Bobby G's Bucks Fizz Live at Artburst EK

Bobby G

Well Bobby G's Bucks Fizz were playing our home town of East Kilbride at the annual Artburst Festival so we just had to go along! They opened the show with 'New Beginning', which was just one of only five Bucks Fizz songs sang in their one hour set, the others being 'My Camera Never Lies', 'Run For Your Life', 'The Land of Make Believe' and the inevitable 'Makin' Your Mind Up'. The rest of the show was made up of an Abba medley, a Motown medley, Starship's 'We Built The City' and some Meatloaf songs. The set list was a bit strange considering the band released in excess of 18 singles, most of which were huge hits. When Bucks Fizz entered the stage could here people in the crowd ask each other 'where's Cheryl?', obviously unaware that the line up now only consists of one original member, Bobby G. The band's performance however was very polished and professional although the performance was more cabaret than what you would expect from multi-million album selling eurovision winners. This Bucks Fizz have only one quarter of the original line up and appear to have only one quarter of the credibility. 'The Original Bucks Fizz' have Cheryl Baker, who really is the star of the band and they deliver nothing but a pure Bucks Fizz performance. Bobby G's Bucks Fizz, which is the official Bucks Fizz, seem almost a parody of themselves, which is a shame.

Tammy Choat

Bobby with new boy Paul Fordham

Bobby's wife Heidi Manton

Bucks Fizz singing Makin' Your Mind Up

ALCAZAR - INHIBITIONS

Alcazar have released there brand new sigle from their as yet untitled Album, the track is called 'Inhibitions' and it's simply fab! Alcazarworld.com ran a competition for fans outside Sweden to win a digital copy of the single, all the fans had to do was think of a title for Alcazar's new album... The Schlager Systems have suggested 'Triple Distilled' as the title and we think that should definitely win, we like our vodka triple distilled too! Alcazar will be appearing with BWO at this year London Pride at G-A-Y on July 5th and at Stockholm Europride on August 2nd.

Click below to listen to the full song!

Schlager Leeds Cancelled!

Christopher and Lee from Schlager Leeds have informed us that unfortunately differences with the venue Management have forced them to cancel the event. We here at the Schlager Systems hope that the team will be able to re-schedule the event for the near future.

Alexander Bard Talks to the Schlager Systems about BWO's Big Gay Summer!

Schlager Systems's Martin catches up with Alexander Bard to find out about BWO's Euro Pride 2008 anthem, 'The Bells Of Freedom', his thoughts on Melodifestivalen 2008 and Eurovision 2008.

Hi Alexander. How did you come to write this year's official europride anthem?

We were asked to do the Europride anthem because BWO is of course popular in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe already and Europride, while taking place in Stockholm, will have an Eastern European theme this year. So we couldn't really resist the offer. It seemed a perfectly natural thing for us to do.

Did you work on the song with co-writers?

"The Bells Of Freedom" was co-written by me, Martin Rolinski and Anders Hansson. The same team that writes most of BWO's songs. There was really no reason why we would write the Europride anthem differently from the way we write all other BWO songs. All we were concerned with was to write an all-inclusive pop anthem but with a slight political touch. The wedding bells in the chorus section stand for the political aspect.

The song is up-tempo and full of energy. How important is energy to the music of BWO?

We love pop, pure pop! And pop includes both energetic up-tempo songs and gorgeous ballads. We just do our best to write the very best songs we can come up with. Songwriting is always at the center of everything BWO do.

BWO will be headlining at Europride in Stockholm! What can we expect from the performance?

A full-on live performance. We're proud to perform on the same stage as our friends Alcazar who will also perform together with us on the stage of G-A-Y in London four weeks earlier at London Pride.

Were BWO disappointed not to make it to Eurovision this year?

No, not at all. It's actually a kind of luxury, to perform at Melodifestivalen, place third as the edgiest and freshest entry, have a massive and now also an international hit single with "Lay Your Love On Me", and then hear from everybody afterwards that "Sweden should have sent BWO instead of Charlotte to Eurovision". It feels quite good, to be honest about it.

You told us in Stockholm that 'Lay Your Love on Me' had outsold Perrelli's 'Hero' on the day of MF08 final, that must have felt good?

We don't actually compare our songs that way. Both Charlotte, Sanna and BWO were winners at this year's Melodifestivalen in the sense that we were the Top 3 at Globen at the MF finals and then all had massive hit singles and albums afterwards. Our other common demoninator is of course that Bobby Ljunggren co-wrote all three songs (!) Bobby is really a hero.

Cheeky question – was it true you guys never got any 'good luck' flowers from Carola at the MF final?

It's hardly a secret that BWO and Carola dislike each other. A lot. But I absolutely love and adore Ani Lorak from Ukraine. Ani has all the charisma and modern sexiness that Carola and Charlotte lack. I would love to work with Ani one day. She has both the charisma and the amazing voice I like in a good performer.

Did you get a chance to watch Eurovision this year? Any favourites?

Ani Lorak, of course, Are you kidding? She blew all the others away. I also liked Switzerland's song but the guy who sang it came across as being so pale and insecure while performing that he blew it all already at the sem-finals. There was no charm there, for sure. Martin and Marina loved Sebastien Tellier from France, But that's of course because Tellier does modern and cool electro and not some dated old eurovision fodder. But God, we LOATHED the German and UK entries. They were sooo bad! In every aspect! Why can't the UK and Germany send something better? Maybe BWO could help them out?

It's such a shame you didn't get to compete as you would have gained a lot of votes as you are hugely popular in easter Europe, aren't you?

I suppose that's true. It certainly didn't hurt Dima Bilan that he is already a major star in lots of Eastern European countries.

Are you playing any UK dates soon?

Yes, of course, BWO and Alcazar will perform live together at G-A-Y in London on July 5. And BBC Radio 2 are already playing "Lay Your Love On Me", set for UK release at the end of July. Life could be a lot worse.

Best

Alexander x

Diva's Fizz at the Scala - The Eurovision Winners Party

The only place to be on Saturday night, if you love eurovision, was the Scala in London, which played host to the Eurovision Winners Party. Brought to the pubilc by the same team who hosted the preview Party, the winners party was a night to remember. Eurovision fans came out in force to see their favourite acts perform and to see the runner up and winner from this years competition. The scala was heaving with fans!
Nicki French was the host for the evening as Paddy O'Connell couldn't make it and what a host she was! Nicki opened procedings with a Eurovision type medley singing 'Beg, steal or borrow' and 'Boom Bang-A-Bang' which was very well received. Nicki introduced the first act, which was Sonia. Sonia, looking very thin, wore a black number and a red hat, she got the crowd going to her huge hit 'You'll Never Stop Me From Loving You' and her eurovision runner up 'Better The Devil You Know'. Sonia was in great voice and so were the audience who faithully sang along with every word, except the for the Russian contingent, who looked bored rigid as all they were interested in was Dima Bilan.
Sonia told the Schlager Systems, when we were chatting that she is so proud to have been part of Eurovision and that see is constantly singing, sh'e in demand all lover the world and that she has never been so busy!
Next up was 'The Original Bucks Fizz' , so called, as Cheryl Baker explained that the couldn't use the name Bucks Fizz for legal reasons. The band sang hit after hit, 'Land of make Believe', 'I Hear Talk', 'New Beginning' and of course 'Makin' Your Mind Up' to name a few. The audience were truely loving this appearance by the Fizz. Later we got the chance to tell Cheryl how great we thought the performance was, she thanked us very much and shook our hands!

Dima Bilan managed to fly back into London for the performance at the Scala, although very brief appearance. When Nicki introduced him there were a lot of very audible boos from the Brit contingent and screams from the mullet haired Russian crowd. In our opinion the booing was in bad taste, whether you agree that the winning song should have won or not is your opinion, but we felt it a little disrespectful given the occasion. Diva Dima was supposed to perform last, but during the break the running order changed, maybe he didn't like the boos and wanted to leave early, one can only speculate. The Russian girls were going nuts for Dima, trying to grab the legs and clothes of their eastern block idol. Dima performed again with the violinist from Euro (sans ice skater - thank God) and again he hideously oversang his song 'Believe'. His second track was his last Russian number one in which he oddly began behaving like Michael Jackson, all crotch grabbing and moonwalking, then off he went.. no encore.

After the break Nicki came back on to rapturous applause and sang a few numbers including her Eurovision entry 'Don't Play That Song Again' wearing her original coat from her Eurovision performance! She sang to an audience chanting 'Nicki, Nicki' trying to drown out the Russian girlsscreaming 'Dima, Dima'! The final act of the night was the stunning Diva that is Ani Lorak. Ani sang Tina Turner's 'The Best', Bon Jovi's 'It's My Life' and ballad from her 2006 english language album.

Ani's final song was, inevitably, this years Eurovision Runner Up 'Shady Lady', for the Ukraine. It's worth noting that Nicki French accidentally introduced Ani as this years Eurovision winner (oops)! In a stomping performance with two hot athletic dancers, the diva whipped the crowd into a frenzy, she even came on and did it again for an encore!! Sheer class. Barry Viniker and all at Clear Focus and ESCtoday deserve a special mention for putting together a great show, all their hard work and effort definitely paid off.

Videos by Kethan

Words Martin

Pics Moira Ferguson aka Miss Tempest (more pics on Miss Tempest's site. Link on right hand side)

Euro Winners Party!

Well what a fantastic night last night in the Scala. This is just a preliminary report. We are still in London so will report in full from home. The artists and crowd were amazing. There were plenty of Russian girls there in support of Dima Bilan and were exceptionally vocal. Barry and the team pulled off a stunning night. Our heigh lights include, Bucks Fizz's performance and then meeting Cheryl and telling her how fabulous she was! Ani Lorak was a total diva legend and Nicki French excelled as hostess for the evening. Story in full with pics and videos to follow!