Eurovision 1982: Ein Bißchen Harrogate | Super-cut with animated scoreboard

An edited down version of the (less amazing than last year’s) 1982 Eurovision Song Contest in Harrogate with a scoreboard using today’s technology. Nothing but a fun lockdown project.

This edit will give a flavour of the evening (24th April) with Terry Wogan’s UK commentary. There was a bit of work required to get a decent video and audio source matched together, so I’ve used uploads by JUGOVIZIJA and TheEurovision1992 - thanks to them and apologies for the sometimes obvious switching of sources!

In the edit there’ll be some of the intro, a flavour of each entry, and then the scoring sequence edited with a scoreboard built and designed using technology used since 2003 (when the scoreboard became reactive and reordered when points were awarded). Special mentions (edits) this year go to the Intro - which I kept almost intact - and to Belgium for their music box. War was about in the world in 1982 - the Falklands had been invaded 22 days earlier, Europe was filling up with nukes, Israel would invade Lebanon in June - perhaps there’s no wonder why we needed Ein Bißchen Harrogate.

I have friends from the town and I’ve spent time there before and the BBC’s decision to go to Yorkshire remains surprising. The last time the contest was hosted in a settlement where the population was similar to Harrogate’s was Cannes in 1961 (using 2020 figures). I’m a fan of Harrogate, but I wouldn’t say it was in the same league as Cannes! Smaller places would go on to host the Contest (Millstreet), but at this time, it remained remarkable and so I’ve kept the images of the town in the edit.

DESIGN AND THE BOARD
Well this was the first contest (in this series) with a clear design ethos. And the ethos was somewhat Edwardian? Not great for motion design of course, but we had a logo that was used in the scoreboard design! Not on the song name straps that were overlaid live, though. Incidentally, the style of these were borrowed right from Europe’s coolest show - Top of the Pops. No coincidence: the show’s Producer, Michael Hurll, was TOTP’s Executive Producer at the time.

The Edwardian typeface (which goes with Harrogate’s raison d'être) is called Korinna and was originally made in 1904 by the German foundry H. Berthold AG. Nice poetic link there to the outcome. This version, for computers, was remade by Ed Benguiat and Vic Caruso for the International Typeface Corporation (ITC) in 1974. I’ve retained Dalton Maag’s (licensed) Aktiv Grotesk font for the numbers and the series branding of course.

My board uses the same logic as 1981, not used in the actual contest yet...songs are ranked by points, 12s, 10s, 8s and then their position in the running order.

TRANSFER NEWS (source: Wiki)
OUT: France - TF1’s head of entertainment, Pierre Bouteiller, saying, "The absence of talent and the mediocrity of the songs were where annoyance set in. Eurovision is a monument to inanity”. There was an outcry in France and they would return with a new channel in 1983.
Greece - ERT withdrew the song after it was revealed that their entry was a cover of a folk song, and therefore violated contest rules. A fine was paid, eek.

INTERVAL ACT
I’ve repeated my trick from 1981 and used the images of the Yorkshire countryside and Knaresborough over song 18. Rather peaceful, innit.

Credits
JUGOVIZIJA
TheEurovision1992
Intermedium-Bremen for uploading so many of the old contests originally
Desandmick.co.uk/television/eurovision/ for a quick look at scoreboard history for some helpful hints.
https://www.countryflags.com/en/ for all the free to use images of flags
Yugoslav flag by Đorđe Andrejević-Kun,https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
All Copyright goes to the BBC.

00:00 Intro with scenes of Harrogate
05:57 Song Supercut
18:25 Song 18 with images of Yorkshire from the interval act
21:38 The reorder board 82
50:25 Top 3 recap and famous reprise of the winning song
56:41 Closing credits