OnEurope is heading to Baku for Eurovision 2012, and the team will be getting a little larger. As Phil has posted below, Jody West and I will be joining the Baku operation—an increase in size, at least; I couldn’t possibly speculate on the quality.
We’re terribly excited to bring you our particular brand of musings from the Land of Fire and Brimstone. Our speciality will probably be the more social side of the contest: throwing ourselves headlong and selflessly into the local hospitality, reporting on life in the EuroClub and bringing you the gossip from the Miracle Apartments. I do also plan to see a modicum of daylight, with reports on the delights of downtown Baku and its environs.
I lived in Russia as the Soviet Union collapsed around me in 1991, so I may have a rather different perspective on visiting Eurovision in a former Soviet republic from many people travelling there from western Europe. I’m intrigued to see how much of the social norms remain recognisable. My experience is that odd things happen, but odd solutions make them all right. It’s going to be a jolly adventure.
For those who don’t already know me—well done—my Eurovision interests stretch across five decades, from very early childhood memories of Saturday-night family viewing, including channel-hopping during the dull bits, to full-on obsessional status since the early 1990s.
My first visits to the Contest, or at least to Friday-night rehearsals, were in Birmingham in 1998 and Stockholm in 2000. I went properly for the first time in Athens in 2006. I’m also one of a team of five behind Second Cherry, a London-based second-chance party that we have held annually since 2006 and that I present with Jody.
There will be more Baku musings from me soon. In the meantime, I’ll be posting a review of last night’s London Eurovision Party. Leave me a comment if there’s anything you’d like to know, either now or once we reach Baku, where we’ll be from late on Friday 18th May.
And finally, my all-important cheese credentials: I’m a full-on halloumi boy. Nothing beats a bit of squeaky cheese.
Monty x
