The Manicolo Eurovision Party Brighton 2007
Local Brighton eccentric Daniel Manicolo hosts a little publicised annual Eurovision party and last week was his 2007 entry. Each year Mr Manicolo collects names and phone numbers submitted to him throughout the year and after holding the Mayday eurovision lucky dip in Preston Park (all can attend this) calls the succesful applicants with the secret location of the party. Last years party apparently had a bohemian theme, held in a squat in Viaduct Road where guests lounged on broken furniture and drinks were served in a run down kitchen. Many of the guests ended up staying the night there, so potent was Dan’s euro-pop (his secret cocktail served annually).Well, this year Dan took the unprecedented step of holding the party at his own house, where he lives with the renowned local musician and composer James ‘Le Rouge’ Arthur, and their mysterious friend known locally as ‘The Taxman’. The house is also mere yards away from The Duke of Yorks cinema, who hold an inferior annual rival Eurovision party. Apparently the people at the cinema have tried, and failed on numerous occasions to get Daniel to take over the running of their own party.
Well I was, as you may have guessed, lucky enough to win a place this year and was told the dress code was to be ‘wrong’. I donned a polyphonic spree style muumuu or robe, and made my way across town. The other guests at the party were a varied lot! The dress sense were superb, men in sequined tops, smart striped trousers, wild hats. People came from far and wide too, one girl was from Sweden, another chap from Wales, some lived in Brighton, others had come down from places such as London especially for the event. All in all there were around 20 guests, and everyone seemed to get along just fine. Master of ceremony’s was of course, the infamous Manicolo who sported a yellow animal skin shirt and wild suit. He was quite a sight, and as a known recluse, it was amazing to see him for once. He was a great host, providing a range of snacks, score cards, song sheets, hand crafted Terry Wogan masks and as much Euro-Pop as we could take. Although generally unanimated he did manage to perform a full dance sequence to the Ukraine’s entry…with lyrics. He sang beautifully, and the dance was unexpected but quite spectacular, it certainly lent the evening a real sense of occasion.
All in all an accomplished and well executed party, let down only by the political voting going on in the contest itself. I wish I would be able to attend next year, but sadly Daniel only allows people to attend his party once. Hey Dan - change the rules!
Apply for tickets for next years party by emailing eurovision@manicolo.info
Was anyone else at this party? I would love to hear your views!
Did anyone make a video clip of Mani singing and dancing…that would have been a site to see
Seiben sieben eins zwei, sieben sieben ay, lu lu!
I was at this party, and it was fantastic. The cramped sitting arrangements gave it a real authentic prisoner-feel, as I imagine we wouldn’t have been able to leave before the end had we tried anyway. Bravo Manicolo!
nicht verstehen!
Let’s speak DANCE!
Sieben, Sieben
Ai lyu lyu
Sieben, Sieben
ein, zwei!
Sieben, Sieben
Ai lyu lyu
ein, zwei, drei !
I was a previous winner of a Manicolo ticket, “he plied me with perry and took my man cherry and the world was never the same”… easy to say, hard to live with.