Song For Europe 

The doors opened at 3.45pm and it was obvious by the buzz and chat within the audience that many supporters of Nicki’s had managed to get tickets for the show.  The crowd were told on which stage each of the acts would perform and when it was announced that ‘Don’t Play That Song Again’ was on fourth, everyone felt that this was the top spot, as we all know you save the best till last!

First on were `Sexy Sadie` with what was felt to be the weakest of the four songs and although most people felt it wouldn’t prove to be much competition, they looked and sounded great.  Next was Catherine Porter with ‘Crazy’ – an Alanis Morisette type of number with quirky lyrics complete with gazoo solo!  Third up was Jonathon King’s much hyped and over-publicised `Six Chix` with ‘Only the Women Know’.  From the reaction of the audience, it didn’t seem to have impressed them that much – they must have been saving themselves for the grand finale.

The crowd gave Nicki a rapturous introduction and were completely blown away with the power of her voice during the live performance.  Everyone was singing their hearts out, dancing and enjoying every minute of it – Nicki, the singers and the studio audience.  Throughout this John and Gerry had been locked away with all the other writers, all nervously watching the show on TV.

Ten minutes of voting time came and went the atmosphere was tense.  Third place announced, `Six Chix` second, well surely it had to be, YES – as Katy Hill said “By the reaction in the studio at her performance - the winner has to be NICKI FRENCH singing ‘Don’t Play That Song Again’”.  YES!

John and Gerry were led through the `tunnel` of cheering fans and supporters to the stage to be awarded with their winners medals and congratulated on their win.  Meanwhile, back on stage 4, Nicki and her group were preparing to blast us away again!  Oh go on then, please ‘Don’t Play That Song Again’!

Minutes later everyone was being congratulated and the celebrations began.  Nicki said “It was a real team effort – a lot of hard work and time put in by John and Gerry in writing a great pop song and then by Patti, Julia, Victor and George in making sure the performance we gave on the show was going to be first class.  We’re all thrilled at winning and want to thank everyone for their support and votes.  I still haven’t come down off of Cloud 9.  We are all really looking forward to going to Sweden to represent the UK – it’s something I could have only dreamt of happening before.”

Gerry and John have since been chased by a number of record companies itching to sign them up for what is a virtually guaranteed hit.  On writing together after a break of some 20 years apart Gerry said “We’ve always worked together really well and when John phoned up and said he was feeling creative and asked if I’d like to re-establish our working relationship I said yes.  This song was the result of our first effort, so let’s hope there’s plenty more left in the pipeline.  The result on Sunday was fantastic, we were so pleased for Nicki and the group, as they had worked very hard and really pulled the plug out on the show.  It was brilliant!”