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Aug. 19th, 2007 07:46 pmWent to Vanessa's last night for the opening show of X Factor 4. Jade was already there when I arrived; Ness served drinks all round and we all caught up with each other's news. Ness had done us proud with a decent spread of nibbles including cheese and McCoy's crisps. Across the course of the evening we only got through about two-thirds of it; Ness constantly exhorted us to help ourselves to more.
When the first auditionee they showed sang horrendously, Jade and I laughed, Ness groaned and said "It's not going to get even worse, is it? I'd want to go home [if she were a judge]". The next few were also awful, and when Simon appeared on screen to say no-one whatsoever from the first day had gone through, Jade wondered what would happen to the show if absolutely every auditionee was rubbish.
That burden was gloriously lifted after the first ad break when a wonderful girl group called W4 passed their audition in style. As well as their great voices and charismatic stage presence, I liked their wearing English, Scottish and Welsh flags as dresses (I know that the girls said they were to represent their own nationalities, but I still wish that, as there were five of them, instead of having two Scots and two Welsh they'd included a Northern Ireland flag and an Irish flag). I turned to Jade and Vanessa and said "Well, I know now who I'm supporting."
"Already?" Jade was most amused.
I liked the brother-sister duo Same Difference too, and their choice of song - I'll Be There For You - took me straight back to Mariehamn and Jan's Addiction including their feelgood if lyrically-challenged rendition of it in all their sets!
As soon as Sharon and Simon appeared on screen to say the atmosphere was wrong and there was something not quite right with the judging panel, Jade immediately exclaimed "LOUIS!" Of course we all knew he was coming back, though seeing the full story last night I'm not convinced taking Louis back on was the right decision. Having decided to take the bold step of replacing Louis, I do think the X Factor team should have stood by it. Bringing him back was backtracking. It looked like Brian Friedman was keen to leave, but for me the obvious person to step into the breach would have been Pete Waterman.
Jade said she missed Kate Thornton. I admit I thought she was a good presenter, but in these early weeks when the presenter is just a narrator I don't find it makes a great deal of difference. "I'm sure we'll get used to Dermot," I replied. Jade said she'd really miss Kate when it came to the final 12's live shows, and added that she didn't like Dermot on BBLB. Without going into the grisly details of how my love of BB fell apart, I concurred that I hadn't liked him on last year's.
When Dermot introduced a bit on how the age limit for the contest has been dropped to 14, I said I wondered if Paris, the 14-year-old girl who auditioned last year, sang beautifully and passed, then immediately admitted her under-age status, would come back this time. So when they showed us Emily, told by Simon "You're the first ever 14-year-old to audition for The X Factor," I smiled "Oh no she isn't." That didn't stop Dermot repeating the mistake.
When 17-year-old Zoe failed her audition and flounced out still giving out attitude, Ness said she reminded her of Vicky Pollard. Then, when out of the audition room, she hurled herself against the wall angrily crying, I said she was like Nikki from BB7. Jade found that highly amusing.
From about two-thirds of the way through the main show, and all through The Xtra Factor, Ness and Jade decided they'd rather have a good Doris than concentrate on the show. Of course I joined in the conversation, to be sociable and because they are friends of mine. We mostly covered relationships of theirs past and present, with forays into musical tastes and the relative merits of living alone, living with a lover and living with a housemate. Jade being there, local radio and TV nostalgia also put in an appearance. An upshot was that events on the programme became hard to follow and we never quite got why Fearne was talking to people on the street while a 'Talentometer' counted, or why someone was suddenly playing a didgeridoo, or why Nikki from BB7 (speak of the devil), Vanessa Feltz, Tony Blackburn and (yes!) Onca Judge from last year's auditions were standing on the X and making barbed comments.
I was very impressed with Fearne Cotton's presentation of The Xtra Factor. I can live without Kate Thornton given Fearne as the trade-off (with Kate being replaced by Dermot on the main show, for Xtra Factor they had to replace Ben Shepherd with something for the boys).
The original plan had been for Jade and me to go home around 10pm, but Ness was loth for us to break up the party. As I'd intended to go home in order to watch Sounds of '69 on Channel 4 at 11.05, I asked Ness if we could watch it and she was all too willing - in fact she was quite curious to hear the music, and stories behind it, of a time when she was a baby. (During the programme, Jade and I trumped that by pointing out that we weren't even conceived!)
So we filled up the time with some music from Vanessa's collection, more drinks and, at Ness's urging, another visit to the nibbles table. We agreed we'd meet again at Jade's on 15 September, Jade observing that I'm not in a position to invite them round to mine.
"No, not much chance of clearing the parents out for a whole Saturday evening," I said.
"Give them a tenner and tell them to go to the pictures," replied Ness, melting into hysterics as she said it.
We quite enjoyed Sounds of '69, though Jade forcefully voiced her disapproval of Lily The Pink and Two Little Boys. At the end of the show we all said our fond goodbyes and I walked home to watch the late night repeats of X Factor and Xtra Factor to find out what actually happened. It turned out that Nikki, Ms Feltz et al had been auditioning to be an X Factor judge. I wondered whether those two ladies' extreme displeasure at not being selected was just an act for the cameras, and indeed whether having them and Onca Judge in to audition at all was a stunt, as they must surely have known that, since an X Factor judge has to mentor several of the contestants, someone in the music business would be chosen (so Tony Blackburn, with 40 years' knowledge of pop music, was the only one to stand a chance).
And so to bed at 2.40 - then out of it, panda-eyed, at 8 am this morning as I had to be at Westleigh Park by 11, since, when it had become clear this week that I wasn't going to raise the train fare to the Tooting game on 2 September, I'd decided I'd take up Trevor's offer of a lift to the girls' friendlies for today's game at Hassocks.
Great news when I met up with Rob and Lisa - they've now acquired a minibus for away games, so Trevor no longer has to fill his car up with players, and Trev said he'd be happy to give me lifts to Tooting and Milton Keynes. Lisa thanked me for my part in their visit to the Mayor of Havant's Parlour and said Vic, the Mayor, was "a lovely man". All the girls said hello and were pleased to see me again. Jodie was looking rather attractive ;-)
I travelled in Trevor's car with Dick, the girls' new coach. When I mentioned the story of the boxes full of old footy programmes I was still looking to out, and explained that at the moment I don't have 10 hours free to catalogue them all one by one and list them all individually on ebay, Trevor said Simon might be willing to buy them for the HawkSupport shop. I'd already thought of mentioning them to Simon, so said I'd talk to him at the next home game I make it to.
We stopped in Henfield, at what was shown on the road sign as 'Services' but was not a service station, just a common or garden petrol station. They did, though, sell a few items of hot food, including a large sausage roll, so that, plus a flapjack and a bottle of Spar American cola, was fine by me (we'd been warned we were playing at a school pitch where there'd be no facilities).
Before the game Becky, Kay and I had a quick chat. Becky mentioned that she was going back to work in a fortnight, so I asked what she did and she said she'd been working with Jodie.
"What line of business is Jodie in?"
"Cleaner."
"And a stripper," Kay added.
Hawks won 8-2, with Lisa Cooper notching a hat-trick and Jodie also getting on the score sheet :-D It was another encouraging performance after last week's thrashing of Frome Town, and Dick's new ideas seem to be bearing fruit. The game threatened to get a bit needly in the second half thanks to a couple of lairy Hassocks players, but apart from Jenna F being booked by a myopic referee for losing her balance and falling over, nothing major happened.
We stopped at The Sussex Pad in Shoreham on the way back for drinks and crisps generously purchased by Trevor.
It's good to be back with the girls again.
When the first auditionee they showed sang horrendously, Jade and I laughed, Ness groaned and said "It's not going to get even worse, is it? I'd want to go home [if she were a judge]". The next few were also awful, and when Simon appeared on screen to say no-one whatsoever from the first day had gone through, Jade wondered what would happen to the show if absolutely every auditionee was rubbish.
That burden was gloriously lifted after the first ad break when a wonderful girl group called W4 passed their audition in style. As well as their great voices and charismatic stage presence, I liked their wearing English, Scottish and Welsh flags as dresses (I know that the girls said they were to represent their own nationalities, but I still wish that, as there were five of them, instead of having two Scots and two Welsh they'd included a Northern Ireland flag and an Irish flag). I turned to Jade and Vanessa and said "Well, I know now who I'm supporting."
"Already?" Jade was most amused.
I liked the brother-sister duo Same Difference too, and their choice of song - I'll Be There For You - took me straight back to Mariehamn and Jan's Addiction including their feelgood if lyrically-challenged rendition of it in all their sets!
As soon as Sharon and Simon appeared on screen to say the atmosphere was wrong and there was something not quite right with the judging panel, Jade immediately exclaimed "LOUIS!" Of course we all knew he was coming back, though seeing the full story last night I'm not convinced taking Louis back on was the right decision. Having decided to take the bold step of replacing Louis, I do think the X Factor team should have stood by it. Bringing him back was backtracking. It looked like Brian Friedman was keen to leave, but for me the obvious person to step into the breach would have been Pete Waterman.
Jade said she missed Kate Thornton. I admit I thought she was a good presenter, but in these early weeks when the presenter is just a narrator I don't find it makes a great deal of difference. "I'm sure we'll get used to Dermot," I replied. Jade said she'd really miss Kate when it came to the final 12's live shows, and added that she didn't like Dermot on BBLB. Without going into the grisly details of how my love of BB fell apart, I concurred that I hadn't liked him on last year's.
When Dermot introduced a bit on how the age limit for the contest has been dropped to 14, I said I wondered if Paris, the 14-year-old girl who auditioned last year, sang beautifully and passed, then immediately admitted her under-age status, would come back this time. So when they showed us Emily, told by Simon "You're the first ever 14-year-old to audition for The X Factor," I smiled "Oh no she isn't." That didn't stop Dermot repeating the mistake.
When 17-year-old Zoe failed her audition and flounced out still giving out attitude, Ness said she reminded her of Vicky Pollard. Then, when out of the audition room, she hurled herself against the wall angrily crying, I said she was like Nikki from BB7. Jade found that highly amusing.
From about two-thirds of the way through the main show, and all through The Xtra Factor, Ness and Jade decided they'd rather have a good Doris than concentrate on the show. Of course I joined in the conversation, to be sociable and because they are friends of mine. We mostly covered relationships of theirs past and present, with forays into musical tastes and the relative merits of living alone, living with a lover and living with a housemate. Jade being there, local radio and TV nostalgia also put in an appearance. An upshot was that events on the programme became hard to follow and we never quite got why Fearne was talking to people on the street while a 'Talentometer' counted, or why someone was suddenly playing a didgeridoo, or why Nikki from BB7 (speak of the devil), Vanessa Feltz, Tony Blackburn and (yes!) Onca Judge from last year's auditions were standing on the X and making barbed comments.
I was very impressed with Fearne Cotton's presentation of The Xtra Factor. I can live without Kate Thornton given Fearne as the trade-off (with Kate being replaced by Dermot on the main show, for Xtra Factor they had to replace Ben Shepherd with something for the boys).
The original plan had been for Jade and me to go home around 10pm, but Ness was loth for us to break up the party. As I'd intended to go home in order to watch Sounds of '69 on Channel 4 at 11.05, I asked Ness if we could watch it and she was all too willing - in fact she was quite curious to hear the music, and stories behind it, of a time when she was a baby. (During the programme, Jade and I trumped that by pointing out that we weren't even conceived!)
So we filled up the time with some music from Vanessa's collection, more drinks and, at Ness's urging, another visit to the nibbles table. We agreed we'd meet again at Jade's on 15 September, Jade observing that I'm not in a position to invite them round to mine.
"No, not much chance of clearing the parents out for a whole Saturday evening," I said.
"Give them a tenner and tell them to go to the pictures," replied Ness, melting into hysterics as she said it.
We quite enjoyed Sounds of '69, though Jade forcefully voiced her disapproval of Lily The Pink and Two Little Boys. At the end of the show we all said our fond goodbyes and I walked home to watch the late night repeats of X Factor and Xtra Factor to find out what actually happened. It turned out that Nikki, Ms Feltz et al had been auditioning to be an X Factor judge. I wondered whether those two ladies' extreme displeasure at not being selected was just an act for the cameras, and indeed whether having them and Onca Judge in to audition at all was a stunt, as they must surely have known that, since an X Factor judge has to mentor several of the contestants, someone in the music business would be chosen (so Tony Blackburn, with 40 years' knowledge of pop music, was the only one to stand a chance).
And so to bed at 2.40 - then out of it, panda-eyed, at 8 am this morning as I had to be at Westleigh Park by 11, since, when it had become clear this week that I wasn't going to raise the train fare to the Tooting game on 2 September, I'd decided I'd take up Trevor's offer of a lift to the girls' friendlies for today's game at Hassocks.
Great news when I met up with Rob and Lisa - they've now acquired a minibus for away games, so Trevor no longer has to fill his car up with players, and Trev said he'd be happy to give me lifts to Tooting and Milton Keynes. Lisa thanked me for my part in their visit to the Mayor of Havant's Parlour and said Vic, the Mayor, was "a lovely man". All the girls said hello and were pleased to see me again. Jodie was looking rather attractive ;-)
I travelled in Trevor's car with Dick, the girls' new coach. When I mentioned the story of the boxes full of old footy programmes I was still looking to out, and explained that at the moment I don't have 10 hours free to catalogue them all one by one and list them all individually on ebay, Trevor said Simon might be willing to buy them for the HawkSupport shop. I'd already thought of mentioning them to Simon, so said I'd talk to him at the next home game I make it to.
We stopped in Henfield, at what was shown on the road sign as 'Services' but was not a service station, just a common or garden petrol station. They did, though, sell a few items of hot food, including a large sausage roll, so that, plus a flapjack and a bottle of Spar American cola, was fine by me (we'd been warned we were playing at a school pitch where there'd be no facilities).
Before the game Becky, Kay and I had a quick chat. Becky mentioned that she was going back to work in a fortnight, so I asked what she did and she said she'd been working with Jodie.
"What line of business is Jodie in?"
"Cleaner."
"And a stripper," Kay added.
Hawks won 8-2, with Lisa Cooper notching a hat-trick and Jodie also getting on the score sheet :-D It was another encouraging performance after last week's thrashing of Frome Town, and Dick's new ideas seem to be bearing fruit. The game threatened to get a bit needly in the second half thanks to a couple of lairy Hassocks players, but apart from Jenna F being booked by a myopic referee for losing her balance and falling over, nothing major happened.
We stopped at The Sussex Pad in Shoreham on the way back for drinks and crisps generously purchased by Trevor.
It's good to be back with the girls again.
