Kaiser Bill's Batman and Eurovision

stufisher

Stumbled upon this earlier but can't recall if I liked / loathed it when I was a young'n.



Half a century later I'm watching and thinking that couldn't have been real ... but it was. Interesting that Kaiser Bill was still featuring half a century after WW1  

In contrast, I heard the UK Eurovision 2025 entry today and didn't like it at all so perhaps we'd be better with a 21st C Whistling Jack Smith?

Perhaps the decline of the UK varies directly with the decline of Eurovision entries  

I am aware of my ageing and Victor Meldrewisms but does anyone else have any considered on any of this?  

dazzajl

I think the 25 Eurovision entry is just about perfect and while it’s not such an important ingredient these days, those girls can really sing. I hope it goes well for them but I’m not going to expect much. 

ICBM

stufisher said:

Perhaps the decline of the UK varies directly with the decline of Eurovision entries  

I am aware of my ageing and Victor Meldrewisms but does anyone else have any considered on any of this?

Interesting theory, but no - Sam Ryder’s Space Man was an excellent entry and would have won but for the popular non-musical support for Ukraine - and coincided with one of the most disastrous governments we’ve ever had.

As for Kaiser Bill... well, the greatest Eurovision song of all is (sort of) about Napoleon, and he lived more than 150 years earlier.

prowla

Space Man was remarkably un-dissimilar to

scrumhalf

The bloke in the Kaiser Bill video isn't the bloke who whistled on the record. He's the Milli Vanilli of the whistling world.

dazzajl

prowla said:

Space Man was remarkably un-dissimilar to

*confused*

boogieman

stufisher said:

Stumbled upon this earlier but can't recall if I liked / loathed it when I was a young'n.



Half a century later I'm watching and thinking that couldn't have been real ... but it was. Interesting that Kaiser Bill was still featuring half a century after WW1  

In contrast, I heard the UK Eurovision 2025 entry today and didn't like it at all so perhaps we'd be better with a 21st C Whistling Jack Smith?

Perhaps the decline of the UK varies directly with the decline of Eurovision entries  

I am aware of my ageing and Victor Meldrewisms but does anyone else have any considered on any of this?  

That era was a real boon time for novelty records. There was all the Barron Knights stuff, Bernard Cribbins singing Right Said Fred and Hole in the Road, The Banana Boat Song (Day-o!) plus various comedians doing comedy songs, things like Mouldy Old Dough etc. I had a Snoopy Vs The Red Baron record, no idea where the idea for that came from. 

I don’t rate our Eurovision song at all, it’s hardly a catchy tune and the whole thing seems very disjointed. Actually I reckon Right Said Fred (the band) would do a much better job… kitsch catchy songs, camp look, gay appeal, absolutely perfect.  

axisus

Hah! Liked that as a kid. 

Sam Ryder was superb, should have won. I really enjoyed his new year show that was on TV a few years ago.

I don't engage with Eurovision at all, but I saw the three girls that are representing us on GMTV recently, and they were delightful.

stufisher

Great analogy @scrumhalf  

Fair point @ICBM ;; ... I do agree about Sam Ryder's entry but I maintain that, in general, the UK's entries are relatively poorer than they were in the 60s-70s-80s.

Whether there is a causal relationship to the perceived general decline in the UK overall might be one for Steven Levit and the Freakonomics aficionados/statisticans.

I hope the UK entry does well, of course, but I just fear that it won't.