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

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 in the 90s which did nothing. Then came ‘All Time High’ in 1999. I actually wrote that whilst 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 whilst having a cigarette outside the concourse, which must have taken me all of 3 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.

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 8.’ 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 appearance in a matter of weeks. I phoned up 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.

Suddenly my name was in print 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 made some remixes, pressed up a thousand CD singles and took them round to specialist shops and clubs. The record was stocked in Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street during Eurovision week. It was played in gay clubs and made the top 5 of a club chart published in ‘Boyz’ magazine. It was the launch-pad for my career, really, and I’ve had many club hits with Energia since then.

You’ve worked with another Eurovision-related artist too haven’t you?

Yes, Irina Gligor, who co-wrote and performed the Romanian entry with Sanda in 2004. She wrote me a very nice letter a couple of years ago, we 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 the 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.

So you got to represent the United Kingdom after all – what was that like?

Absolutely amazing. The Euro Video Grand Prix was a Eurovision-style event held in Albania for the first time 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 like at the ESC but with the video also shown on a giant screen behind. For a small country they managed to put on an outstanding show, just as slick and professional as the ESC itself is these days. The BBC didn’t show it but it was broadcast in over 20 countries across Europe.

Irina put together a backing group with two other girls and had a terrific dance routine.

The atmosphere backstage was great, very friendly. Mihai was ever so nice, he took some pictures of me with the girls. The only downside was the very partisan voting from the Eastern European-biased judging panel. There was supposed to be a panellist for each country, but really it was a farce – for example our ‘British’ judge was actually someone with a Croatian-sounding name who is unheard of in the UK. Sadly not a single Western European country received any points, so I now know how Gemini felt. However the same fate applied to many other countries, so we didn’t feel too bad.

What are you up to now?

I have a new single out on Itunes on 13^th August, ‘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 – people came up asking 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 track – our ‘Biondi Bombshells’ - with video screens attached playing the track. There’s going to be a feature on it in ‘Nuts’ magazine. It also reached number 9 in the official Music Week upfront club chart.

Would you ever enter Eurovision again?

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