With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

43 years ago on 4th April 1981 Bucks Fizz won the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin for the UK with “Making Your Mind Up”. It was a great pop song and the skirt-pulling part of the performance was quite a sensation at the time

On 4th April 1964, the Beatles took over the US Billboard singles chart thanks to The USA hugely taking to Beatlemania. They held the top 5 places with “Please Please Me” (5), “I Want To Hold Your Hand” (4), “Roll Over Beethoven” (3), “Love Me Do” (2), and at number1 “Can’t Buy Me Love.” They also had another nine singles on the chart, bringing their total to fourteen on the Hot 100.

Back in 1970, also on 4th April, British Pub Rock stalwarts Brinsley Schwarz were earmarked for Stateside success, to achieve that their PR company flew 133 UK journalists to New York to see the band support Van Morrison at the Fillmore East, at the cost of £120,000. The event turned into a disaster. The group planned to leave a few days before the show to rehearse but were denied visas on a technicality, not drug convictions as some online stories suggest. They were finally given visas on the morning of the show and arrived just hours before the concert. The plane carrying the journalists was delayed after a mechanical fault, delaying the flight and when the journalists arrived In New York 18 hours later, they were all hung over. I can only assume that the PR company also paid the journalists’ bar tab. Brinsley Schwarz, according to most sources gave an underwhelming live performance, resulting in several poor reviews. Nick Lowe was perhaps the most successful member after the band’s eventual demise.

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