It all started in Dublin in 1994 when Kevin Sherwin attended his first Eurovision Song Contest and was captivated by Riverdance.
Since then, the Aberdeen taxi driver has travelled no less than 40,000 miles – which is more than one and a half times round the world – listened to nearly 800 songs, and visited 20 capital cities and major conurbations from Copenhagen to Tallinn, Malmo to Vienna and Tel Aviv to Istanbul.
He is Scotland’s Mr Eurovision, a man who has met and rubbed shoulders with the likes of Terry Wogan, Graham Norton, Bonnie Tyler, Pete Waterman and Jedward, and who possesses an encyclopaedic knowledge of one of the great annual festivals of kitsch on the entertainment calendar.
In which light, it’s no surprise that I caught up with him in Turin, where the latest contest will be staged on Saturday night in front of a TV audience estimated at between 160 and 200 million people across Europe.
‘I was hooked after the first time’
Even before he began his journeys to all the venues, Kevin was fascinated by the annual song festival and has plenty of stories to tell about his adventures.
He said: “People ask me why I’m obsessed with Eurovision, but I can go back to the 1970s when I was passionate about music. There was no YouTube or MTV in those days, so the only chance to watch music on television was your weekly episode of Top of the Pops.
“So imagine how excited I was when the Eurovision Song Contest came on, with 20 songs from various countries, followed by the drama of the voting.
“I suppose it was a bit like It’s a Knockout, but with music. I was hooked.”
It puts the show in showbusiness
Eurovision has never been just about the music – critics would retort that’s just as well – but even if it can be as cheesy as a lorryload of brie and often resembles an explosion in a glitter factory, Kevin is in his element whenever he arrives at the contest and starts mingling with people in exotic attire which has to be seen, if not necessarily to be believed.
He said: “On stage, at different times, I’ve seen turkeys, spacemen, pirates, men dressed in gorilla costumes, an Austrian with cardboard animals and another Austrian with a beard in a dress, Russian grannies, an Australian singer balancing on a 20-foot pole, hamster wheels and one man who wanted to appear naked with live wolves.
“He didn’t get his wish!”
Eurovision Song Contest has unique wow factor for Aberdeen cabbie
Kevin talks expertly about the likes of Sandie Shaw, Cliff Richard and Lulu representing Great Britain back in the 1960s, but he eventually grew frustrated with watching the event on TV. He needed to be there – in person.
He explained: “My obsession was taking over and I had to try to get to a live Eurovision, but unless you knew the director general of the TV company that was staging the event, you had no chance of getting a ticket.
“But then, in 1994, I saw an advert offering Eurovision tickets for sale at £300 each, plus dinner beforehand and the after party. It was too good to miss and that was how I went to my first Eurovision.
“After that, the organisers decided to sell tickets to the general public, so having paid £300 in 1994, I only had to pay £50 for my 1995 ticket”.
In 2003, Kevin applied for press accreditation and that opened up a whole new perspective on Eurovision. He gained access to the rehearsals, press conferences and interviews with the artists. And his profile increased.
As he said: “In 2010, I was asked by the head of delegation from Romania if I’d be interested in doing some reports for a newspaper – thankfully it’s an English speaking paper which is great as my Romanian isn’t that good.
Sharing a glass with Sir Terry
“But then, I began meeting some of the famous figures connected with the contest. The late Terry Wogan was a true gentleman, I met him at a few Eurovisions and we even shared a drink in the business class lounge in Belgrade in 2008, which turned out to be the last time he presented it.
“But then, he was replaced by Graham Norton in 2009 and I did manage to get a picture with Graham and it was fascinating to me how he brought his own style. I even met Lys Assia, the Swiss woman who had won the first-ever event all the way back in 1956 and she was very interesting company.”
But what about the 2022 event?
The British entry has struggled to make any impact at recent contests – and there have even been claims that the Brexit vote was one of the factors behind “nul” points becoming a regular occurrence.
But Kevin doesn’t have any truck with that theory, nor is he dismissing the chances of Britain’s 2022 song Space Man, performed by Sam Ryder.
He said: “The bottom line is that the UK has sent a lot of rubbish over the years – it’s nothing to do with politics, just a poor choice of songs.
“Don’t tell me that there’s a granny sitting in Moldova, for instance, watching her television and saying: ‘I’m not voting for the UK because I don’t like Boris Johnson’s Brexit fishing policy.
“The people in the know, plus lots of the artists over here in Turin, think that the UK might just win this competition [on Saturday].
“It’s the best that we have sent in years and is definitely in contention. But watch out for Ukraine and Sweden who are also among the front runners.”
What about Aberdeen as Eurovision host?
Having journeyed tens of thousands of miles – and spent, by his own calculations, more than £50,000 – on his myriad adventures with Eurovision during the last near-30 years, Kevin admits it would be fantastic if his home city hosted Eurovision in the future.
He told me: “I think Aberdeen could stage the contest, they have the biggest arena in Scotland, 10 hotels within a mile of one another and they have an international airport which is next door to the venue [at the P&J Live].
“Then throw in a tour of Balmoral Castle for the visiting delegations who would love to see where the Queen spends her summer holidays.
“And I could be the Lord Provost’s Eurovision advisor. After all, having been to 23 of these events, I kind of know what is needed to stage it.”
Kevin also met an Aberdeen hero
It’s not just music which has commanded Kevin’s attention. In 2017, he enjoyed a picture perfect moment with one of the city’s greatest sporting sons.
Denis Law was in the north-east to open Scotland’s first ever Cruyff Court, prior to receiving an honorary doctorate from Robert Gordon University.
And there to meet him at the Catherine Street facility was Kevin, with a photograph of his father meeting the footballer in his playing days.
Much to his delight, the former Manchester United and Scotland star signed the picture and chatted to him about his father.
Memories are made of this
The image, taken in the early 1960s, showed the young Lawman leaning against his car and chatting to John Sherwin, who was working as a petrol attendant at a filling station on Great Northern Road.
Mr Sherwin had just finished filling up the legendary forward’s Jaguar and Kevin said the photo was his late father’s pride and joy and, for years, he had dreamed of getting it signed.
Kevin recalled: “Denis was such a nice man, sometimes you meet celebrities and they just can’t be bothered with you. But that wasn’t the case with him.
Dreams have come true for Kevin
“I told him he was so down to earth and he’s so passionate about Aberdeen and his roots – every time he visits, he goes back down to Manchester with a load of rowies.
“When my dad died, I kept the picture and always thought to myself it would be great to get it signed. But I didn’t know how I was going to meet Denis.”
However, as Gabrielle sang, dreams can come true. And that has certainly become a familiar refrain for this far-travelled fellow.
