For a while there it looked as though reallyrather was in the money but at the death those good old Eurovision standards reasserted themselves and Malta's obviously superior sweetness was squeezed out by some ersatz Gloria Estafan tosh, and the Baltic brotherhood. (Bitter, moi?!) Still, the stake was more than doubled...

Oh me of little faith. A while back this column suggested that The Trolleyvox could've done better than to cover Is Vic there? for Groovedisques' Stiff Records tribute. Boss chappie Jim Slade has made this track available as a taster and reallyrather should've known they'd pull it off - loads of great Byrdsian guitar going on, and Beth's slightly detached vocal style really suits the song...

'There's no denying his talent, but Yorn needs to recharge his batteries and flesh out his catalog before he can hope to fulfill the promise of last year's debut.' Fair comment from the Boston Globe (rr had a similar conclusion after the Garage show back in March)...