I found this on YouTube at the weekend and it fair had me chuckling. Uploaded by songs4europe, it is a still-miserable Scott Fitzgerald (pictured, left) appearing on BBC daytime's viewer reaction show Open Air the Monday after Celine Dion beat him by one point at the Contest held in Dublin.

Unfortunately, embedding has been 'disabled by request', but you will find it in three parts. The first is here while part two is here and you'll find part three here.

I particularly like the way Scott's publicist joined him on the sofa (why?) and can't help but think it's a shame that the person who picked out Mr Fitzgerald's suit for this show wasn't asked to find him an outfit for Dublin.

The best bit, of course, is someone (and I presume they're a Daily Mail reader) who phones up and says the reason we lost is because the French hate us and that the Yugoslav jury (who didn't give Blighty a single point in the final vote of the night) are a Communist country and don't approve of the sterling work Mrs Thatcher has done for Britain and the world over her nine years of power to this point.

And, bless Scott. He sits there and says how much all of Ireland was behind him and really, really wanted him to win. Now, I wasn't there at Eurovision 1988 (I was in my final year of primary school) but I'm fairly confident there has never been a year when Ireland has really wanted the UK to win anything.

Some squidgy buildings in Dusseldorf. They look fun.

German telly may be keeping its powder dry until at least next month but it would appear that Dusseldorf is all but signed, sealed and delivered as the host city for next year's Eurovision Song Contest after its Mayor more or less announced that this was the case.

Boom Bang a Blog must stress that this is not an official announcement so European pop could still be packing its best shoes and going-out togs for Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt or any other German location next year - but the trail of evidence still leads to Dusseldorf at this point.

Happy September, BBaBers! As I nodded to in my last blog post, I've been away on my jollies for the first part of the month, taking in the delights of Italy with a trip to Rome followed by a few nights in Sorrento. Well worth a visit (especially if you take a boat trip out to Capri and visit the Blue Grotto which I'm sure Gracie Fields did at leat three times a week while she was living there). Now, this an interesting European country for a Eurovision-liker to toddle off to as, like Luxembourg, it left behind a fairly decent track record at the event (two wins and a decent share of top five placings) in the 1990s, seemingly never to return. But unlike other countries which still enter the competition, you can spy remnants of its past de la chanson everywhere.

We'll start with the San Remo Festival. The music competition which pre-dates Eurovision, inspired Eurovision and garnered an international respectability that Eurovision has never had is still massively popular in Italy today, which sort of makes clear why the Italians kicked Eurovision to the kerb 13 years ago.

And what was this I spied in a CD shop window along with posters for the latest from Lady GaGa and Kylie? Why, a San Remo compilation album looking at all the winners from 1980 to 2009. That certainly meant it would include the 1997 Italian Eurovision entry (and San Remo champ) Fiumi Di Paroli which finished fourth to Katrina and the Waves in Dublin. And alongside that complilation it was easy to spot albums from Claudio VIlla (entered for Italy in 1962 and 1967), Massimo Ranieri (1971 and 1973) not to mention huge posters in Rome promoting a forthcoming concert by 1988 entrant Luca Barbarossa. For as much as it dislikes the Contest, those Italians dodn't have the same feelings of apathy towards those who have represented them.