What was it like being in the Song For Europe competition in 1999?

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Fantastic. I loved Eurovision growing up in the 1970s - the first song I can remember watching was 'Ding Dinge Dong' in 1975 - so being a songwriter and producer, entering the British competition seemed the obvious thing to do. I put in several songs during the 90s that did nothing. Then came 'All Time High' in 1999. I actually wrote that while waiting at Los Angeles international airport for a flight back to London, which sounds terribly pretentious, but it's true. I can remember writing the lyrics while having a cigarette outside the concourse, which must have taken me all of three minutes. And let's face it, it shows. Not my best work by any means, but somehow it must have struck the right chord with the judges at the time. 

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I remember coming back to my flat one night to find not one but two answerphone messages from none other than Jonathan King telling me to phone him urgently. "Oh at last" he snapped at me. "If you'd called me any later I was going to tell you it hadn't got through to the final eight." My head was spinning. Celebrity judges phoning me up was not a common occurrence. Suddenly there was so much to sort out - I had to be ready for a possible Top of the Pops performance in a matter of weeks. I phoned Ann McCabe, the lovely session singer I had booked to record the demo, to make arrangements. Not least we had to think of a name for the act - I came up with a shortlist but Ann dismissed all of my suggestions. "No, no, we need something with Energy - what about Energia?" It was perfect and I've stuck with it as a production name ever since.

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Suddenly my name appeared in Music Week, strangers were discussing my track on the internet, people were phoning and writing to me asking for promo copies. After years of trying in this business it felt like I'd arrived. Then, of course, it was narrowly beaten in the Radio 2 competition. To get so far and not actually get to perform live on TV was bitterly disappointing. Still, I decided to make the most of the opportunity so I did some remixes, pressed up a thousand CD singles and took them round to specialist shops and clubs. The record was even stocked in Oxford Street's Virgin Megastore during Eurovision week. It was played in gay clubs and made the top five of a club chart published in Boyz magazine. It really was the launchpad for my career and I've had many club hits with Energia since then.

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You've worked with another Eurovision-related artist too

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Yes, Irina Gligor, who co-wrote and performed the Romanian entry with Sanda in 2004. After you mentioned her to me, we made contact and met up in a dance studio in London, and immediately hit it off. At the time I had just written a new track "Get The Freak Out", which was based around this great, bitchy punchline "get your sad rags on and get the freak out!" It seemed perfect for a powerful singer like Irina.

 

We made a video with Irina driving across London with her 'ex' tied up in the boot. Great fun and it was shown on a number of music video channels. It also got quite a bit of UK airplay. Then, just as the record appeared to have peaked, something extraordinary happened. Irina emailed me to say the song had been chosen to represent the UK in the Euro Video Grand Prix 2006. 

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So you got to represent the United Kingdom after all. What was that like?

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Absolutely amazing. The Euro Video Grand Prix was a Eurovision-style event, held in Albania in 2006. Many countries sent their Eurovision representatives of the year - Dima Bilan performed for Russia with "Never Let You Go", Romania sent Mihai Traistariu with "Tornero", Croatia had "Moja Stikla" by Severina. So it was kind of a 'second chance' contest, but based around the video rather than just the song. Each artist performed live on stage, just like ESC, but with the video also shown on a giant screen behind. For a small country, Albania managed to put on an outstanding show, just as slick and professional as Eurovision itself is these days. The BBC didn't show it, but it was broadcast in over 20 countries across Europe.

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Irina put together a backing group with two other girls and had a terrific dance routine. The atmosphere backstage was great, very friendly. The only downside was the very partisan voting from the Eastern European-biased judging panel. Sadly, not a single Western European country received any points, so I now know how Jemini felt. However, the same fate applied to many other countries so we didn't feel too bad. 

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What are you up to now?

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I've recently released a new single on iTunes called "This Game". The track is a re-working of an old 80s record. I've actually done the vocals myself on this one - for the first time since my early days when I was lead singer in a few bands in the 1990s - so I've briefly come out of retirement and started performing again. The video was filmed partly in the London Underground, which was a novel experience with people coming up to ask who I was and wanting to take photographs of me... which doesn't happen often! We've also sent a team of models out on to the streets to promote the song - our 'Biondi Bombshells' - with video screens attached playing the track. There's going to be a feature on it in Nuts magazine, and it also reached number nine in the official Music Week upfront club chart.  

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Would you ever enter Eurovision again?

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If the BBC asked me, yes. There's no open competition these days, so you have to get asked. But if they are reading this and want to get in touch, who knows?!

 

Watch the videos for 'Get The Freak Out' and 'This Game' here.