Alumni Memories: Eurovision 1967

Posted on: 18 April 2023 by Development and Alumni Relations Team in 2023

To mark the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest, which this year Liverpool is proudly hosting on behalf of Ukraine, we asked alumni to contact us with their special Eurovision memories.

Patricia Dawson nee Bellerby (1963 BA Hons History) (pictured above) got in touch to tell us about her Eurovision memory from 1967, a significant year for the UK in Eurovision history.

After graduating in 1963, Pat became a History teacher at a secondary school in Cumbria. She remembers fondly a field trip she made with twenty of her 4^th Year (Year 10) students to Hadrian’s Wall in the spring of 1967.

Back then, their experiences were somewhat different to the school trips of today. “We went on the Friday, travelling in the School Meals’ vans. There were no seat belts in those days and no admin to fill in in case of accidents. We also went prepared with our first meal – pies cooked by the Domestic Science department.”

Pat and her students set up their base at the local primary school, close to Hadrian’s Wall, where they had basic school camping gear and slept on the floor.

They spent Saturday exploring the Wall and learning more about Roman history before heading back to their base at the school. That night, as they all settled down to enjoy fish and chips from the local chippy, they located the school’s television and tuned in to watch the Eurovision Song Contest which was being broadcast from Vienna, Austria. It was 8 April 1967, and the UK was about to make history by winning the Contest for the first time.

Pat remembers the excitement as “we watched a barefooted Sandy Shaw win with ‘Puppet on a String’.” Sandy was one of the most successful singers of the 1960s and ‘Puppet on a String’ would go on to become her third No.1 single, following a landslide victory at Eurovision. It became a huge hit across the world, selling more than 4 million copies, and marked the first of the UK’s five victories.

Sandie Shaw performing 'Puppet On A String' at the Eurovision Song Contest. Photograph Rolls Press/Popperfoto, 1967, Vienna. © Courtesy of Getty Images 

Clearly the trip and the evening spent watching Eurovision, made a lasting impression on Pat and her former students. As Pat recalls, “Those pupils are now in their 70s but still write to me about our school trips, and especially Eurovision 1967.” 

P.S. 2023 will mark a special anniversary for Pat, as it will be 60 years since she was awarded her degree. She was the first in her family to go to university and fondly remembers her grandmother, who had left school at 13 to work in a mill in Leeds, coming to her graduation ceremony. And now Pat’s grand-daughter, who is currently studying at the University, is proudly carrying on the family tradition. We'd like to send Pat our congratulations as she marks her diamond graduation anniversary.