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| Saturday 20th September - What The Panel Said |
After all that hard work and practice during the week, you sing
your heart out for three minutes and then what do you get? Yes, it's over to
the panel!!
Click on any of the links below and find out what
pearls of wisdom the tutors had in store for the students this week...
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| Patrick Kielty: Head teacher has his hand up... we will let him speak. |
| Richard Park: Well I might as well, erm, open the batting young Mr Kielty and say that that is a beautiful love song as Stevie Wonder wrote it, my issue with it where Alistair is concerned is it's a little high and a little whiney, and as we come to the stage in this competition where its quarter-final night really, and a semi-final and a final to come, I can't agree with the feeling that's growing or a feeling which you could say Patrick 'is abroad', erm, that Alistair is going to be the winner. But I do know he's looked deep inside himself, and I do know he actually sang the song at the right pace, and you know I'm never going to decry that aspect of it, it's not my cup of tea, it's too high-pitched, too nasal, too wh… |
| Patrick Kielty (interjects): You thought he whined? |
| Richard Park: Yes I did think it was whiney at the top. (boos from the audience). |
| Alistair: 'A little high and a little whiney. Reminds me of someone?' |
| [Patrick hands Alistair the microphone hoping for more of the same!] |
| David Grant: What I will say is this, that erm, Alistair as Richard was saying just then, I think that you know, Alistair was sort of way back in the pack a few weeks ago. I think he's probably the front runner now, and as such I am looking for better performances (Richard interjects: 'objection Your Honour!') …excuse me, wo wo wo wo! It's just an opinion. I'm looking for a performance like I said to him, I know he can sing, I'm looking to believe that he means it. What I felt with that was, that vocally I thought it was good, emotionally I'm looking for more, emotionally to me it was a mile wide and an inch deep. I really wanted to believe that he'd been there, that he lived it, and that he was telling me about this story and I didn't believe that. |
| Patrick Kielty: Okay, not enough emotion for you, what about you Robin? |
| Robin Gibb: I actually liked the performance of the song. If I heard that on the radio (cheers from the audience) if you hear a voice like that on the radio you're going to say that guys got a good voice... and that's where it ends. |
| Carrie Grant: A number of years ago I worked with an artist who also had a good voice and was a great songwriter, but he lacks charisma, and what they did was they put four people around him, they called the band "Take That" and it ended up being very successful. What Alistair has, he has a great voice, like Gary Barlow did, in fact very similar to Gary Barlow, but… |
| Patrick Kielty (interjects): are we saying Alistair is Gary Barlow? |
| Carrie Grant: …I would say, well listen, (Alistair shakes his head), he writes and wrote great songs. The point is if Alistair wins this competition, yes he'll have a couple of big singles off the back of this television show (but) we're looking for a long-term artist. |
| Patrick Kielty: Is that good enough to win it though? |
| Carrie Grant: I think the public are voting for what they want to vote, so I'm... I don't pick up the phone, so... Is it good enough to have a long-term career, No! No! |
| Richard Park (interjects after Carrie's comments): I think erm, just to pick up David on one issue, I mean, I think, I don't know where he gets the information 'Alistair's the front runner'? There isn't a front runner, people will be (David tries to speak) let me finish this time David... people will be voting this evening on what they see. Now he thinks Alistair is the front runner, my advice to the viewers this evening is 'stay tuned, watch and you'll see him proved wrong'! |
| Patrick Kielty: Okay, all right, well we'll see, do you agree with Richard Park? I dare you folks to agree with Richard Park. Er, pick up the phone if you think this guy is good enough to make it through to next week. Give it up for Alistair! |
| Patrick Kielty: Okay I know you've had a tough week and Richard Park for the last couple of weeks has been nice, let's see if that's going to continue this week. |
| Richard Park: I'm going for the hat trick, well done Carolynne, you did better there than I thought you would do. Celine Dion is an artist who has always obviously put her stamp on that particular song, but there, you gave that something extra actually, er, I don't know what it is, I think you've had a difficult week inside the Academy, as we've seen you shed more tears than, I think, anybody I've ever seen in this Academy. However, deep down inside you, I think there lurks a very interesting, not to say quite exciting person, and I think you delivered that song in that style tonight, and I would imagine people watching the screen just now would say, you know, that you do have something and you do have a future. (Applause from the audience) |
| David Grant: I've been spending as much time as I can with Carolynne this week, which isn't a lot 'cause she's not one of my students…because when I saw that she was going to sing this song I thought it was suicide. There are some songs you just don't sing, she sang it and you know what? I think she did it really well, I'm shocked! (Audience applaud) |
| Robin Gibb: I think you did very well. Erm, I think you've got one of those voices, when you find the right song you excel. You started off on the show doing songs that didn't quite work with your voice, but now you've found your form, it's working. |
| Patrick Kielty: (to Carolynne) You happy with that yourself? |
| Carolynne: Definitely, definitely happy with that (nodding) |
| Patrick Kielty: (to Carolynne)You've a big grin on your face, is it going to continue Carrie? |
| Carrie Grant: I think week on week Carolynne is really building an identity and a sound and I think your voice has improved so much, to be honest all the big moments of that song … the audience was clapping so much that we could barely hear the n.., the sound, I'm hoping it was great, but judging by the response hopefully it was. (Carolynne crosses her fingers) |
| Patrick Kielty: Let's see if he's crying after this... Richard? |
| Richard Park: Sorry James, truly appalling, not in tune (jeers from the audience -- James smiles resignedly) |
| Patrick Kielty: Now hold on, Richard, it may be many things but it's not 'truly appalling' c'mon? |
| Richard Park: That is my opinion Patrick, let's not start this again, that is my opinion, I thought that was truly appalling, it was out of tune, it was an extremely dated (cries of 'rubbish')... it was an extremely dated, a dated rendition, and, and James, when John Lennon wrote that song for Yono… and shortly he died, not that very long afterwards... |
| Patrick Kielty: Who's Yono, would that be like Yoko or Ono? |
| Richard Park: Yoko Ono... |
| Patrick Kielty: Yono, I like the way you're shortening that! |
| Richard Park: Patrick I'm trying to be extremely serious here, one of the greatest musicians this country ever had died in New York, before he died he wrote that song about Yoko. It's got depth, you know in fact actually it has magical qualities. We heard none of them here tonight, and nobody can tell me otherwise. |
| Patrick Kielty: okay, okay, let's, let's (looks up) okay they're heckling, munchkin's heckling from the balcony here, so let's James i... |
| Richard Park: She's entitled to an opinion just like I am, that's what we're here for. |
| Patrick Kielty: you are, but people don't necessarily need to agree with it... James what do you reckon to that? |
| Richard Park: well you never do that's for sure. (Audience laughs) |
| Patrick Kielty: Maybe that's because... no... I'm not... |
| Richard Park: Don't go there! Don't go there! Just keep compering! |
| Patrick Kielty: I'm not... I'm not going there! I'm not going there! (Jonathan Ross in the audience looks very amused!) |
| James: he obviously wasn't listening while I was… I couldn't have put any more emotion into that... I didn't have... it wasn't, didn't have to force is out it was just there, you know what I mean... |
| Richard Park: But James...obviously that was a….. |
| Patrick Kielty: okay now let's give someone else a chance here... |
| Patrick Kielty: David let's try and get some sanity back into this |
| Richard Park: (interjects) I beg your pardon? |
| David Grant: Okay now …. one of the things about James that I think has been lacking, and I've said it's been lacking, has been that he's been affecting emotion and not actually feeling emotion. Or certainly when I watched the playbacks I don't feel that he's giving emotion. The thing that separates this song, and stops it from being a cheesy love song, the only thing that stops it … is the heart and the emotion. And I actually watched that performance and believed that he meant it! (Audience cheers) |
| Robin Gibb: I know you're trying to do your best on each performance, it still didn't have what you really need to break out into that magic land which, you know, is going to give you a long career. That's just the way; based again on this performance tonight. |
| Patrick Kielty: Okay Carrie? |
| Carrie Grant: I actually feel sorry for James, because I think he's a fantastic guy. But week on week we're seeing people grow and build and I just don't think that that is good enough. I don't know what James's market is -- I do agree with Richard in that I think it was slightly dated. I think it looked like a dated performance, and I have to disagree with David, but I don't think it showed real emotion. |
| David Grant: (again) but the one thing I do think is that passion is never dated. If you sing a song with passion then it's real, and I think he did. |
| Patrick Kielty: Okay, who's going to start this? |
| Carrie Grant: We were looking for a performance where you could sing and dance, because last week he proved you could sing and that was a long time coming. So tonight he had to put the two things together and you did. Well done! (Audience cheers) |
| David Grant: You know what? Erm, last week's singing was really good, this week's singing was, you know, good in parts but it was a great performance, but what I want to say is actually... what Peter has loads of, that I think you need to be a star outside of this place is charisma, he's got effortless charisma. When he's onstage you can't help but watch him. And I thought that that performance was great because he was eminently watchable, if he'd have been going for another five minutes I'd have been watching him. |
| Patrick Kielty: Peter's actually just put his hand on my... excuse me Sir! |
| Peter: I just wanted to see a reaction... |
| Patrick Kielty: No that's fine... it's fine, err... Richard. |
| Richard Park: just a bit too similar every week is my view and I think we have actually seen that one before... |
| Carrie Grant: (interjects) what do think that was the same as last week then? |
| Richard Park: Yeah, I think we are now getting Carrie... variations on a theme and I'm a bit concerned because I've been a great backer of yours and I think what the music business needs in general in this country, is to find somebody young up and coming, who can really crack it... but there needs to be a bit of diversity and a different, I think, set of thoughts in your performance sometimes. Just to go and do the leap for us four or five times every week is not enough. So I've got some concerns as to whether or not... (Jonathan Ross's hands suddenly appear on Richard's shoulders!) |
| Patrick Kielty: Can I,... can I? ... easy Jonathan! |
| Richard Park: ... he'll be holding his place in the Academy. Now the one thing I will say is that that's a Goth song if we're talking musical background... (Jonathan Ross laughs) |
| Patrick Kielty: I think we know that... |
| Richard Park: Whereas you have come over as being from the Indie-Rock field, so I'm going to take 10% of my criticism off, because you know, you ain't Goth, you're Indie-Rock. |
| Patrick Kielty: Okay, I think we can safely say by Jonathan trying to strangle Richard Park that you have the support of Jonathan Ross. Do you have the support of Robin Gibb? |
| Robin Gibb: Well I've always thought you have a great presence, great energy and that's come across tonight. I think that's going to stand you in good stead for a long career. |
| Patrick Kielty: Is it going to be good enough because he did a hell of a performance last week and still ended up in the bottom three?... |
| Robin Gibb: I want to wait to see what the people at home say erm, I thought it was a pretty good performance. |
| Carrie Grant: (interjects) I think his younger voters like seeing him jump around, so he had a nice mixture of the two tonight. |
| David Grant: (interjects) Can I also make a point that doing variations on a theme erm, is what they used to call in my day 'having a style'. You know you would actually come out and you would 'have a style', so you would imprint your style on things 'n' I think he's got a style. |
| Richard Park: Yeah... but... but this Academy is about people learning different skills and showing us different sides to their character and I just think, as I've just said David, I think it's erm too much too often. |
| Patrick Kielty: Okay, is it too much too often, is he going to be in the bottom three? The only way you can keep them out of it is pick up the phone... |
| Patrick Kielty: …Lets go to our teachers... |
| David Grant: Okay, now Alex didn't give a great performance last week and she needed a good performance tonight, because contrary to what I think is popular opinion, I think people think that Alex is away upfront, and I don't think that that's necessarily the case... so she needed a good performance. I think that that performance was excellent (audience cheers). And the reason I thought it was excellent it's because she got vocal identity, she got performance identity, and I believed her! She actually stood there, and she makes you believe that she understands everything that she's singing. She sings the song like she wrote it. |
| Robin Gibb: Well I think it's because you have style, and I think that comes through with everything you do so, that's an important thing for an artist to have and you've got it and that was a good performance. |
| Carrie Grant: Well, like David said Alex has really struggled, actually for the past couple of weeks and that was a wonderful reminder for me of how intense you are when you really are into a lyric of a song. It's that intensity that we as the public, certainly for me, just sitting up here, not just as a vocal coach but as a fan, I love your style... that gives me goose bumps, and that's great when you move people. That charisma moves people, that feeling and that emotion is what touches people and that is what music's about. |
| Patrick Kielty: Okay, quickly Richard... |
| Richard Park: Yeah, I think the er, the greatest quality in this evening's performance, which was by no means perfect all the way through as Alex will know, and I don't want to you know, join the happy clappy atmosphere because I know you like a factual critique and there were moments when you and I would be a bit nervous. However, what really did come through is you were moody, you were sensual, you were mesmerising and resultantly people at this moment are picking up their phones, and as I said to David Grant earlier on I suspected it would be a better performance than the one that he thought Alistair gave, you gave it, you were the best! |
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