Eurovision 1960: Songs of Innocence (coming from behind classic!)|Super-cut with animated scoreboard

An edited down version of the Eurovision Song Contest 1960 on the less glitzy Côte d’South Bank with a scoreboard using today’s technology. This all started as a lockdown project!
This edit will give a flavour of the evening (Tuesday 29th March) with the smooth voice of David Jacobs providing commentary.
Contingency plans are written for contingencies, and the Eurovision Song Contest is braced for just that. With NTS (Netherlands) facing high production costs so soon after 1958, they passed the baton to the second-place entry from 1959. The ‘winner hosts the following year’ rule is still very new, but the subclauses appear to have worked and allowed the show to go on. With that, the Contest left the borders of the Lugano group for the first time and arrived in its largest venue so far, the Royal Festival Hall.
Just 89 days into the swinging 60s, and well, yes, I agree with the published writers that we appear to take a step back with a more conservative appearance for this Contest. I think the finger points mainly to the BBC, who’s stuffy attitude and ‘voice’ had become famous throughout the war years. Gone are the lounge suits of 1957, and now a more formal black-tie look. Broadcasting in the UK was strait-laced and serious, guided by the principles of Reith, the first Director-General of the BBC. This conservatism was reflected politically across the continent at this time (MacMillan, De Gaulle, Adenauer, the Italians, and Dutch) and the BBC produced the show conservatively too: the opening shots match almost perfectly with what RTF achieved in 1959, in fact the show deviates very little, including the retention of a gaudy (in my mind), classical theatrical stage.
The BBC did add some improvements though - the stage setting for each song was more adventurous, whether it be mountains for Norway, or flies caught in a net (?!) for Luxembourg. We also see for the first time, a wide shot! So wide (for this recording anyway) that we need the second camera (almost religiously cut to for the second half of the song) to identify the singer’s facial features. Also, I’ve noticed from an alternative commentary version, that David Jacob’s English commentary is actually being piped into the hall. He’s acting more of an extra compère than commentator - we lose him during the voting, which is a shame because it’s a very exciting race once again.
I counted five very skippable entries here, with some interest in the almost tongue-twisting ‘Wat een geluk’ from the Dutch (playing on the ‘jn’ ending instead of the ‘je’ ending in Een Beetje) and the debut of Luxembourgish…which didn’t fare well from isolating themselves from French language support. Both interesting entries finished at the bottom of the board. In the end, there were songs more suited to an album for children in ‘Tom Pillibi’ and ‘Looking High, High, High’. Both pleasant enough, but hardly challenging…for that Monaco provides some depth, and with a popular singer in François Deguelt they were rewarded with third place. Switzerland also had a cracking entry.
DESIGN AND THE BOARD
1960 provided a few issues - there is very little design involved! Yes, a classical stage once again, although we don’t actually see much of it during the song presentation, or the voting (that black board is surrounded by columns etc. There’s no logo commonly presented, although the audience programme did have a musical notes theme. I went a bit meta because I love the image of the commentator’s boxes in the Royal Festival Hall so I decided to use that as a base. For the rest, I played on stark 1950s/60s minimalism - sort of utility I suppose. Everything type related is still hand painted (as you can tell from the varying kerning on the actual board), so I used the free (via Google) Archivo Black as a display font. I ended up quite liking how simple and bold the whole look was, and just as I intend to develop the 59 board for use in 1961, I will take this theme and apply it to 1963. I guess 1963 is really my inspiration (which is a bit naughty), as I know 63 was about promoting BBC Television Centre, so expect to see images of that instead of the Royal Festival Hall. I’ve readded waving flags, as I will to all the BBC boards…as a tiny nod to my favourite in 98.
TRANSFER NEWS (source: Wiki)
OUT: None.
IN: Norway, plumping up the Scandi representation to 3, and not a bad result at all! (Joint 4th, although my board places them 5th on the countback)
BACK: Luxembourg
Total = 11 + LUX + NOR = 13
INTERVAL ACT
Nada. The running time of the contest is about 80 mins now.
CREDITS
@ESC Stuff for the show upload (commentary), @NATI NATAN for image quality
Flags: countryflags.com
All Copyright belongs to BBC.
Royal Festival Hall image, copyright South Bank Centre.
00:00 Intro
04:29 Song super-cut
20:26 Voting intro
21:10 The reorder board 60
35:36 Recap, data & reprise

[@meskbren]

HAPPY SEMI FINAL #1 DAY!!! What a great warm-up act for tonight's main event! Thank you!

[@manuelbonilla7348]

Hey! so cool to see this edit 3 hours before the ESC 2021 begins!!!

[@Botafogoplayground]

Indeed

[@mrjdsworld80]

The actual 1960 scoreboard made a loud thud whenever the cards with the new scores were slid in, you can hear them here. The pointing stick from 1959 is back, but Katie doesn’t take control of it. A mysterious gloved arm is in charge of it.

[@thereorderboard]

Plot twist: *I* am the gloved arm.

[@mrjdsworld80]

@@thereorderboard it’s a lovely glove. And evening gloves just aren’t a thing anymore, so I do hope you’ve kept the look going.

[@danielvanr.8681]

I wish they'd have awarded the points in ascending order, so as to keep the suspense. No fun in, say, 5 or 7 points being awarded straight away, because then it doesn't really matter who gets the rest.... That being said, it's such a joy to hear the jury spokespeople enunciate and attempt crystal-clear English. Look what we have today: each spokesperson buffoon tries to be funnier than the previous one, and sometimes there's an oatmeal-thick accent involved as well. I'm sure we all remember Spain 2001? "Eðzlovänia, tu points!" "Was that Lithuania?" "No, Eðzlovänia!" "Aaaaah, Slow-vee-nee-ya!"

[@mrjdsworld80]

I’m a bit short on trivia on this contest, but it was the very first Eurovision held in a capital city. Though from a personal perspective, the Royal Festival Hall is the closest Eurovision venue to my flat in SW London…but this isn’t the closest I’ve been to a Eurovision as it’s being held- I grew up in the 1990s a few miles east of Millstreet.

[@thereorderboard]

Yes, this year is a bit of black hole! Comparatively little written about this year compared to others. Even andtheconductoris is a bit light on Eric Robinson!

[@lexezlao]

Oh that's cool!! Were you able to be present there?

[@toxr280]

Another exquisite video! Thank you!

[@robgoudeketting2936]

You are doing a wonderful job THANK YOU

[@mrjdsworld80]

Fabulous! Thank you so much. Between this and iPlayer starting to upload classic contests (1974 and 1998 so far), plenty of entertainment ahead of 8pm!

[@thereorderboard]

Well I don't want the Beeb to start stealing my audience!

[@thereorderboard]

A few other things I couldn’t fit in the description: - A big thank you to those who’ve supported me on ko-fi/thereorderboard! There’ll continue to be updates as I take a weekend off for Eurovision 2021! Have a great time, everyone - keep safe! - This board (the BBC one) isn’t as technically advanced as RTF’s, with people slotting in cards from behind with the numbers…they require whole numbers too, so ‘10’ is inserted with another card, rather than a ‘1’ and a ‘0’. Although the bigger question about what is live and what isn’t hangs over the 1963 contest, I think 1960 raises some questions too. There’s no question of impropriety, it’s just whether the jury spokespeople were in the hall or not, certainly the Belgian spokesperson seems to wait for the board to update (you’ll have to watch the original to see this), suggesting she was in the hall? Also, you can clearly hear the Austrian commentator in the background of the Austrian spokesperson…were they in the same box? Or perhaps the Austrian commentator wasn’t in London…or maybe, since a lot of this commentary would have come down phone lines, there was simply a cross over…I’m not sure if that’s possible in 1960s telephony! - One of the benefits of David Jacobs being piped into the hall was the cues were all seamless (for UK viewers anyway) as soon as Jacobs finished speaking, the orchestra started up. This might seem very obvious these days with earpieces, but back then it was a great solution to produce a polished show. Once again, keeping with tradition, the prize giving seemed a little rushed - the curtain fell very quickly and seemed to catch Boyle of guard! - The BBC liked showing the board, fully zoomed up…that’s why you’ll see quite a lot of my graphics without much of a pause. I’m pretty sure that whenever we see Katie Boyle, she’s in my video! - One of the few design cues was in the type used in the opening title, as well as the first credit roll we’ve seen…made of paper and on a roller, there’s a definite typeface there, perhaps using a type of Letraset lettering technique. - This is one where if you reverse the order of the voting you get exactly what you don’t want, a dull routine! If I remember rightly, France has a 10-12 point lead if you go with the UK voting first, and the race is all about the UK catching up. With the reverse order of voting, you get a classic ‘coming up on the rails’ sequence which is great for the home crowd, especially when the UK grabs the leader position back after losing it (obviously to lose it overall). - The fact of the year (all together now) is that (80 year old) Jacqueline Boyer is the daughter of Jacques Pills (Monaco, 1959). There’s also another family connection to 1959: Bryan Johnson is the brother of Teddy ‘Sing Little Birdy’ Johnson. - Eric Robinson was the musical director this year, a popular musician at the BBC involved in some high-ranking shows. Remarkably, he only had to deputise for Luxembourg this year as the 11 other conductors made it for the week in London. - If you look at Tuesday night’s TV schedule (for 29/3/1960), you’ll see Eric has a double bill. Shortly before 9pm Song Contest and the 8:10 football coverage, ‘The Black and White Minstrel Show’ was on. Hugely popular during its time on air, Robinson oversaw the music. It proved (obviously) an incredibly controversial programme, increasingly so throughout the 1960s and 70s. There’s an interesting piece on how the BBC got it wrong here (on a BBC website, of course) : www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/people-nation-empire/make-yourself-at-home/t - With regards to the Dutch song, I quite like that fruit, butterflies, foals, birds and fish all begin with ‘v’ in Dutch - it makes for a catchy line. Dolf van der Linden couldn’t work his magic on this entry though, unfortunately. - Whilst looking for design inspiration, I noticed the programme cover has ‘presented by BBC tv’ on it. It wouldn’t be until later in the autumn that the BBC’s television channel would be rebranded from ‘BBC Television Service’ to ‘BBC TV’, and then on to BBC One in 1964. BBC Television Centre, officially opened in June. - Elsewhere around the place: it’s worth noticing, despite the conservativism present in 1960, it would be this year that JFK would win the presidency of the United States in November. In a strange and non-significant coincidence, it would be the November after the next BBC hosting of Eurovision that he would be tragically assassinated in 1963. - Super Mac (British PM, Harold Macmillan) made his now famous ‘Wind of Change’ speech in Cape Town (and Accra) as European nations continued to rapidly decolonise Africa with some disastrous consequences, such almost immediate war in what was Belgian Congo. EFTA was established in May, Ben-Hur swept up at the Oscars, and fugitive Nazi Adolf Eichmann was abducted from Argentina too, to face trial in Israel. - In music, Elvis Presley ended his two years military service, and with the death of Buddy Holly in 1959, most agree that the rock’n’roll revolution of the 1950s had lost its edge. Meanwhile, in January of 1960 Stuart Sutcliffe, John Lennon’s Art School friend suggested the band they were in change their name to Beatals, in tribute to Buddy Holly and the Crickets. By May, they’d changed it to Silver Beetles, and then by August, The Beatles. They had signed a 3.5 month residency to perform in Hamburg this year too - it wouldn’t be until 1961 that their popularity in the UK would grow.

[@Pikenrolas566]

Please do it 2009 to 2015 with new system ☺ nice content subscribed.

[@trygve45]

I think the Belgian spokesperson folloved the scoring on the telly, when she gave the points. Thats why she paused to wait for the scoreboard to be correct.

[@pointlessnostalgic78]

Excellent job! I love the reorder board with the transition from the boxes to the board. I do agree those commentator's boxes are one of the landmarks of this edition. The others being the excellent Katie Boyle and David Jacob. It's indeed a pretty flat year, not very interesting in song terms, but you made as always so very enjoyable. Oh, and I wished Eurovision itself started adding the lyrics and the translations for every song! Thank you so much

[@FernandsLiveShowShow]

Another great upload and in a great year no less, the UK’s hosting debut. It does feel quite strait-laced indeed, though Katie does have a marvellous dress. A very interesting parallel of this and 1998 with David Jacobs as commentator-cum-compere much like Sir Terry some 38 years later, albeit less glamorous. Those links from Katie to David and David within the rest of the show are so satisfyingly timed! That and the very large and very clear song titles, with the applause of the previous and Jacobs’ commentating on top is very refreshing, adding a bit of freedom to what otherwise seems to be a very tight set of proceedings. Scoreboard - there’s something delightfully modern and current about the bold type of the country on the photo of the commentators boxes ahead of when it animates to the screen, suiting the modern minimalism of the 60s which is a nice touch. An exciting preamble to 1963: looking forward to seeing the contrast between this and the (someone mentioned here) the controlled environment of a studio offering greater creativity!

[@Botafogoplayground]

An iconic edition

[@riva1958]

1960 is an interesting year for a number of reasons not really to do with the music or songs. The Royal Festival Hall was one of the first in the world built around the scientific theory of acoustics. Saying that, many artists and musicians found it a difficult place to work as all the sound went forward and you couldn't hear what was being said or played beside you. There were also originally very few dressing rooms, and the backstage green room wasn't that big. It had originally been planned that all contests would be Outside Broadcasts, although 1957 and 1958 were held 'in house' in TV studios. Countries were encouraged to show off their outside broadcast prowess. It is clear the jury spokespersons are watching the voting and waiting for the scores to come up before they speak. Katie doesn't seem to grasp this. Audiences would from this year start to wonder about juries changing their votes if they could see the results coming in, perhaps to help themselves win. I unearthed a copy of the programme from the Royal Festival Hall archive [along with an original commentators song notes typed up by the BBC]. It is interesting how the official programme concentrates much more on the telecommunications achievements of the contest rather than the songs. This after all was the original aim of the contest, to show off what could be done in the advancement of connecting countries via television. I can't seem to add photographs to KZbin comments. I was in the midst of organising with the Royal Festival Hall a 60th anniversary in 2020. The plan was that, along with an exhibition in the RFH foyer, the contest would be shown on a large screen and replicas of the programme sold and t-shirts had been designed. Jacqueline Boyer was due to attend hopefully. There was some issues around the copyright to the show which ultimately lies with the BBC, although the BBC kept denying this despite the EBU telling them so. Plus the BBC don't actually hold a copy of their master transmutation of the show in their own archives. I'd also started discussion with the Gaiety in Dublin about having a similar celebration this year for the 1971 show, and then possibly on to the Usher Hall for 1972. However COVID put paid to that as it has to many things in life. Perhaps in a couple of years time we will get on track for the 1963 anniversary [the BBC don't hold a copy of that or 1968 in their archives!] The curtains from the Royal Festival Hall are missing. No one knows what happened to them. They may have been thrown in a skip, or sold on to another venue or stage rental company or gifted to a council hall. I searched every attic and cupboard at the. RFH for them as we had agreed that if found, they were to be cut in to pieces and sold off as souvenirs to raise money for charity. A lot of stuff was dumped when the RFH was extended in 1964, so maybe they went as early as then. Jacqueline Boyer's dress is light blue. She was the first teenager to win and is the earliest surviving winner, but by no means the oldest in years. Jacqueline wasn't the original singer of the song. In an internal National Final the song was sung by a man, Marcel Amont, but the jury decided it suited a female voice better. Julie Andrews had some success with an English language version of the song. I met with Katie Boyle on 2 occasions. I wouldn't call them interviews, more discussions over lunch and cocktails. She was charming as indeed she was but to be honest she didn't have that much interest in Eurovision. She saw it as a job to do. She got the job originally as she knew someone in the BBC who knew she spoke many languages. Katie said she was told what to do and get on and do it and that was that. Interesting that she didn't translate the English language results in to French. It's a though the production was aimed totally at UK viewers. Katie didn't have much grasp of the contest and when I spoke to her she didn't actually have much understanding of the rules. She also often called it the 'European' Song Contest. I also find it interesting that the UK spokesperson introduces the 'British' votes, another side of the very straight London orientated view of the BBC at the time. We have lost 10 of the artists that sang in 1960. Bryan Johnson- UK [who'd been in the 1957 NF heats], Camillo Felgen - Luxembourg, Fud Leclerc - Belgium, Harry Winter - Austria, Anita Traversi - Switzerland, Rudi Carrol - Netherlands, Renato Rascel - Italy [RAI didn't want Renato to go to Eurovision as despite winning Sanremo they thought the song could be sung better by the other Sanremo winner Tony Dallara but Renato wrote Romantica so it was him or no one], Francois Deguelt - Monaco, Nora Brockstedt - Norway, and Katy Bodtger - Denmark. As well as of course the goddess that is Miss Catherine Boyle.

[@thereorderboard]

What a fantastic comment! So interesting about Katie Boyle. I'm sorry that the exhibition couldn't happen in the end, I would have popped in! I walked past the RFH on Sunday and took a few photos since I was making this video. I'm also lucky enough to have access to the BBC's archive services and they are showing off their Eurovision collection. Unfortunately it would be entirely inappropriate for me to use them for this, and now they track what has been downloaded and requested...but I did notice 1960 was there. That's not to say 'its in their archive', but it's available for productions, should they need it. Thanks for taking the time to write all that out!

[@riva1958]

@@thereorderboard That's good the BBC now have a copy of 1960. They must have got a copy from the EBU perhaps or a friendly neighbour as I know they didn't keep the master. Unless it was found in Katie Boyle's closet. Hopefully they will also have gathered up the other years they hosted. Fewer countries than we think have actually kept their master of the years they hosted. Although nowadays there is lots of money to be made from olde Eurovision so the BBC would want a part of that. X

[@artsed08]

I don't understand why introducing the 'British' votes is interesting... surely they *were* the British votes?

[@riva1958]

@@artsed08 It wasn't Britain who was voting, it was the United Kingdom. The two things, legally and geographically, are different.

[@FernandsLiveShowShow]

Great trivia here, thanks so much!

[@losvizzero6176]

Thank you!

[@grahamnancledra7036]

The marvellous Katie Boyle who also spoke fluent German and Italian. She used to present a monthly Radio Programme on the BBC called by the BBC Pop Over Europe in which other broadcasters from European countries played their top song of the month or something that was popular. It was organised in Cologne by WDR. Katie presented four more Eurovision Song Contests and was the ultimate professional. If anyone has recordings of Pop over Europe of the other countries presentations of the show, Musik kennt keine Grenzen, Musique sans frontières, Musica senza frontiere, or the RTE Version Music has no Boundaries, or versions from Monaco, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Portugal, Switzerland and Austria, and from the later countries that participated Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Finland and Spain, then I would like to hear from you. Thanks

[@stefanosstavros6519]

I had a good collection of them but during my last move I threw a lot of the casette recordings out , due to being unable to play them.I still have a handful left ,they are not of high quality and were recorded over 40 years ago from radio

[@grahamnancledra7036]

@@stefanosstavros6519 I'd love to be able to hear them again, even though they may not be the best quality.

[@Starfilter1]

These videos are such great fun! Thanks very much for doing them. The director of the show is Innes Lloyd (later a producer of Doctor Who). One of the downsides of staging the contest in large venues at this time is that they have to be Outside Broadcasts. OBs were a different department to the usual studio productions and the crews would be more used to covering sporting events/state occasions rather than light entertainment spectaculars. This might be why the camerawork is pedestrian. And that's why 1963 looks so different - on that occasion the BBC went out of its way to show off what they could do in the controlled environment of a studio!

[@thereorderboard]

Great point about the OBs - they were certainly were the prestige thing to do (still are in a way)

[@Starfilter1]

@@thereorderboard Oh I agree, OBs give the contest a sense of occasion. And later on the camera work gets much better. 1977 has fantastic OB camera work although the director Stewart Morris can be heard blaming the OB equipment for the problems with the captions in the infamous behind the scenes clip! I'm looking forward to your 1963 video when it comes round. As well as that nice font used for the contest you have the wonderful signage of Television Centre to inspire you as well! Thanks again for all the work you put into these videos.

[@meskbren]

Once again another wonderful presentation - I like your picture of the commentators boxes and we zoom into the scoreboard. I agree with you: France and UK were both child-like songs. And like you I must say I have a soft spot for Monaco - a sensuous performance which was far superior to its two betters. Fair play to the German jury for giving it 7 points. My top 5: 1. Monaco 2. Switzerland 3. Sweden 4. Norway 5. Netherlands

[@JeSuisRene]

Luxembourg giving their marks in English?? Also, Denmark loved France back in the day, didn’t they?

[@nadirhajjour]

Haha yes and Switzerland really love the United Kingdom songs !!!

[@JeSuisRene]

“...a loveable liar who girls seem to fall in love with” - heck; the current Prime Minister wouldn’t be born for another four years...

[@JeSuisRene]

I agree - Switzerland probably had the best entry here, though Norway’s debut and the Netherlands are close behind.

[@SimsMoyal]

i would say it's not only 4 in a row in the top 3 but top 3 ever since the voting in the contest started.

[@SimsMoyal]

i am afraid if you clap for every vote we won't be able to hear the playback??? wow

[@3enedictterry]

Funny to think this was the first contest to feature a parade of artists (as far as I know)

[@baptouvarassou6941]

How can you do this kind of video ? please

[@johndiax4147]

Can you do eurovision 1969 scoreboard please?

[@Amyangina]

34:46 Song number 13 france 5 points

[@WillHearteChannel]

Legendary Katie Boyle!!!

[@EldaMengisto]

For some reason, the font really doesn't grab me here. That said, I like the commentator boxes getting featured here, and the use of languages for each country name! Other than that, I feel that the 1960 contest is just...there. Nothing much happens, though there were some good songs. My top five: 5. DEN 4. GER -- I like the use of percussion here; it gives an almost sultry vibe, despite the song being quite sad. 3. SWE -- Another song with a cool vibe, despite the sad lyrics! I could somewhat relate to the "everyone's getting together except for me" lyrics, and the jazzy elements really grabs it too! 2. NOR -- What a neat debut here! I like the instrumentation and the imaginative nature of Voi Voi. The use of Sami there was quite nice, if the topic of the song fits too well with the times... 1. FRA -- Sure, the music is a bit dainty, but I do like the lyrics about the duplicitous Tom Pillibi . I particularly like how Jacqueline performs it; she's really playful and charming, if a bit mischievous! It was cool to see how this came from behind to win. Also, this was the first winner to garner some chart traction, if I'm right. (which is a strange state of affairs, considering winners should be at least somewhat popular...)

[@thereorderboard]

Yea I don't think I could argue that much with your top 5! And yes, the font isn't a grabber is it? It's just there...but I quite liked the starkness compared to the more delicate typeface I used for 1959. Having said that, the typographer must have liked the number '4', they poured a lot of energy into that character lol

[@TheNathanj2009]

Who wrote the UK entry? A toddler?

[@nadirhajjour]

1960 was a very boring and infantile year. Yet I really loved the voting with the lovely miss Boyle.

[@LuizCarneiro]

The British Legend of getting closer, but not winning takes form hahaha I think it was a good contest with quite good songs, but, let's be honest... The UK really deserved the second place?

[@artsed08]

You're just Anglophobic. Hopefully you'll grow out of it.