitt) - apparently Sapphire will perform this on the lottery show‡
4. Suddenly (Tim Laws, Farrell Lennon, Simon May), Performed by Farrell Lennon
5. When we're alone we dream (Stephen Ruddles, Yinka Charles, Jay Williams, Greg Lester), Performed by The Collective‡
6. When we're in love (Cheryl Parker, Nick Graham), Performed by Mandy Wilson
7. Where are you? (Scott English, Phil Manikiza, Simon Stirling), Performed by Imaani‡
8. Wish you were here (Dave King, Anita Madigan, Dave Major), Performed by Anita Madigan

"A stunning standard of entries has given us eight fantastic semi-finalists and several big hit records, in my opinion," said Jonathan King, Great British Song Contest music executive.

Radio 2 will be doing the same as last year and running the songs, two per day in Terry Wogan's and Ken Bruce's programmes from 2nd to the 5th of Feb. Then all eight on the Friday 6th. 0830-0900 with the phone vote from 0900-1000 to cut the list to 4. These will appear on the Lottery Show from February 21st (correction!), with a final TV show probably on March 15th with televote to pick the British entry for Birmingham. Madonna is guest in the 21st February show. The winner, and UK entry for Birmingham will be announced on the Lottery show on 21st March 1998.

The BBC had a page devoted to the GBSC at http://www.bbc.co.uk/eurovision - the 8 songs were there to hear in RealAudio. I assume this page will continue in some form.
For another view, Nick Deller hosts the Unofficial Great British Song Contest site at http://www.kidney.demon.co.uk/gbschome.htm

As we know, Jonathan King will again be behind the British effort, but there'll be a chance to see an earlier stage in the selection process when comedians Hale & Pace screen a show in the summer. They entered a song, as part of series on doing somebody else's job, and their mission was to get it to the final. Their song was called "More than enough for one life", and sung by David Shannon. There was a special presentation of the song on January 20th at Broadcasting House, and I was there.

Here is my report:
The tickets said 6 for 6:30, so they kept us freezing until 6:20, but then we were ushered into the rather small BBC Radio Theatre, and Nick Hindle, the Producer of 'Jobs for the Boys' introduced himself, and told us the plan. Meanwhile we were surveying the field of Eurovision, and song-writing talent in the room. There was Rick Wakeman, Bruce Welch (from 'The Shadows'- UK '75), Lynsey de Paul (UK'77), Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson (UK'59), Cheryl Baker (from Bucks Fizz - UK '81), Lee Sheridan and Nicky Stevens (from Brotherhood of Man - UK '76), Björn Again, former presenter Katie Boyle, Johnny Logan, Katrina (Wave-less), song writer Don Black, and radio presenter Ken Bruce. I'm hope the ones missed out will forgive me.

Comedians turned song writers Gareth Hale and Norman Pace told us they'd asked Sinead O' Connor to come, but she was washing her hair - they motioned to running a shower under their arms, and Norman said, looking at portly Gareth, "They said you needed lots of guts to enter Eurovision - you've got enough for both of us!". They also told us Don Black had advised them on the lyrics.

Then Ulrika Jonsson, the presenter for the upcoming final in Birmingham, came on, and introduced the band, the singer David Shannon, and the song "More than enough for one life". A medium-paced ballad, very well sung, with a good melody, backed by piano, guitar, and three singers (two female).

The song was sung a couple of times, and there was plenty of filming for the planned 'Jobs for the boys' show. I found the song rather corny first time, but it seemed better second time around.

Then on came Katrina with an envelope, which had the result, which said that 'More than eonugh for one life', by Gareth Hale & Norman Pace, produced by Nigel Wright, had made the final 30, but not the final eight. Hale & Pace were downcast and said, "How Embarassing - thank you for coming to our wake!", but Lynsey de Paul (seen here with Pearl Carr and Teddy Jonhson) shot up and said, "You could still have a hit, some great songs have lost".

The TV crew needed to have the song done one more time, so it was performed again, and sounded better again, and then the official part was over, the doors opened, but we went forwards to catch the celebs as they were being filmed, and eat and drink, of course.

Tiny, charming Lynsey de Paul remembered how the 1977 'Song for Europe' was blacked out with three minutes to go, due to a technicians strike, and how she'd done the song to stay in the business after legal problems. Ken Bruce told us something about the selection process, and how Wogan would still be doing the commentary for the final, with Ulrika doing the scores.
Ulrika wasn't as tall as I'd expected, but was an excellent as presenter of this show, and chatted. Cheryl Baker talked about the two Bucks Fizz bands (Mike Nolan's and Bobby Gee's). Katrina confirmed she'd split from the Waves (?), but didn't really confirm if they'd be in Malta for the Maltese final. We praised Johnny Logan on his singing of the 1966 winner 'Merci Cherie' on the Swiss final, and commiserated with Gareth Hale, who told us they'd really enjoyed doing this show. They'd got more to do in Birmingham still. Each show took about 4 months to make, and they only overlapped them a bit. He was particulrly sorry for singer David Shannon, who'd lost an opportunity for exposure.

We also talked to Gary Osbourne, who was representing British song-writers on the final judging panel. He'd written the odd song for the Song for Europe himself (check out 1986), and told us how there'd been 850 original entries this year, up from 600 last year. The standard was higher, and there was more interest after the success of Gina G, Katrina, and Love City Groove. The days of the 1980's when you couldn't chart with a British entry were over. About the final judging, he said they only had the titles of the final 30, and heard them only once on Monday. He also said there was a sure winner in there, but couldn't say which!

Paul Walters, Senior Producer, Wake Up To Wogan show later e-mailed me with this:
It is intended that we have online voting this year, which can be added to the phone vote on Friday 6th February. Also, for the Lottery Voting. I'll keep you posted on this one. By the way, Gary was representing the songwriters on the panel. Mike Leggo was in charge and as such did not vote. Panel was Kevin Bishop, Emma Cornish and Guy Freeman from BBC TV. Me and Geoff Mullin from Radio 2 Gary Osborne from BASCA and Richard Manners from Polygram. Chaired by Mike.

Thanks to Paul, and thanks to all those we spoke to - a great evening!

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