X-Factor: what happens to the talented?
Saturday October 8th. The day before, my mom had died. I was with my family at my parents' house, my two year-old and seven year-old nephews running round uncomprehending while the rest of us sat there, numb.
The TV wasn't on, and it was weird. The TV is always on at my parents' house: normally with an argument bubbling under about my dad watching all the fishing programmes, while mom worries about missing her prime-time TV... that she never actually watches all the way through, anyway: too busy running round, fetching tea, answering the phone, being a mom.
So, we decided we would put the TV on. We decided to watch one of mom's programmes: XFactor.
I normally can't be bothered with the likes of X-Factor. I watched the first Pop Idol, with Mom, and we loved it. Will Young's "Evergreen" was the song we walked into her funeral to. She was one of his biggest fans. I quite like him too - I've just been listening to him on Women's Hour, and he comes across as quite lovely. But I know she had been looking forward to watching X-factor that week.
The 'Bootcamp' show had been on in the background in the bar N and I had been drinking in the week before. The sound wasn't on, but from the facial expressions of Gary Barlow et al, we had gleaned enough of what was going on for me to be able to talk about the show with mom a couple of days before she died. So it was kind of for mom that we started watching XFactor... and I am now hooked by it. And just a bit troubled.
I'm going to take a punt on the act my mom would have liked, and I think that's Marcus Collins. He's cute, cheery, a great singer and is coming out of his shell a bit on the show. I think he's the sort of act she'd have rooted for.
N and I also have our favourite. On Saturday 8th October, she sang on a platform in a silver jumpsuit, her eyes banded with makeup. She looked a bit like Darryl Hannah in Bladerunner - and she was bloody good. She sang Queen's "Who Wants to Live Forever?" - not the song to cheer you up when your mom has died, and it broke my heart how she sang it, so powerfully and emotionally. That was Kitty Brucknell.
... but then the judges said she was "controversial". What was controversial about her, we wondered? Were they not into that classic and much re-cut science fiction film? Surely the controversial one up there is Frankie Cocozza? He has ladies' names on his bum and sounds asthmatic? But the thing is, we don't read the red tops, so we had no idea that Kitty Brucknell was a character that the toilet papers are writing 'stories' about.
If that is the issue... I spoke to some of the girls in the office, and one of my colleagues said she didn't like her because: "she seemed a bit confident in her audition."
Really? In a talent competition, she came across as... confident? And that's bad?
Well I've done a bit of research.
I didn't watch that 'first' audition (actually, that would have been several auditions down the line), and it seems the singer was conscious she was acting up a little... but that's survival. I've done TV auditions myself, and having listened to people I knew who worked for TV who told me to "act crazy", I completely forgot and acted nice - which is what we are conditioned to do all our lives. But nice doesn't promise good TV. Hence I didn't get through. Ah well... they remembered Kitty and she got through.
Unfortunately, it seems the 'craziness' is what is getting Kitty noticed for all the wrong reasons too. Note: I don't think she is crazy - I think she just tried to survive in the show, but there has been a snowballing effect of negativity in the media that she now has to rise above.
I notice even The Mirror now has noticed the stories are a bit skewed as far as Kitty is concerned.
One of the funniest condemnations I have read about Kitty is that she is "fame hungry". No shit? It's X-Factor - yet it seems a lot of people want to pluck a Platinum-album selling singer from behind a pile of ironing; they want them to be humble and grateful; they don't like the triers. People like in this Mitchell and Webb sketch:
"Fame-hungry Kitty" has been on stage before. Much sought after as a Lady Gaga and Britney impersonator, as well as a singer in her own right, she's also been on TV in non-singing related roles too - like Dinner Date - in which she mentioned she was a singer.
Most people who read this blog will not raise an eyebrow. Most of my friends and associates are creative types who work in publishing, the theatre or in comedy. It's quite funny I think now, how barely a month goes by without me seeing someone I know on telly, or hearing them on the radio - perhaps not showing off their full talent; the thing they want to be known for (sometimes they are, which is nice). But doing something that shines a light on them a little brighter.
Friends of mine have been on Dinner Date, Come Dine With Me, The Big Questions, Bargain Hunt, Grand Designs, Ready Steady Cook, Fifteen to One, Only Connect, Eggheads, Total Wipeout...(and sometimes the people you see in these things are contacted by producers who are looking for interesting people for their shows, so they ask the not-yet-famous people they are aware of); they have been in ads for cider; they have had bit parts in films and TV like Hustle, Doctors... Fresh Meat; they have stood on the 4th plinth; they have been the headless shots on the news showing overweight people coming out of Greggs - and they have been proud!
And on my little corner of the internet, we all click like and get on. It's jolly nice. Makes me feel a bit like Kevin Bacon. I know those guys!
But in prime-time TV land, it's not so nice. Everyone watches, even the non-creatives (who let them?) and I have seen with my own eyes just how low people can go if they feel they are distanced enough from that face on the screen.
Some of the comments on Kitty's facebook page are actual threats. Why do people think it's okay to do this? It's because in prime-time TV land, it's like being at school. Suddenly, you are mixed in with the dole queues and unimaginative people you had to mix with at school.
And what happens to the talented at school?
They get bullied.
The TV wasn't on, and it was weird. The TV is always on at my parents' house: normally with an argument bubbling under about my dad watching all the fishing programmes, while mom worries about missing her prime-time TV... that she never actually watches all the way through, anyway: too busy running round, fetching tea, answering the phone, being a mom.
So, we decided we would put the TV on. We decided to watch one of mom's programmes: XFactor.
I normally can't be bothered with the likes of X-Factor. I watched the first Pop Idol, with Mom, and we loved it. Will Young's "Evergreen" was the song we walked into her funeral to. She was one of his biggest fans. I quite like him too - I've just been listening to him on Women's Hour, and he comes across as quite lovely. But I know she had been looking forward to watching X-factor that week.
The 'Bootcamp' show had been on in the background in the bar N and I had been drinking in the week before. The sound wasn't on, but from the facial expressions of Gary Barlow et al, we had gleaned enough of what was going on for me to be able to talk about the show with mom a couple of days before she died. So it was kind of for mom that we started watching XFactor... and I am now hooked by it. And just a bit troubled.
I'm going to take a punt on the act my mom would have liked, and I think that's Marcus Collins. He's cute, cheery, a great singer and is coming out of his shell a bit on the show. I think he's the sort of act she'd have rooted for.
N and I also have our favourite. On Saturday 8th October, she sang on a platform in a silver jumpsuit, her eyes banded with makeup. She looked a bit like Darryl Hannah in Bladerunner - and she was bloody good. She sang Queen's "Who Wants to Live Forever?" - not the song to cheer you up when your mom has died, and it broke my heart how she sang it, so powerfully and emotionally. That was Kitty Brucknell.
... but then the judges said she was "controversial". What was controversial about her, we wondered? Were they not into that classic and much re-cut science fiction film? Surely the controversial one up there is Frankie Cocozza? He has ladies' names on his bum and sounds asthmatic? But the thing is, we don't read the red tops, so we had no idea that Kitty Brucknell was a character that the toilet papers are writing 'stories' about.
If that is the issue... I spoke to some of the girls in the office, and one of my colleagues said she didn't like her because: "she seemed a bit confident in her audition."
Really? In a talent competition, she came across as... confident? And that's bad?
Well I've done a bit of research.
I didn't watch that 'first' audition (actually, that would have been several auditions down the line), and it seems the singer was conscious she was acting up a little... but that's survival. I've done TV auditions myself, and having listened to people I knew who worked for TV who told me to "act crazy", I completely forgot and acted nice - which is what we are conditioned to do all our lives. But nice doesn't promise good TV. Hence I didn't get through. Ah well... they remembered Kitty and she got through.
Unfortunately, it seems the 'craziness' is what is getting Kitty noticed for all the wrong reasons too. Note: I don't think she is crazy - I think she just tried to survive in the show, but there has been a snowballing effect of negativity in the media that she now has to rise above.
I notice even The Mirror now has noticed the stories are a bit skewed as far as Kitty is concerned.
One of the funniest condemnations I have read about Kitty is that she is "fame hungry". No shit? It's X-Factor - yet it seems a lot of people want to pluck a Platinum-album selling singer from behind a pile of ironing; they want them to be humble and grateful; they don't like the triers. People like in this Mitchell and Webb sketch:
Click to view"Fame-hungry Kitty" has been on stage before. Much sought after as a Lady Gaga and Britney impersonator, as well as a singer in her own right, she's also been on TV in non-singing related roles too - like Dinner Date - in which she mentioned she was a singer.
Most people who read this blog will not raise an eyebrow. Most of my friends and associates are creative types who work in publishing, the theatre or in comedy. It's quite funny I think now, how barely a month goes by without me seeing someone I know on telly, or hearing them on the radio - perhaps not showing off their full talent; the thing they want to be known for (sometimes they are, which is nice). But doing something that shines a light on them a little brighter.
Friends of mine have been on Dinner Date, Come Dine With Me, The Big Questions, Bargain Hunt, Grand Designs, Ready Steady Cook, Fifteen to One, Only Connect, Eggheads, Total Wipeout...(and sometimes the people you see in these things are contacted by producers who are looking for interesting people for their shows, so they ask the not-yet-famous people they are aware of); they have been in ads for cider; they have had bit parts in films and TV like Hustle, Doctors... Fresh Meat; they have stood on the 4th plinth; they have been the headless shots on the news showing overweight people coming out of Greggs - and they have been proud!
And on my little corner of the internet, we all click like and get on. It's jolly nice. Makes me feel a bit like Kevin Bacon. I know those guys!
But in prime-time TV land, it's not so nice. Everyone watches, even the non-creatives (who let them?) and I have seen with my own eyes just how low people can go if they feel they are distanced enough from that face on the screen.
Some of the comments on Kitty's facebook page are actual threats. Why do people think it's okay to do this? It's because in prime-time TV land, it's like being at school. Suddenly, you are mixed in with the dole queues and unimaginative people you had to mix with at school.
And what happens to the talented at school?
They get bullied.