The Wedding Present Cup: Stage 2, Group A

              



The panel must award a total of 136 points to the songs in these groups; no song may receive more than 25 points, and they must give points to at least 10 of the 16 songs. The top 4 go through to the last 32.

Group A is made up of the qualifiers from groups 1 and 2 in the first stage.

Group A

  • My Favourite Dress
  • No
  • End Credits
  • Nobody's Twisting Your Arm 
  • Boo Boo
  • Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now? 
  • We Should Be Together
  • At the Edge of the Sea
  • Queen Anne
  • Deer Caught in the Headlights
  • Sports Car
  • 2, 3, Go
  • Let's Make Some Plans
  • Nothing Comes Easy 
  • Memento Mori
  • It's A Gas

The Results

A bit more of a challenge for the panel to allocate their scores now that we've entered the second stage, but they seemed to cope admirably. It was interesting to see their different voting patterns: for example, three of them (John, James and Gricey) gave at least a point to all of the tracks, whereas another three (Ian, Bob and Kirk) used their full complement of six zeros. The majority awarded at least one maximum 25 (five gave two); the highest that myself and James went was 16.

Given that 'Let's Make Some Plans' (along with 'Box Elder') was the best-performing cover in the first stage, the fact that it finished in the bottom three here (despite Kirk describing it as 'possibly their best cover') does not bode well for the other non-originals. 'We Should Be Together' did a little better, helped in particular by 20 points from Ali. However, it still finished in the bottom five, as did 'Memento Mori'; as these two were among the more positively received recent tunes in the first stage, it suggests that 24 Songs tracks will also struggle to progress.

No surprises with the top spot: 'My Favourite Dress' got the maximum 25 from seven of the panel and its total of 321 (an average of nearly 19 points per judge) may prove hard to beat. On the other hand, I was somewhat surprised to see 'No' (a pleasant enough jangle but rather predictable and inconsequential in my book) come second in the first stage, and was frankly astonished to see it repeat that feat here. Kirk ('a bit of a plodder') and Keg ('quite how it finished second in the group, beating "End Credits", is still a puzzle') shared my bewilderment, but we were very much in the minority, with a dozen of the judges giving it at least a 15.

Group 2 champion 'Queen Anne' came third, albeit some distance behind the top two. Ali and Harry gave it zero; Mike was unconvinced: 'That last brass part ruins the track; TWP trying to be original, failing completely.' Keg found it 'curious' that he'd given it a zero last time and upped his score to an eight. Johnny, however, was - along with Gav M - a big fan: 'Lovely, and transports me to the earlier days of [the forum] and fun times on the road.' 'Nobody's Twisting Your Arm' completed our qualifying quartet, even though Kirk stated emphatically that 'nobody is going to twist my arm to give this any points.'

Mini tracks did very well in the first stage, all but one of them securing a place in the top three of their respective groups. 'Sports Car' only just missed out on a place in the final 32, finishing only four points off the pace. Harry, Mike and Bob scored it particularly highly, but marks of six of less from seven of the panel (including zeros from Gav F and Steve M) scuppered its chances.

Three of the tracks were particularly divisive. 'Deer Caught in the Headlights' finished a creditable sixth, and was strongly supported by John, Keg and Kirk. It also got six zeros, one of which came from Johnny, who simply repeated his statement from stage one: 'I’d run the fooker over.' 'End Credits' was seventh, buoyed by maximum marks from Harry and Keg, but it was held back by four zeros and half a dozen single-figure scores. Tenth-placed 'Boo Boo' received decent scores from me, John and Kirk, but nearly half of the judges didn't give it a single point. One of them was Keg: 'Cringe! I still think it's tripe. Nul points, and well deserved for the title alone. Be off with you!' 




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