The Curious Incident of the Book and the Ice Rink

By Jamie McLoughlin on May 18, 08 12:41 PM

Here's something to get your most patriotic parts swelling with pride. This was Andy Abraham's first rehearsal on the Eurovision stage in Belgrade yesterday afternoon. It must be hot out there, judging by the pants the bearded backing singer is wearing.

Although the UK entry is around 100/1 with most bookmakers (its shortest odds relate to last place and a score of nil points), reports are that Andy's vocals are spot-on and even the fans who decide to hate the UK entry before they've even heard it (that's about 95 per cent of them) admit that it was a surprisingly impressive performance.

Visually, the stage is lit up like the Saturday Night Fever multi-coloured checkerboard dancefloor and towards the end there is an explosion of pyrotechnics as Andy and Co strut their stuff down the catwalk.

However, the Serbian explosives expert got a bit too keen yesterday and one of Blighty's backing singers almost choked with the smoke.

Still, at least we're not set for an embarrassingly bad Jemini-style vocal or the just embarrassing Scooch.

Elsewhere in rehearsal land, the Russians and the Greeks have had to start compromising.

We've already mentioned the ice rink, Stradivarius and ladder stage set-up for Russia's Dima Bilan, which has to be whsked on and off stage in the 30-second gap between songs.

In circumstances which will have the Serbian Scene Shifters' Union fuming, Russia is followed by another complicated collection of scenery for the Greeks, which involves a gigantic book.

After numerous attempts, it was proving impossible to accommodate everything in the time allowed.

The solution? Russia has now lost the ladder and Dima writhes on the floor a lot instead.

The European Broadcasting Union has also made the unusual move of placing the final commercial break between Russia's penultimate song and the final entry of the night from Greece, to give the scenery boys even more time to do their stuff.

It'll look a bit odd and asymetrical, but at least it shows that even Mother Russia always have it her own way.

But what happens if one of them is drawn to sing first in the final? They'd better not be causing our Andy to be late on stage. Then there'll be a hoo-hah...