Eurovision Song Contest - 1972

Saturday 25th March 1972 - The Eurovision Song Contest was held in the Usher Hall in Edinburgh and the New Seekers came second with a score of 114.

I was one of the teenage fans who spent hours in the cold waiting to catch a glimpse of them. I must have been mad! Three days I hung around the Usher Hall and the Caledonian Hotel where they were staying. And for what? Paul Layton and Eve Grahams autograph, and a kiss from Peter Doyle. Big deal? But it was a 'big deal' back then. I gained 'celebrity status' at school because I had actually got close up to one of the most popular groups of all time. Those few seconds had boosted my street credibility to great heights. After all, there were hundreds of girls swarming around waiting for them, but I was the one who got near enough for a kiss and two autographs.

As thirteen year olds I'm sure we all thought we were 'really cool' in our duffle coats, skinny rib sweaters, jeans and baseball boots. And of course we were covered from head to toe in home made badges of our idols. We wiled away the hours singing New Seeker songs, screaming for our heart throbs and pestering anyone who went in or out of the hotel as to whether they had seen any of them. And when a chambermaid told us that Marty Kristian 'swore like a trooper', of course we didn't believe her. Not Marty Kristian - to us he was God! What a 'doll' with his long blonde hair, afghan coats, flowery shirts and blue jeans.

We scoured the outside of the hotel to see if we could find an open fire escape door or unlocked staff entrance. We tried to brazen it out by walking bodly through the front door and pretending we were guests. We pretended we'd applied for a job at the hotel and needed to get in for an interview. All our ploys failed! Each and every door seemed to be guarded by security men and managers. Every time a taxi or big car drove anywhere near the hotel we thought it was 'them' arriving or a car coming to pick 'them' up.

One day after I'd been hanging around from 8.30am until 6.30pm with no sign of the New Seekers, I returned home to tell my mother I was going back again at 10.30pm (because rumour had it that they'd be returning then). Needless to say she wouldn't let me. Looking back now, I can't believe I was actually allowed to go in the first place. After all I'd only just had my 13th birthday. I remember sitting on the kitchen stool and crying because I thought my mother was ruining my chances of marrying Marty Kristian. She said I was hysterial. I said I loved him and that she didn't understand.

All police leave must have been cancelled because there were scores of them stationed around the Caledonian Hotel and Usher Hall. On the few occasions when the New Seekers did either leave or enter the buildings the police would link arms to make a human barrier. Of course that only served to make us push and shove harder and scream louder. We all wanted to be the one that the New Seekers noticed.

We were teenage girls united. Each and every one of us loved the New Seekers and we bonded quickly. We vowed we would always keep in touch. Of course we never did.

However almost 40 years later, lurking in my loft, I still have more than 500 pictures of the New Seekers. Why? For nostalgia of course!