Eurovision 1987: Johnny does it again, the UK has its worst showing of the 20th Century, someone from Milli Vanilli might have performed for Germany and Plastic Bertrand sings for Luxembourg

The dayglo pink, pale grey bits of 1987:

(a) Ireland won for the third time in 1987, the only country to win two Contests in the 1980s. And in Johnny Logan, they had the only performer who would win two Eurovision Song Contests, 1980s or otherwise. As it had been just seven short years since Johnny won in The Hague (the Low Countries clearly bring him luck), the question has to be asked - why did he need to enter Eurovision again so quickly?

It turns out that a few of his financial decisions had gone awry and he lost all the money he made on the back of What's Another Year - so Hold Me Now marked both his international and (fingers crossed) financial comeback.

Winner 1987: Johnny Logan performs Hold Me Now for Ireland

Just as in 1980, Johnny was drawn to perform third from the end in the running order (20th of the record-breaking line-up of 22 nations), just as in 1980 he wore a predominantly white outfit - and just as had also happened in 1980, he beat a German song penned by Ralph Siegel and Bernd Meinunger into second place. This man sticks to hoo-doos like fluff to Velcro.

Hold Me Now was easily the best song on show in 1987 and nobody could argue that the wrong entry won. It was also the biggest hit the Contest enjoyed since Nicole's A Little Peace in 1982. It even wooed the usually Eurovision-unfriendly market of the UK, where Hold Me Now reached number two in the charts. It wasn't the last time Johnny would end Eurovision night all-pleased, but it would be a long time before the Contest produced a bona fide hit.

(b) So, what about that German song which finished second to Ireland?

Can you spot a future member of Milli Vanilli in this line-up?

Wind had finished second in 1985 with the overly serious Fur Alle, but returned just two years later with a far boppier crack at the trophy. There's a light-hearted Caribbean feel to Lass Die Sonne in Dein Herz (which translates as Let the Sun Into Your Heart - and I didn't even have to check a German-English dictionary, that B for GCSE German hasn't been wasted). Some people describe this as a reggae song but those people are frankly foolish and deserve to be persecuted by the ghost of Bob Marley on a nightly basis. Wind had a steel drum on stage and that's about as far as it goes.

Nevertheless, it does stand out from the fairly feeble line-up of its 21 fellow also-rans as an early invite for the summer to get going and - far more interestingly - the bloke playing the guitar on the far right (in the yellow headband) is reportedly Rob Pilatus of Milli Vanilli.

Boom Bang a Blog has scoured the 'net for confirmation that this is indeed the man who, with his pal, was more famous for miming to hit records than being part of an event where live vocals are mandatory but international hits are scarce. It certainly looks like him, but we can't find any definitive yey or ney on the subject.

Therefore, we're not going to say it's definitely Rob (who died far too young in 1998) - but if anyone could give us a positive (or negative) identification, there may just be a wine gum in it for you.

Wind are still successful, performing, having undergone various line-up changes, while Lass Die Sonne in Dein Herz remains their signature tune. Well, it is loads more fun than Fur Alle.

(c) Italy weren't having the greatest of Eurovision Eighties, not even bothering to enter in 1981, 1982 and 1986, while a joint fifth place in 1984 was its best showing of the decade thus far. Their high-point of the shoulder pads and long hair era came in Brussels, when Umberto Tozzi and Raf declined the shoulder wear but embraced the lengthy locks to take bronze with Gente Di Mare. Along with Hold Me Now, it's the composition of the evening - although it doesn't do too much for Boom Bang a Blog, it must be confessed - and does at least sound like it belongs to the year it was performed in.

One of these men wrote Gloria.

That might have something to do with the pedigree of the performers. Umberto Tozzi was a hugely successful songwriter who penned Gloria - famously covered by Laura Branigan - and probably gets some financial recompense every time a radio station plays Jarvis Cocker ripping off its hookline in Pulp's Disco 2000. However, Um and his chum had to be content with 103 points and third place - 69 marks behind Johnny and 38 behind Wind.

(d) In the Bluffers' Guide to Eurovision '86, Boom Bang a Blog pointed out that its least favourite Eurovision entry ever is the Swedish song from that year. But Yugoslavia's fourth placer of 1987 comes close to snatching that title from Lass Hol and Monica Tornell's grasp.

They say Eurovision songs tend to potter about five-to-seven years behind current musical trends. There's a lot of truth in that but, in 1987, the group Novi Fosili did amazingly well with a song that would have been just about fashionable 25 years earlier.

We know what you're thinking - you've heard this somewhere before.

This unashamedly '50s-styled song performed by a group who really thought their performance was on trend may have done well (92 points and fourth place), but there is no escaping the fact that Ja Sam Za Ples is, in places, a near carbon copy of the 1958 song Do You Wanna Dance, recorded by acts including the Beach Boys, Bette Midler and even Cliff Richard, where it wasthe B-side to his 1962 single I'm Lookin' Out the Window. It's interesting that, in a year when synthesizers and electric drum beats dominated much of the line-up, something so retro did so well. Can I be honest? I can't stand Ja Sam Za Ples and I can't watch or listen to it without cringing to bits. Surely I'm not alone?

A rare moment of top-fiveness for the Netherlands.

(e) Just as Germany had finished second to Ireland in 1980, the Netherlands repeated its fifth place from the start of the decade in Brussels. Although the Dutch had made a spectacular start to their Eurovision career in the late 1950s and were still sending songs which sounded very jury-friendly, they just couldn't seem to sneak up from the lower echelons of the scoreboard each year. Therefore, Marcha's top five placing came as a welcome change. Nine years later, Marcha delivered the Dutch scores and had the pleasure of that year's hostess singing the chorus of this song back at her. Eurovision really is the gift that keeps on giving.

(f) And so we come to Israel. All we'll say about this is that the Israeli Minister of Culture demanded the song be withdrawn as it was felt it portrayed a negative image of the country. All Boom Bang a Blog will say is that Lazy Bums are smashing fun and all credit to the juries that this wee smattering of originality didn't get snubbed. They finished eighth with 73 points. The Blues Brothers really should have sued.

More like this, please.

(g) This had been bubbling under for a while, but 1987 marked the UK's lowest ever placing at the Contest to date.

Rikki Peebles by no means disgraced himself with his performance of Only the Light - the song even has its ardent supporters among the Eurovision fan fraternity - but it just got lost among a crowd of similar-sounding stuff to finish a lowly 13th with a score of 47.

It was only the second time the UK had finished outside the top 10 placings in 30 attempts and, ironically, 1987 was one year where the BBC really did try to do better.

Oh dearie, dearie, dearie me.

Ten songs took part in A Song For Europe 1987 instead of the usual eight and all 10 had the thumbs up from music industry professionals drafted in to make the British heat more contemporary (although, to be fair, the UK entry from the previous year didn't sound dated at all). The fan favourite from the heat is Too Hot to Handle, performed by Ann Turner, which finished second. It may have been the BBC's sneaky favourite too, before the regional juries plumped for Rikki. For years, Ann's song could be heard in the background during scenes in Kathy's caff in EastEnders. Rikki's couldn't.

There was also a bit of a rumpus about a rock group taking part in A Song For Europe that year. But as you'll see and hear, Heavy Pettin' were about as rocky as Wimbledon Common.

In hindsight, it was a good thing the UK did so badly in Brussels. There was a sense of the BBC pulling out all the stops, then making some more holes, putting more stops in and pulling those out as well, to get back on form for 1988. And just wait until you see what happened then...

(h) In 1978, Belgian punkster Plastic Bertrand was wowing the world with his seminal Ca Plane Pour Moi. Such was his fame and pin-uppness he made the cover of the very first edition of Smash Hits that year (left). He didn't exactly fade away to obscurity after that, he more or less diversified into another areas of music, including collaborating with Anni-Frid of ABBA on the Abbacadabra musical soundtrack. This does beg the question why he decided to do Eurovision. Not only that, but in a Contest held in Brussels, Plastic didn't enter for his homeland, but for Luxembourg. The tiny nation is a the real magpie.

Amour Amour wasn't all that bad a song, but perhaps a little too frenetic for the Eurovision juries despite being well performed.

Fortunately for Plazzy Bert, this was but a minor blip in his career, and he still continues to record and perform today.

Just not in Luxembourg.

From the cover of the very first Smash Hits to second-last place at Eurovision in just nine years. A tragedy.

(i) With more and more songs taking part, you'll notice these Bluffers' Guides getting a bit longer from now on. And in 1987, the Danes had another good year, finishing joint fifth with En Lille Melodi. Think that means 'A Little Song'.

"En lille sunshine, en lille gladness..."

This isn't unlike Germany's 1982 winner Ein Bisschen Frieden, which was very brave of the Danes as the composer of said trophy-clincher was right there in the Palais de Centennaire as the composer of the German song. We don't think Herr Siegel phoned his lawyers.

(j) Boom Bang a Blog has been very rude and not mentioned the host entry - the other act from Belgium taking part that night.

Never has the theme tune from Knight Rider been married with lyrics and choreography so beautifully

Just as Sandra Kim swept to victory with a bit of synth-pop for Minipops in Bergen the previous year, Soldiers of Love was the samne sort of thing, but for grown-ups. And Liliane St Pierre looks a lot more grown-up than her predecessor (ahem). The same trick doesn't always work two years running and Belgium had to settle for 11th place on home tturf - an unusually bad year for a host nation.

(j) There was another duck egg in '87. This is the Turkish entry performed by Seyyal Tanner, the nation's second nul points in five Contest.

Nobody is doing a brand new dance now. Come on baby, let's not do the Locomotif.

And do you know, this was tipped to win in some quarters.

(k) I have been asked to include the Icelandic entry by Boom Bang a Blog reader Darrell Frye. I know why he's asked for it - and I suspect any other long-term Eurovision fans of the Contest do as well. It's all about how one line of this song sounds to Anglophonic ears and that's all I'm going to say about it.

You'll find the naughty bit at 1min 32 secs. You filthy monkeys.

Tsk, how rude. I'll see all you cheeky pups in 1988.