If you want a look into the kind of nonsense that goes on behind the scenes at the contest, Worst. Eurovision. Ever. will take you on a wild ride around the rehearsals, dressing rooms and showbiz parties with such an informed eye that you’ll never look at the dear old contest the same way again. As a journalist, Roy has been covering the contest in person since the nineties, and over those years he’s seen all sorts of unexpected misbehaviour and excess.
When some plucky underdogs from Moldova unexpectedly won the Eurovision Song Contest, the show’s organisers were instantly worried about how they were going to hold the following year’s competition in such a small and little-visited country. But the location was the least of their worries as a procession of unlikely artists began to be chosen for the show, and everything from Norwegian black metallers, a Saudi Arabian prince performing for San Marino, and an Icelandic bloke dressed as a dog caused a cascade of complications before a single note had even been sung. Can they keep all the egos in check, or is the whole thing going to come tumbling down around them?
That’s the premise of the latest novel from Roy D Hacksaw, but it’s only the tip of a chaotic iceberg that takes a deep dive into the backstage shenanigans at the continent’s favourite singing show. But why would an old punker like Hacksaw want to write a book about such pop fluff? Well it turns out the boy’s got form. As a journalist he’s been covering the contest in person since the nineties, and over those years he’s seen all sorts of unexpected misbehaviour and excess, as well as the incredible efforts of the organisers to keep the whole thing on track in spite of it all. And with so much Eurovision experience under his belt he figured that it was ripe material to base a novel on.
“Hilarious and heart-warming, this is a must read for anyone who loves Europe’s favourite TV show!”
- James Scanlan- Eurovision Ireland
After stints in the nearly successful punk bands DATWMF, the Beach Bums and the Cesspit Rebels, Roy remembered that an old English teacher told him he could write a bit and he started up the fanzine Xerox Heaven, which was mostly about other fanzines. From there on he stumbled about doing the occasional writing gig before he found himself in London at the turn of the century editing an early student lifestyle website for Jim Kerr of Simple Minds. Since then his journalistic highlights have included reviewing a noise festival in Shanghai for Metal Hammer, reporting from every Eurovision Song Contest since 1998, and answering the readers' letters in Disney Princess magazine in the voice of Jessie The Cowgirl from Toy Story.