Grandad's centenary

It would've been my maternal Grandad's one hundredth birthday today. That's him above, holding me, as my Gran looks on adoringly at their gorgeous first grandchild. Ahem.

Alfred Frederick Crowe, known as Alf, was born at his parents' home, 124 Scovell Road, in the London borough of Southwark, on Saturday 7th of November 1914.

He died in September 2000, in hospital in Warwickshire, following a fall at home in Kenilworth.

The commemorations, in July this year, of the start of World War I reminded me that this centenary was coming up. It really hit home to me that my great grandmother, Emily Crowe, must have been around six months pregnant with my Grandad when war was declared on 28 July 1914. It was an uncertain time for everyone in Europe, but bringing a baby into the world in London, into what I now realise was overcrowded poverty, must have been truly frightening.

I ordered a copy of my Grandad's entry in the birth register a couple of weeks ago and it has revealed some interesting extra information. It reveals that Grandad's Dad, Robert James Crowe, was in the army at the time, in the 5th Wiltshire Regiment, which I've now discovered saw active service in Baghdad and at Gallipoli. I know that Robert James Crowe survived the war and went on to have many more children with Emily; thirteen in all, with eleven surviving into adulthood. (Twins both died as toddlers, according to family legend which is confirmed by the 1911 census, on which the details of the deceased children were wrongly, but now very helpfully, included.) I must now order his war record to find out where he went. If he survived Gallipoli, I'm impressed and wondering why I didn't know this before.

Here is Grandad's birth certificate. Someone was a little confused over what the month was, as they've crossed out September before correcting it to November. This registration was actually done on the 3rd of December 1914, and Grandad definitely celebrated his birthday on 7th November, so I presume the amendment to be correct.

Scovell Road still exists, but it seems that the tenement block which existed one hundred years ago is no longer there. Google maps reveals the current road to be truncated into little more than a layby and a path. Here's a map and two very dull screen grabs of it.

 

Chig's Referendum Countdown - Number 1

#1 McAlmont & Butler - Yes 

It could have been Snow Patrol's 'Just Say Yes' (their belated answer song to the cast of Grange Hill*), but that's a bit boring. Instead we're ending with a massive, joyous 'Yes', which is what I hope Scotland wakes up to on Friday, if that's what they want too. You won't find words like 'should' and 'must' in my discussions of the referendum. It's another country's election and it's up to the people in Scotland to determine their own future. I'm happy that the referendum campaign has seemingly set in motion an unstoppable force for more local accountability in the other parts of the UK, whatever the results, and that's long overdue. Thank you, Scotland..

I can only say that I would be voting for independence in any independence referendum, because I believe in democracy being as local as is practical and in giving people a democratic say in their own future. I would be looking to Estonia as an example of a successful, small country and aspiring to be governed by the people that my own country votes for. 

Whatever the result on Friday, we could do with the campaigners in Scotland to come down and give us a hand to wake people up before the general election in May. With 97% voter registration and a turnout which should be well over 80%, plus the long-overdue enfranchisement of 16 and 17 year-olds, we can only look on in awe at how successful this campaign has been and how engaged the people of Scotland have become. I wish them well.

"Yes, I do feel better. Yes I do, I feel alright."

* Not really.

Chig's Referendum Countdown - Number 2

#2 The Proclaimers - Cap In Hand

It was only last week that I remembered this song again, when it made number 6 in the Official Scottish Chart (plus #62 in the UK chart and #47 in the UK 'sales only' chart). It's the second track on The Proclaimers 'Sunshine On Leith' album, which I've had since its release in 1988. It doesn't get played much these days(!), so I'd forgotten what a powerful pro-independence song it is, here with a video from the Yes campaign. Still relevant after all these years, just a little less so since devolution, as the twins themselves say in one of the live videos of this on YouTube.

Chig's Referendum Countdown - Number 3

#3 Take That - Do What U Like

A few months ago, when David Cameron finally realised there was a referendum coming up and he should do something about it, he urged 'us' in the rest of the UK to "send a message" to Scotland to tell them what we thought about the referendum.

So, because I am a dutiful citizen, I did, via the medium of twitter. It said something like, "David Cameron has asked us to tell Scotland what we think about the referendum, so here goes. [Clears throat.] 'Do what you like'."

That tweet became one of the most popular I've ever sent and was retweeted loads of times, by both Yes and No supporters. It still sums up my attitude to the referendum. I know how I'd be voting if I lived in Scotland and I realise that the knock-on effects do affect all of us (hopefully with increased democracy in England, Wales and Northern Ireland), but I'm not going to tell people in Scotland how to vote. (They wouldn't take any notice anyway.) It's their decision.

And apart from that, this is an excuse to see Take That's leather, jelly and bums vid again.

Chig's Referendum Countdown - Number 4

#4 Sting - If You Love Somebody, Set Them Free

"You can't control an independent heart."

Chig's Referendum Countdown - Number 5

#5 Lulu - Independence

FACTOID: Only two artists have had Top 40 hits in the UK with the word 'independence' in the title. (Virtual point for the first person to name the other one!)

Lulu wins out in this battle by virtue of being Scottish, even though the other track is a work of brilliance.

"I want my independence. I want my freedom, right now."

Chig's Referendum Countdown - Number 6

#6 Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime

Okay, it's only the title that's relevant to the referendum.
The title may not even be that relevant if there's another referendum in two years.

But still, it's a brilliant song.

Chig's Referendum Countdown - Number 7

#7 Devo - Jocko Homo

At first glance, this may seem an irrelevant and controversial choice, as if I'm just throwing in some gay stuff for the sake of it. Alas, it is not a song about a Scottish gay. It's about.... Well, I still have no clue after 30 odd years what it's about, because Devo were flippin' weird, but it does include the line;

"Are we not men? We are Devo."

You try finding another song which even vaguely references Devo Max.

Chig's Referendum Countdown - Number 8

#8 Destiny's Child - No, No, No (Part 1)

Beyoncé, Kelly and Michelle have somehow acquired a vote each, and they're making it clear how they intend to use it.

They have also recorded No, No, No (Part 2), so they must be anticipating a re-run as well.

Chig's Referendum Countdown - Number 9

#9 Elvis Presley - It's Now Or Never 

(Or in two years, when we might do it all again after the UK's EU referendum,)
(Or you could just vote Yes now.)

Chig's Referendum Countdown - Number 10

#10 That Petrol Emotion - Big Decision

Mainly because this is brilliant (and never even made the UK top 40).

"What you`ve gotta do in this day and age; you gotta agitate, educate and organise."

Chig's Referendum Countdown - Number 11

#11 JLS - One Shot

Political pundits JLS (Jocks Love Scotland) really hit the nail on the head with this summary of the referendum; 

"You only get one shot, so make it count. You might never get this moment again."

Although, if you believe the journalist who was on the Daily Politics today, Scotland will get chance to do it all over again, if there's a yes vote this week (after the UK referendum takes us out of the EU but Scotland wants to stay in). JLS have now split up, so will be unable to address this point in any future singles.

Chig's Referendum Countdown - Number 12

#12 The Ronettes - (The Best Part Of) Breakin' Up

"The best part of breaking up is when you know that you're making up with me."
Phil Spector had the foresight to realise that, even after Scottish independence, the rest of us will still want to go to the Edinburgh Festival.

Chig's Referendum Countdown - Number 13

#13 George Michael - Freedom '90

"All we have to do now, is take these lies and make them true somehow."
If that doesn't sum up political campaigning, I don't know what does.

Chig's Referendum Countdown - Number 14

#14 Yazoo - Don't Go

The actual views of the Franco-Essex duo on independence remain unknown at the time of writing (although Alison's family were probably quite keen on the revolutionary aspects of it in 1789).

Chig's referendum countdown begins! Number 15

You know what this referendum campaign has been missing (said no one at all)? A countdown of poptabulous referendum songs! So, let's put that right for the rest of today. It's time for Chig's referendum countdown! (All shades of political opinion will be represented. I'm not stupid.) There are more songs about the referendum than you might think.(Snigger.)

Kicking off our top 15 with.... number 15.

Let's get the bleedin' obvious one out of the way. It's the one that must have earnt the surviving members of The Clash more money this month in TV royalties than in the 32 years since it was released.

"Darling, you've got to let me know - should I stay or should I go?"

#15 The Clash - Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

Eurovision: chart update

In 2000, Nicki French's Eurovision single peaked at #34 in the UK.

A year later, Lindsay D's entry peaked at #32.

What we've always been lacking is a UK Eurovision entry that peaks at #33.

Step forward, Molly Smitten-Downes!

The Common Linnets (The Netherlands) have the only other Eurovision song in today's UK Top 100. 'Calm After The Storm' is a new entry at #95, with sales up to midnight. However, it was second in

the UK televote (behind Poland) and we've gone mad for it since last night! Right now (21:45 on Sunday), it is sitting at #4 in the iTunes listings, with Conchita Wurst (third in our televote) only at #19. It looks like the most successful Eurovision hit this year may not be the actual winner or the UK entry, and that hasn't happened since....?

(That gives me a week to research it or for someone to provide the answer.)

In the compilation albums chart, the Eurovision album climbs 20 places to #19, just short of its peak on release, three weeks ago. This is its third week in the top 40 out of four, as it dropped out in its second week.

Photo of the day

Conchita Wurst and the Eurovision winner's trophy.
A very satisfactory result, from a very exciting, well-produced show last night.
I loved it - and had a very satisfying win of £125 for a £2.50 each way bet on Conchita, placed a month ago, when she was 40-1. Result!

Semi-final 2 - pointless predictions

I am, perhaps controversially, going to leave Israel off my list of predicted qualifiers for tonight. It's partly because I don't like it (which is possibly a stupid reason, but if I find it aggressive and unappealing, so will some others), partly because Israel have qualified four times and failed five times, so they're not a safe bet and partly because it's song #2, the slot of doom. So, I'm also ruling out Georgia (although it would be funny to see people's faces), Ireland (sorry), Belarus (3 out of 10 success rate) and Switzerland (2 qualifications out of 9 and not catchy enough).

My predicted ten qualifiers are therefore:

Malta
Norway
Poland
Austria
Lithuania (because UK and Ireland)
Finland
FYR Macedonia
Greece (7 qualifications, no fails. Probable 12 from UK tonight.)
Slovenia (only because it's near the end)
Romania (Also 7 successes and no fails.)

Let's see if that beats my 8/10 from Tuesday!

Radio 2 Eurovision

At 12:00 BST today, BBC Radio 2 will be launching its first ever Eurovision radio station. I'm very proud to say that I am one of the team contributing to the blog which goes alongside the DAB station. I even have a profile on the Radio 2 website - see below!

Radio 2 Eurovision is only on air for four days; from today until Sunday, so grab it while it lasts and #JoinUs on the blog for reviews, trivia and listener interaction. Rescan your digital radio and it will add Radio 2 Eurovision to your stations. (I've done it this morning - it works!) It's also online and has been added automatically to your BBC radio iplayer app, which you obviously have already...

Eurovision - days 5 and 6

Mollywatch

No update last night (Friday), as I was far too busy watching Molly's prerecorded appearance on The Graham Norton Show and drooling over James McAvoy and Hugh Jackman on the same programme.

Molly's 'Children Of The Universe' had at last begun to make progress on iTunes during the day on Friday. It cracked the top 100 in the 'almost real time' sales listings and was at #74 by mid afternoon. Last night's TV appearance (possibly assisted by yesterday's launch of the BBC's TV trailer for the Eurovision final too) has finally seen the single's sales take off. It has ended Saturday night at #32 for the single version, and the album version has reappeared at #146, after disappearing from the iTunes top 200 listing on Tuesday.

I'm writing this after midnight on Saturday, so we've passed the chart sales cut-off point for Sunday's official chart. We'll see tomorrow if this late surge has been enough for the song to crack the Official Chart top 100 and at least give Molly a chart position in advance of her Eurovision performance in seven days' time.

More urgently for Molly, today (Stars Wars day) sees her first rehearsal on the Copenhagen stage, so we'll at last get to see how it's being presented, what the stage backdrop is and how she and all the other vocalists sound together. Power to the people, or 'may the force be with you'.

The other five automatic finalists also have their first rehearsals on Sunday, so we may get to see if the EBU intends to make Germany look ridiculous, by insisting they caption their song (which should be 'Is It Right?') without the necessary question mark. Jon Ola Sand, Eurovision's Executive Supervisor, confirmed to me on twitter that the German delegation made that mistake when they submitted their entry. However, instead of just correcting it, they've printed the error on the official album. I won't be surprised if it's wrong on Germany's caption too. All over Europe, intelligent people will be saying, "That title's a question. Why have they missed off the question mark?" And then they will be talking and taking even less notice of the German song. That's something they can ill afford, because it's already one of the least arresting and least fancied songs anyway. We shall see.

Eurovision - day 4

The Eurovision organisers actually managed to schedule in a May Day break from rehearsals today, which is unusual and impressive, given that these rehearsals started no earlier than in recent years. I guess it's easier that we're down to 37 songs this year. We're a whole six songs down on just three years ago, which immediately means twelve fewer initial rehearsals, so the load is a little lighter for the technical crew than it was in Düsseldorf, Baku and Stockholm.

The main news from the EBU today was the release of ALL the names of the jurors, from all 37 countries. They announced earlier this year that they would be doing this, in an anti-corruption measure that should make jurors more accountable. In theory, that's a good idea, but I do worry that it will also lead to an increase in conservatism and 'safe' votes from jurors in some countries. Given that the homophobes in Russia are actively calling for Russia to pull out because they're afraid that the nation might be corrupted by seeing a drag artiste (even though they seemed to survive when Slovenia, Denmark and Ukraine all did the same in recent years), this is a concern. Can you imagine the reaction that a Russian juror might get at home if they actually give points to Austria's Conchita Wurst? Based on the quality of the song, and Conchita's stunning vocal ability, it really should be picking up jury points all over the place. It will be interesting to see where the gaps are, after the contest, and this will be possible, because the individual jurors' votes will eventually be revealed, not just the juries' combined votes, so there will be no hiding behind the rest of the team.

Whether or note these changes will put an end to some of the (ahem) 'anomalies' in recent Eurovision scoring, such as Malta giving 12 points to Azerbaijan on five of their last six opportunities (and 10 points the other time), remains to be seen.

There are some famous names amongst the 185 people on the juries, including lots of previous performers. The chair (or should that be 'stool'?) of the UK jury is vocal coach and TV regular Carrie Grant (age 48), who was in Sweet Dreams for the UK in 1983.

The other UK jurors are:
Stephen Allen (age 48); music producer, keyboard player, musical director, arranger.
Candice McKenzie (age 31); DJ and event producer.
Gus Gowland (age 32); writer, actor and composer.
Laura Wright (age 23); Mezzo soprano singer, signed to Decca/Universal.

Kudos to the BBC for choosing two people who know a thing or two about singing ability, for choosing a 23 year-old and for having a majority of women on the jury. At least we've done our bit, because the overall representation of women across the juries (which are supposed to be 'representative', according to the tightened rules) is pretty poor, with only 42.7 % female jurors and 57.3 % male.  The population of Europe is 51.8% female, so this is hardly representative.


Mollywatch

Adopting a 'glass half full' mentality, there are grounds for optimism today, as Molly's rate of climb on iTunes has increased. But she still hasn't cracked the top 100, ending the day at #103 on the real time sales listings; nine places higher than yesterday. She is getting a lot of airplay on Radio2, but it doesn't seem to be translating into sales. I've heard the song played by Ken Bruce, Paddy Kielty and Simon Mayo this week. Molly is on the Graham Norton TV show tomorrow (Friday), with a performance that was recorded at the start of April. Let's hope it sees a boost in sales.

Eurovision - day 3

Mollywatch

'Children Of The Universe' ended Wednesday at #112 on the iTunes listing.
It's climbing, but at a snail's pace; up just four places in 24 hours.

My ranking of this year's songs.

Thanks to a very clever, easy-to-use little sorting program at gerbear.com, I now have a list of this year's Eurovision songs in my personal order of preference. It's very accurate and took less than ten minutes. So here they are.

Eurovision - day 2

Mollywatch

It's not looking good. Molly's Eurovision song has only managed to end Tuesday sixteen places higher than it was 24 hours earlier in the iTunes listings. It's now at #116. The album version has completely disappeared from the top 200.

It looks like the single will struggle to make the Official Chart Top 100 this Sunday. There's still a chance it'll get there in its second week, or even its third, after her Eurovision performance.

Eurovision - day 1 in Copenhagen

No, I'm not in Copenhagen, but dozens of my friends are. Rehearsals started today at the converted shipyard on Eurovision island in Copenhagen, so it seems like a good time to kick this intermittent excuse for a blog back into life again and summarise a few of the things we have learnt today.

In addition, I have a couple of personal Eurovision announcements to make. One today and one later in the week. So let's get started with that:

Announcement #1:

I AM HOSTING EUROVISION.* (**)

* In a pub.
** In Birmingham.

Yes, it's true. Our usual hosts at The Wellington Hotel are deserting us this year - something about a Eurovision cruise (which is what I'm generally doing every year I'm there) - so I have been asked to step into the breach. My friend Said and I will be hosting what is probably Birmingham's biggest Eurovision party, at the Wellington pub on the corner of Bromsgrove Street and Bristol Street on the night of the final, Saturday 10 May. We'll be showing the final on the big screen from 8pm, but you'll need to turn up from 7pm in order to get a seat. (The room was absolutely stuffed full last year, and some latecomers ended up going away, so don't say I didn't warn you.) There will also be a sweepstake, VOTING, balloons, bunting and a bit of a Eurovision disco afterwards. Most importantly, VOTING. Said and I will be performing Birmingham hosting duties, very much following in the footsteps of Wogan and Ulrika, who did the same seventeen years ago. Whether or not we'll be looking like them is a matter of debate, but it has resulted in this frightening photo of us being created.

Who could resist that? If you're interested in joining us in Brum for the final, either leave a comment here or sign up on our facebook event page here.

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Apart from rehearsals starting, the other Eurovision 'event' today was the release of the digital package of the UK entry. (No sign of a CD yet, apart from some promo copies which definitely exist.) Although Molly's 'Children Of The Universe' has been available for two weeks already, it was only as a track which people could pluck from the official Eurovision compilation album. Not many people have bought the album in the UK. It entered at #18 in the Compilation Albums Charts eight days ago and disappeared completely from the chart (which is only a top 40) yesterday.  Not enough people have cherry-picked Molly's track from the album for it to make the UK top 100, so today's the day for the track to soar! Let's see how she was doing at 10 o'clock tonight:

Oh dear.

That's the single version at #132 on the iTunes realtime sales listing, and the Eurovision album version at #173.

Molly's upcoming performance on this Friday's Graham Norton TV show certainly has some work to do.

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I've only had time for a brief skim through the reviews and video clips from Eurovision's first rehearsals today, but my main impression is that, despite what we might have expected from a year that's chock full of ballads, there is a lot of - and I'm going to use a technical term here - 'stuff' going on. A Ukrainian muscle hunk running in a hamster wheel! Russian horror twins on a seesaw! It's like I threw those words up in the air to form random sentences, but no, these ludicrous things exist. These are the reasons that people have Eurovision parties. And that's just the first ten of 37 acts. Bring on day two!