Forum Replies Created
- Posts
Large update on this thread to follow sometime in the near future.
More immediately, however, a quick question to the floor. Would anybody happen to know the precise dates between which there were two separate commentary feeds directly from the racecourse, please – one from the Racetech-booked caller and one from the commentator for SIS/Sky/whosoever else?
I’m thinking this must have started around the early May Bank Holiday in 1992. That does appear to have been the week in which both John Hunt (Salisbury 06/05/92; Racetech booking unknown) and Richard Hoiles (Bath 09/05/92, whilst Bruce Friend-James did the Racetech shift) made their respective first ever racecourse commentaries. John confirmed that was his first go in a YouTube interview with Simon Nott not so long ago, detailing how he’d even done a full recce to the course and back the day before.
The excellent Robin Carmody, responsible for so much of the original impetus in this thread, suggested to me that the practice ceased in spring 1995 ahead of the Racing Channel launch that November, though if anyone can absolutely nail it down that’d likely be hugely appreciated by the both of us.
I’d long assumed that the two streams were in deadly competition with each other, but that’s likely not actually true. They were serving two distinct audiences, one on-course (with a need to refer to colours, etc.) and one off-course (to mostly listeners rather than viewers), and of course there was a degree of overlap between the personnel working each service.
Indeed, fellow anorak and point-to-point/Equida commentator Mike Crolla recently sent me the link to an edition of Channel 4’s Morning Line, in which Graham Goode actually launched an impassioned defence of the parallel services, citing how a merged team would see some commentators go out of pocket and the remainder would be sent all round the country more than previously thereafter to the detriment of their wellbeing.
Certainly Graham’s first point was borne out, with the likes of Doug Fraser edged out of the commentary picture for a few years and the likes of SIS’s Paul Alster never making it onto the Racetech roster in the form we’ve come to know it since.
Thanks in advance!
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Cool Roxy won eleven at Fakenham, of course, with nine other podium finishes from 26 course visits all told.
My favourite pointer Chesnut Annie won on ten of her twelve visits to Howick, including all nine between 2007 and 2012.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
It’s interesting that Ice Saint pecked at the same fence a circuit earlier.
Horse or pilot error?
And error or “error”?
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
That sounds more to me as if the person asking her hadn’t been adequately trained in broaching those sort of conversations, as any boss ought to be sufficiently confident to deal with whatever the follow-up question might be.
An institutional failing, that, and similar examples likely abound across many sectors. As with so much else, I’d maintain DEI presents no insuperable headaches to employers or employees in and of itself, other than when the understanding and implementation of it is only partial.
Put it this way; if I can work my way round the intricacies of the handicapping system or a self-assessment tax form, then remembering to address people in accordance with their wishes really cannot be beyond my intellectual gift.
That’s easy for me to say, perhaps, working in one of the regular place-sitters in Stonewall’s top 100 LGBTQIA+ friendly employers. You’re absolutely at liberty to suggest that they and I found, and indeed deserve, one another. I’ve heard worse.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Updating my commentator spreadsheets the other day, I noticed that Derek was back at Ayr on April 28th, so the errors in January appear not to have led to a never-darken-our-doors-again instruction to him from the course.
He didn’t appear to be his usual ebullient self to this pair of ears, however, at least initially. He stumbled out a mention of the runners setting out on their first circuit in the opener, which was a sprint over the straight 6f; and there was a nervous chuckle inside the distance, seemingly to buy himself a second or so to sort out the placed horses behind the easy winner.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
” A lot of commentators these days sound like they go by the televised pictures instead of using their own eyes.”
Broadly, the ones who’ve spent at least some of their formative education in point-to-points and harness racing, or indeed still call at them, are the ones less reliant on monitors. One thinks immediately of messrs Harris, Owen, Topham, Powell and to a certain extent Fussey, all still very comfortable with the binoculars.
Anecdotally, Derek was attending Hutton Rudby point-to-point back in March in his capacity of host and MC of the silent auction, and was heard to ask where the duty commentator’s monitor was (the commentary “box” being nothing but a trailer, utterly exposed to the elements).
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
My Bad Lucy (for an unspecified quiet life outside racing), River Tyne (for broodmare purposes) and Churchills Boy (to his owners) all confirmed as retired in the past week on Nick Gifford’s Facebook feed.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
“Is this the ranting of a disgruntled ex-employee or an incisive description of the BHA’s modus operandi?”
Who can possibly tell, though it’s notable that the incursions of DEI thinking and practices into the BHA’s workings were so unbearably, unspeakably horrible that the author could stand the stress and strain of operating under them for (checks article again) a mere five to six years.
“Horseracing, needless to say, is no place for politics”, he opines. Mate, everywhere is a place for politics.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
I’ll eat my tennis socks if nobody’s quick off the mark in registering one of his first colts under the name of Nick Kyprios.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
At 37 years of age Greg is far from too old to be resuming Flat race riding, and the tree surgery business he’s run in the interim will presumably have kept him fit up to a point (accepting that nothing is likely a complete substitute for riding itself).
Ultimately, his return will live or die on who is prepared to trust that his rehabilitation is absolute and permanent. The Johnstons, Iain Jardine and Sandy Thomson appear to have given him their blessing and support, though as the last-named has saddled the grand total of one Flat runner in the past five years that’s not going to be worth the candle in terms of getting Greg back on the racetrack.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Ginger, there was admittedly just a little bit devil’s advocacy about some of the points I raised back there. I’ve certainly not spent the past two decades trying to clear Sean Fox’s name, put it that way!
That said, I’ve just had a look back at the edition of the Hunter Chasers and Point-to-Pointers annual for the one season Ice Saint spent between the flags. The gist of which is that, in the context of his being stationed with a Ben Pollock yard somewhere near the height of its powers as a pointing operation at the time, he was a disappointing type.
A win was gained in maiden company around Market Rasen’s now defunct pointing line, but he was all out to hold on despite having been gifted the winning opportunity two out by the leader’s exit. “Weakened”, “Weakened tamely” and “no extra” appear in the write-ups for his three completions either side of that, and he signed off in that sphere by pulling up two miles into a full-distance Dingley Restricted.
The annual goes on to register considerable surprise that Ice Saint was subsequently able to win twice under Rules that following summer. But look at the four efforts following the second of those wins – all defeats by between 19l and 60l, all weakening efforts, including when dropped back to an extended 2m2f.
On the basis of which, in that prevailing poor heart, I’d not have taken a short price about Ice Saint actually seeing off any and all challengers if having kept on his feet in that Fontwell race, a 2m5f contest.
That’s all as maybe. I think it would be great if espmadrid were able to upload the Fontwell race to his excellent YouTube account (if he has a recording in his possession), for people to make their own minds up once again. When all’s said and done, we’re all relying on memories of a race from 21 years ago that few of us will have seen in the interim.
It didn’t do a right lot for Sean Fox’s career, either way – just ten winners across eleven seasons thereafter, a link-up with that patron saint of lost causes and fallen angels Richard Guest only enduring for about a season or so.
Interestingly, Fox’s final Rules winner (2008-9 season) was gained riding for Ice Saint’s trainer Matt Gingell.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
“I was at Fontwell when the jockey on Ice Saint “appeared” to jump off. People spoke up, if I remember rightly the Racing authorities agreed and he was banned…
Only for it to be “proven” not to be the case in the Courts and I believe compensation given to the jockey.”Sean Fox was tried under a breach of (IIRC) Rules 157 and banned for 21 days, quashed on appeal.
The optics of the unseat itself were terrible, even without the backdrop of major weakness in both the on-course and online markets.
What got a bit lost in the proverbial fog, however, was that Ice Saint – previous wins notwithstanding – was already borderline defective, and had hung markedly on some of the bends prior to his exit.
Even without the unseat, and accepting this was as dire a beginners’ chase as Fontwell had ever staged, there must have been a significant chance of him finding some other way to lose the race.
He ran just thrice more after that, for two trainers across two years, pulling up each time.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Gern geschehen!
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
I wouldn’t be shocked were there some element of weighting, with that possibility in mind. Multiple downloads are already counted as one “sale” in compiling the entity formerly known as the hit parade, after all, so I’m assuming similar could apply here. We’re not going to know whether it does or not anyway.
There are a few tracks for whom twenty votes from a handful of devoted advocates isn’t going to be nearly enough. Twenty times nil points is still nil points.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
I notice Lancashire have returned Luke Wells to the top of the order, from where he probably never should have been displaced.
The most eyecatching opening arrangement so far in this week’s round of Championship games, however, is Lewis Gregory’s inserting of himself and Josh Davey as numbers one and two. Give how often the two of them, and Gregory in particular, are finding themselves in early and digging the side out of trouble following five or six cheap wickets, I can see the logic up to a point.
The Somerset fans among you won’t thank me for this, but I’d nominated them for the drop along with Worcestershire pre-season, based on the hangover from losing out in all three title races within mere weeks last term. That’s a lot to recover from.
If the victory over Essex (whose complacency from last backend appears to be creeping in once more) represents a genuine turning of a corner, my prediction could soon start looking a bit less well-founded.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
(With the disclaimer that I also wrote this some days ago based mostly on performances in the national finals, it’s…)
The usual unsolicited thoughts on Eurovision Semi-Final #2
==============AUSTRALIA
If Finbarr Saunders wrote pop… Milkshake Man immediately had me thinking of Scooch’s Flying the Flag (For You), but ultimately works better than that ill-starred UK entry (he said entry! Hihihihi!) owing to its infectious synthy chug and a higher (and less painstakingly set up) gag count. I fear I’ll have quite a bit of explaining of things to do to the kids, mind.MONTENEGRO
Boilerplate overwrought central European balladry that proved more popular with the judges in the national final than the eventual winner, which was later disqualified on the previously performed song technicality. One senses the continent’s judges as a whole may be less forgiving of the opening 30 seconds or so, pitched so low that Nina can do no other than mumble flatly into her (proverbial or actual) boots.IRELAND
You can’t say the mononymous Emmy hasn’t tried to get here before now. Participant in three of the past four qualification events for Norway (as performer, juror and writer respectively), and part of an attempt to get Citi Zēni (of Eat Your Salad “fame”) through the Latvian qualifiers this year, too, it’s required Ireland’s embracing of a track binned off at an early-ish stage by the Norwegian broadcaster to grant her the ticket to the semis she’s evidently craved. And I get why she’s tried, I genuinely do. It’s the pop equivalent of those smaller-scale racing trainers who bought cast-offs from top Irish jumps yards for the glory of a runner in this year’s Grand National. It didn’t work for them, and it won’t work for Emmy either, a sub-Aqua vocal delivery preventing the sadness and optimism of the first dog in space narrative from shining through.LATVIA
A chant for happiness, and this disarming entry from a decade-long established folk/world act has indeed made me happy. Comparisons with Enya and (in particular) Adiemus on account of the interweaving vocals are facile. Rather, this is just a few more clanks and pulses away from being the sort of accompaniment the late Mark Bell might have created for Björk at one time. “Out-take from Homogenic” is a far richer compliment than I could give to many tracks in this or any year’s Contest.ARMENIA
Ten writers. Ten. Writers. Which one of you geniuses is going to own up to “I’m a survivor, stay aliver”, then? The stompiness of Iceland, the vaguely Game of Thrones cosplay of Norway, and an English accent like nothing heard on the planet since the episode of Castle with an American trying to do Geordie. Inexpertly executed, and not the winner.AUSTRIA
The description I read of Johannes’s countertenor voice before listening to this track briefly gave me hope of some New Wave-cum-Baroque amalgam recalling the doomed majesty of that much-missed, should-have-been star Klaus Nomi. No such luck. As an extended demonstration of his technical prowess, it certainly does its job. That’s effectively all it does, however, the bolting on of a thoroughly incongruous techno section from three-quarters distance almost a tacit admission of the absence of an actual song.UNITED KINGDOM
The first few bars in, I thought my biggest beef was going to be the oh-my-God-I-was-like vacuity of certain lines. A few more in, the problem became not being able to remember what preceded the first of the numerous tempo and stylistic handbrake turns. Nemo proved in Eurovision last year what those of us who number among Cardiacs devotees have known for decades – restless, done well, is a thing of joy. What The Hell Just Happened? is restless done less well, the various stitched-together parts not incompatible but rather just not persistently interesting or rewarding enough. Here’s hoping those parts all survive Remember Monday’s weaning off of the Autotune come competition time, too. At least the trio’s big-eyed joie de vivre redolent of early Spice Girls and (assuming it’s retained from the promo video) updated Bridgerton cosplay have a degree of appeal.GREECE
As a bespectacled Greek, lazy comparisons of Klavdia with Nana Mouskouri (a Eurovision contestant herself in 1963, remember) will inevitably abound. She warrants better than that, and whilst easier to admire than fall in love with, this relatively traditional Mediterranean string ballad comprising a dialogue between refugee parent and child ought not have to rely on neighbour votes alone.LITHUANIA
The point at which we discover whether Eurovision juries and/or voters are ready yet for something in thrall to the likes of early Radiohead. Kudos to broadcasters LRT for enabling something like this to be considered; ditto Katarsis for making no concessions to the Contest musically or lyrically – Tavo akys is a genuinely representative work. Whether it catches light is another matter.MALTA
Also known as The One That The British Made Them Change, the pun on a word for a self-confident person in queer and drag culture apparently too much for the BBC and Ofcom to stomach. And heaven knows Miriana presents as self-confident here; the architect, controller and arbiter of her own naughty fun and as at ease with her plus size as anyone I’ve seen grace a stage since Beth Ditto. A more restless affair musically than Finland’s more pounding effort, whilst serving a not dissimilar purpose, it’s nevertheless part of a greater whole sufficiently appealing to have one believe it would have gone deep into the contest even without the controversy.GEORGIA
There’s musical ambition here – a restless early section in tricky ten-eight time and the generous helping of Bond Theme orchestration say as much. There’s also, however, too much of a breadcrumb trail back to Mariam Shengelia’s apparent historic endorsements of the ruling Georgian Dream party, incompatible with the LGBTQ+ inclusivity of this of all events. As Croatia’s 2006 Homophobe of the Year (q.v. gay.hr) turned 2017 Eurovision contestant Jacques Houdek will attest to, not all stains are easily rinsed off.FRANCE
The second song in Louane’s recorded and published canon named Maman, and meant as a sequel to the first from 2015, updated to reflect her present-day status as the mother rather than the mothered. The sudden deletion of Maman #1 from all streaming platforms has garnered more interest than its creator likely intended, Louane’s insistence that a song recognised as a comfort to many had now served its purpose appearing both rather solipsistic and occurring concurrently with the levying of sexual assault charges against one of its cowriters. Knowing all of this does make the track that bit less likeable. Not knowing all of this still doesn’t make it an absolute delight, either, the overcooked vocal neither ballad fish nor chanson flesh.DENMARK
One of the more unadorned tracks of its type this time round; no sleight of hand, unexpected drops, jarring inserts of time or style change, just an honest to goodness EDM floorfiller from a Faroese mum of two having the time of her life. That comes as a bit of light relief to me, but I fear the broader voting quorum may not view that quality so positively.CZECHIA
Adonxs – a Slovakian performer made in London, earning his stripes academically at BIMM and musically in a multicultural baroque-pop quartet. A singer, an activist, a dancer, and a trailblazing winner of Idols in a country hitherto broadly resistant to anointing gay winners of such competitions. A nerveless performer of Kiss Kiss Goodbye, an arms-length, cool rebuttal of an absentee father, a track mining his more symphonic side. A potential breakout star from this year’s Contest if navigating the semis successfully.LUXEMBOURG
There’s a line of thought in popular music that it’s better to be a decade or more out of date than, say, between two and five. The Kiss Kiss ripoff of Luxembourg’s belated return to the Contest last year wasn’t able to prove that, largely through being no better executed than any of the other legion of Kiss Kiss ripoffs this century, but setting the clock back even further this time has begotten something quite lovely. Almost exactly sixty years since France Gall’s Poupée de cire, poupée de son netted the county its second Contest victory, here is La poupée monte le son, an answer back of a song in which the doll gets to tell the boy to naff off and run back to mum. Less “yé-yé”, and more “n’y pense même pas” (pardon my Google French), then. I’m not sure why Laura Thorn’s backing is more 80s than 60s, but it’s a much more faithful 80s-era Eurovision musical facsimile than most, to the point you’d half expect the lights to pan over at any stage to three shimmying backing singers with massive shoulder pads.******
ISRAEL
There’s a certain irony that Switzerland, the cradle of inter-national neutrality, finds itself having to ride the waves caused by one of the most politically divisive entries in the Contest’s history.If the ongoing attacks on Gaza haven’t warranted Israel a ban from Eurovision before now, one assumes on the technicality of Palestine not being universally recognised across the UN as a sovereign state, then those more recent campaigns against Iran and Syria (both of whom are) must be getting close to stretching the European Broadcasting Union’s avowed apolitical stance beyond tolerance.
The backdrop of conflict has already proven too much for the four present-day delegations and seventy former contestants calling for Israel to join Russia on the banned list; and what it would be to eavesdrop on any proceeding meetings between the EBU and Swiss Broadcasting Corporation as regards security at the Contest in general and for Yuval Raphael in particular. One alleged spitting and mimed throat-cutting incident during the pre-Contest meets and greets will only have served to remind the hosts of the enormity of their task.
Not that a spit, nor the anticipated boos in the auditorium come the second semi, are said likely to faze a performer who has irrefutably suffered far worse than that. In fairness to her, Yuval has continued to stick to the pledge not to discuss her narrow escape from death in the Nova Music Festival attack, though one could argue less charitably that there is no need for her to discuss that attack for it to remain part of the narrative in Basel this week, so indivisible is she from it.
A product of a conflict where the optics of the media has been of paramount importance to both sides in the battle to win over hearts and minds outside of Israel and Palestine, Yuval’s victory in the national selection process can be promoted by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation as a fair and square triumph against 20 rivals over an eleven-week competition, or else spun by the IPBC’s opponents as the cynical, emotionally manipulative reality show backstory to end them all. Whatever the truth of it, expect to see and hear both views aired more before the competition’s end.
Expect also to see and hear further complaints that the choice of song for Yuval was a preordained, deliberately provocative act, a standpoint which overlooks two important points. First, that New Day Will Rise was but one from a longlist of 54 possibles. And second, at least in the form in which it will be performed at the Contest, that it’s simply too hackneyed and everyman to feel pertinent solely to those grieving at home. Think a slightly more florid, less emotionally economical take on REM’s Everybody Hurts, one which goes through all of the Reality Show Big Ballad gear changes in volume, key and orchestration at exactly the points you’d expect it to. More predictable than belligerent, ultimately.
Six paragraphs, and only one about the actual song. I don’t actually want to have to do that in these reviews very often.
******
GERMANY
Who could possibly have predicted a dramatic upturn in the quality of the German entry this year? Well, actually me, having called for the return to the fray of Stefan Raab for the thick end of a decade. You’re welcome. A man whose six previous Eurovisions between 1998 and 2010 as either writer, performer or selector of the German entry netted a win and five other top ten finishes, Raab’s keen eyes and ears alighted upon this whip-smart kiss-off among those tracks posted on Abor & Tynna’s Instagram presence. A chorus with the feel of Rihanna’s Rude Boy gone rave adds to the appeal, but the rather half-arsed attempt at smashing a cello in the national final performance probably ought to remain there.SERBIA
I’m sure that me and The Artist Formerly Known as Prince of Vranje would get on fine on a professional level, with him being a philologist and me a linguist and librarian and that. On a musical level, not so much, Mila offering up the male vocal variant of the overwrought central European ballad (c.f. Montenegro). The temptation to sing some of my parody track over the top of it (“Sava / please take off your balaclava / your golden hair frames your face / like a frame made of golden hair”, etc.) is plenty hard to resist, I’ll admit. Nice starry backdrop an’ all in the national final, but starry backdrops alone do not a winner make.FINLAND
Read up on Erika’s status as Finland’s self-styled “inappropriate woman and queen of trashy disco”, and suddenly little about Ich komme surprises so much. We could have been here five years earlier, in truth, but for the national jury’s enthusiasm for her 2020 paean to Hungarian porn star Cicciolina (yes, PWEI fans, that one) not mirroring that of the voting public, before COVID rendered their decision academic anyway. There’s a full-blooded four-year relationship with a singer five decades her senior to factor in, too. A Eurovision entry (behave) that sticks to character, then, but it’s no more stale for that – quite the opposite. The thudding techno cousin of Cha Cha Cha’s party metal, Ich komme comes across like 2 Unlimited on amphetamines, sharing the battering ram insistence and huge chant-a-longa scope of Käärijä’s 2023 runner-up. Resistance, one suspects, is futile, and good luck to whichever newsreaders have to announce its victory on air with a straight face.gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
