Belle and Sebastian, the Glaswegian pop band, have a new album in the pipeline–and it’s going to ooze with Eurovision inspiration.

Speaking to Rolling Stone magazine, member Stuart Murdoch gave American readers a crash-course in Eurovision….and one that isn’t so flattering.

One of the things I wanted to explore – this might seem a bit facetious, but we have this thing called a Eurovision Song Contest. For example, Abba won in 1974, and that’s how they got their big break. And that was really the last great song from Eurovision. Since then it’s been kind of a train wreck…

Way harsh, Stuart. Much of the world ate up Loreen’s ‘Euphoria’, and Gina G’s ‘Just a Little Bit’ charted everywhere, including America!

In any event, Stuart went on to say that the band’s forthcoming album builds on what he sees as some of the more positive aspects of Eurovision.

…It gives you a window into every little country, and it’s the only time that Europe gets together for this big party, and now, especially now, we have all the Russian block, eastern block countries, it’s all shifted to the East. So in a sense, I remember saying to the band, I want to do an album that one song feels like it could be the Cyprus entry for 1974. And then next song would be the German entry for 1989, or something like that. You might not see that in the finished songs, but somewhere that’s been an inspiration.

The band are just going to imagine these entries–they aren’t going to actually re-cast Cyprus 1974 or Germany 1989. But we thought it’d be fun to have a listen to those numbers anyway.

Unfortunately, Cyprus did not compete at Eurovision in 1974. However, Greece did compete with a song called “Wine, sea and my boyfriend”. It came 11th out of 17 countries with 7 points.

http://youtu.be/I4hIWW86qa0

In 1989 Nino de Angelo sand “Flieger” (Flyers) for Germany. He came 14th with 46 points.

Willy Lee Adams contributed this report from London. Follow him on Twitter @willyleeadams. You can also keep up with the latest Eurovision news and gossip by following wiwibloggs.com on Twitter and Facebook.