Sunday 16 September 2018

Week 3 Pt 1: No Super Star.

As the Queen's We Will Rock You slams out of the speakers you get the feeling that this week the producers have extracted the heavier rock style contestants for us.

At first glance Richard Ryan, who's first up this evening, doesn't seem to fit the rock mould, though, with his likeable attitude and talking about his nan. He does, however, come up with a decent cover of I Believe In A Thing Called Love but lacks the original's individual style. He has a good voice but this doesn't quite work. Louis Walsh would have loved him. Simon doesn't but he still gets through.

We have also learned this week that there will be no Boot Camp. Yippee! After 14 years someone has finally listened. I have been going on for years about the need to get rid of that section when the TV time is taken up by anything but singing and has been really tedious and often quite annoying, doing little to help those who may need a bit of extra support to shine in future rounds.

It seems likely that those who get through these beefed up auditions will simply be selected for the next stage by the panel looking again at all of what they produced so far. No doubt there'll be some other advisors too and even some other work or performances elsewhere will be available to take into consideration and even comments on social media!

Even blogs like this, who knows.

Next up is a chap called Gio. He is a more obvious rocker by appearance with chunky build and long flowing hair. He just looks like a young Meat Loaf. He has a great voice and seems to have bags of confidence on the big stage too but there's almost no response at all from the audience. Although he was a bit brash in a way, I would have expected a few supporters or fans to be cheering at least. I have to wonder whether this has also been staged and the audience were told to give him a hard time at first. Anyway, he gets a second go. Doing Iris is often a good idea and he gets a bit more support now. I didn't rate the second performance as much better but they're cheering and he's through. I reckon he'd be better suited to the West End stage and learn while writing this that he has actually been the lead in Jesus Christ SuperStar!

Scott is a bit painful to watch. This guy is ridiculously over-confident and seems to think he will have the girls falling at his feet as soon as he's on the stage. It's a weird, very weird act. He's out.

Armstrong is an interesting entrant. Cool guy with shades and a guitar that matches the sheen on his jacket. He talks about a lot of time in church and has a group of religious people supporting him clappily in the audience and with Dermot. He sings an unusual track Breaking Free from High School Musical. Does a good job. Messy in parts but he is sufficiently talented and individual to stand out this evening.

Next we have a huge pile of youngsters in the LMA Choir. I reckon they should be on BGT not X Factor but never mind. They're pretty good. Passionate and with some good individual performances. Some good people in there but as a whole I found I was confused and didn't know who to follow. They have bags of energy and should make good TV.

Georgia is a great act, Janice Joplin-style perhaps. I like her. A bit strained in places but she's good and could sell records too. Watch out for her.

Saphy Francisco is from the Philippines and sings The Prayer. She thinks she is guided by the Lord and all that. Oh dear. Half way through she changes and sings in a man's voice. That was odd. She does a sort of duo with herself. Not sure I really liked that and I started to wonder whether she might actually be a bloke.

Ricky is one of the few people we get some back-story about. He was homeless but got straight and married and has kids called Heavenly and Star. He does Sam Cook's A Change Is Gonna Come. He does that well and probably gets the biggest applause of the night. That just goes to show the power of a sad old story in the background. Great voice, nice attitude but I'm not sure. He may well make the Live Shows as there are few Overs of much talent so far.

Tom is the last entrant. He was nearly in One Direction as a contender in 2010 when Louis T did get in the band and he didn't. He had made Judges Houses too. You expect something good but his first song was poor and the second only a bit better. He's not that easy to watch, to be honest, with annoying expressions and really not a great singer either. He does pubs and clubs it seems and may have to carry on with them.

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