watched the other contestants perform and rehearse.
When the Saturday night arrived, the Irish team headed for the Municipal Theatre in the hope that Martin would win. She wore a white trouser suit, which was complemented by a blue sash, blue shoes, and seriously big hair. She sang well, but the song was not successful. When the voting was completed, she had 137 points, eight points less than the winners. Ignominious and annoying as it was to come second when she was so close to winning, Martin’s loss was compounded by the fact that the winners were essentially a novelty act from Sweden. They were the Herreys, three brothers who turned up on stage in matching white trousers and gold boots. One wore a blue shirt, one a red shirt, and the other a turquoise shirt, so you could tell them apart. Their song was called Diggi-Loo, Diggi-Ley .
The Irish team were devastated not to win and understandably so. Louis, however, was character-istically chirpy and refused to be downbeat about coming second.
“I was really happy she got second,” he says, “It helped her incredibly here. It was great from her point of view.”
True to form, he came out fighting. On the morning after the Contest, the team sat around a table drinking coffee. Everyone was still crushed by the defeat. Except Louis. He was the only one keeping spirits up and staying optimistic. “If he had a title on the team, it would have been ‘Chief Emotional Support’,” recalls Healy.
He began to show the confident public persona for which he would later become known, telling the Irish Press that Terminal 3 had already been released across Europe.
“We will be pushing it by concentrating on countries that gave us 10 or 12 marks in the Contest,” said Louis. “Linda was treated after the show as if she were the winner. That was the impact of her performance. There is no doubt now that she has a very big future.”
Although she had TV appearances lined up in Cyprus, France, Holland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Turkey, her promotional tour wasn’t accompanied by the near-hysteria that had greeted Logan everywhere he went in the weeks following his win. Neither was Martin guaranteed the influx of cash that Logan had received.
Louis was privately anxious to achieve something more after he returned to Ireland. He continued working for Tommy Hayden Enterprises, representing and managing all types of performers but he didn’t like much of the music they performed.
Rock music was the only art form that mattered in Ireland in the 1980s, largely because of the success of U2. As the DJ Dave Fanning has said, it was a time “when you were either too much like U2 or too little like U2. Everything was compared to them. Pop music didn’t get a look in.”
If Louis loved anything, it was pop music. He gravitated naturally towards commercial music and sounds. His attitude towards Irish rock was ambivalent. The rock bands paid his wages but he never liked the music and was not enamoured by the rock scene and it’s culture.
One of the artists who mattered most to him appeared to be fading into oblivion. Logan had sunk deeper into decline since the collapse of his inter-national career in 1980. His despair was compounded when another of his songs, Hearts , sung by his brother Mike Sherrard, came last in the 1985 National Song Contest, garnering only three points from the unsympathetic juries around Ireland.
Louis, however, was unbowed by this disaster and exhorted Logan to give it one more try. Logan did so, writing If I Can Change Your Mind for Linda Martin. She performed the song in the 1986 National Song Contest, and came fourth. It seemed as if another day of Eurovision glory for Logan and Louis was not to be.
Few people have the endurance of Louis Walsh. He remained the biggest advocate of the Eurovision in Ireland and spent long hours promoting Johnny Logan and Linda Martin, according to Shay Healy. He sent out their concert posters himself, demonstrating that he
When the Saturday night arrived, the Irish team headed for the Municipal Theatre in the hope that Martin would win. She wore a white trouser suit, which was complemented by a blue sash, blue shoes, and seriously big hair. She sang well, but the song was not successful. When the voting was completed, she had 137 points, eight points less than the winners. Ignominious and annoying as it was to come second when she was so close to winning, Martin’s loss was compounded by the fact that the winners were essentially a novelty act from Sweden. They were the Herreys, three brothers who turned up on stage in matching white trousers and gold boots. One wore a blue shirt, one a red shirt, and the other a turquoise shirt, so you could tell them apart. Their song was called Diggi-Loo, Diggi-Ley .
The Irish team were devastated not to win and understandably so. Louis, however, was character-istically chirpy and refused to be downbeat about coming second.
“I was really happy she got second,” he says, “It helped her incredibly here. It was great from her point of view.”
True to form, he came out fighting. On the morning after the Contest, the team sat around a table drinking coffee. Everyone was still crushed by the defeat. Except Louis. He was the only one keeping spirits up and staying optimistic. “If he had a title on the team, it would have been ‘Chief Emotional Support’,” recalls Healy.
He began to show the confident public persona for which he would later become known, telling the Irish Press that Terminal 3 had already been released across Europe.
“We will be pushing it by concentrating on countries that gave us 10 or 12 marks in the Contest,” said Louis. “Linda was treated after the show as if she were the winner. That was the impact of her performance. There is no doubt now that she has a very big future.”
Although she had TV appearances lined up in Cyprus, France, Holland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Turkey, her promotional tour wasn’t accompanied by the near-hysteria that had greeted Logan everywhere he went in the weeks following his win. Neither was Martin guaranteed the influx of cash that Logan had received.
Louis was privately anxious to achieve something more after he returned to Ireland. He continued working for Tommy Hayden Enterprises, representing and managing all types of performers but he didn’t like much of the music they performed.
Rock music was the only art form that mattered in Ireland in the 1980s, largely because of the success of U2. As the DJ Dave Fanning has said, it was a time “when you were either too much like U2 or too little like U2. Everything was compared to them. Pop music didn’t get a look in.”
If Louis loved anything, it was pop music. He gravitated naturally towards commercial music and sounds. His attitude towards Irish rock was ambivalent. The rock bands paid his wages but he never liked the music and was not enamoured by the rock scene and it’s culture.
One of the artists who mattered most to him appeared to be fading into oblivion. Logan had sunk deeper into decline since the collapse of his inter-national career in 1980. His despair was compounded when another of his songs, Hearts , sung by his brother Mike Sherrard, came last in the 1985 National Song Contest, garnering only three points from the unsympathetic juries around Ireland.
Louis, however, was unbowed by this disaster and exhorted Logan to give it one more try. Logan did so, writing If I Can Change Your Mind for Linda Martin. She performed the song in the 1986 National Song Contest, and came fourth. It seemed as if another day of Eurovision glory for Logan and Louis was not to be.
Few people have the endurance of Louis Walsh. He remained the biggest advocate of the Eurovision in Ireland and spent long hours promoting Johnny Logan and Linda Martin, according to Shay Healy. He sent out their concert posters himself, demonstrating that he