Tittle-tattle lost the battle

A third controversy gripped MYMU winners Scooch today, and I couldn't help but feel partially responsible. I was intrigued to read on the front page of a fellow London commuter's Daily Mirror (I rarely buy my own when, due to the crowded nature of the capital's trains, you can hardly avoid having the tabloid rags pushed into your face) the headline "The Eurovision Song CON-test" trumpeting another supposed scandal surrounding the act selected to represent the UK in Helsinki.

On closer inspection, the thrust of the story was that Scooch were using two 'off-stage' backing singers to sing part of their winning entry to MYMU, 'Flying the Flag For You'. According to the Mirror, Justin Hawkins stomped off in a rage and all the other acts were b*tching about Scooch "cheating" to win. It was at this point that I remembered my blog entry from yesterday, speculating about the likelihood of Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegan appearing as backing vocalists for Scooch. Had I inadvertently stirred up some kind of scandal?

Of course not, Richard and Judy have better things to do on a Saturday night than to sing backing vocals on someone else's show. And this tabloid tale smacks of a cheap attempt to stir up a scandal in my opinion, so it hardly warrants blog space. The rules allow two off-stage backing singers, and it was quite clear that Scooch were singing live. I urge all fans to ignore suggestions otherwise. One wonders how exactly Scooch might otherwise have gone about singing three-part female harmonies with only two females on stage?

The fallout begins...

It's been another day of wacky developments in the wake of the Scooch MYMU victory. Firstly, public clamouring has forced Eurovision god Sir Terry of Wogan into apologising for any embarrassment caused due to his gaffe (announcing the wrong winner on MYMU). The man made an error at work, we've all done it* and in any case, I consider any and all criticism of Sir Terry to be no less than blasphemous.

Meanwhile, Scooch made an appearance on Richard & Judy, Britain's favourite tea-time chatshow to discuss the gaffe. More interestingly, Russ (blonde Scooch, the one who looks like he's put on a bit of weight since Scooch's heyday) declared that they were 'looking at ways of making the performance even more camp'. It's hard to imagine how this could be achieved, short of dragging up and carrying pink handbags.

While watching this rather surreal interview on Richard & Judy, I had a sudden fantasy about what Richard & Judy might look like if they were game enough to sing backing vocals for Scooch in Helsinki, and this is what I came up with - frightening, isn't it readers? Surely our European brethren do not deserve to have this inflicted on them? Better to keep Richard & Judy tucked away somewhere like a Trident nuclear submarine - i.e. as a deterrent. "Vote for us or we'll unleash this on you next year..."

*thankfully most of us don't have 10million viewers watching when we make a botch up while on the job.