Boot Camp

Double trouble on Saturday night with not one but two editions of X Factor as the boot camp section of the series takes centre stage.

Part One

Trevor, who had impressed me in the audition shows, turned up to boot camp looking like the Milky Bar Kid which was rather disconcerting and certainly didn’t sound as good as he had earlier.

It quickly seemed to me that hardly anyone sounded as good as they had done, having to pick from five songs instead of doing their party piece. Nerves also seemed to be affecting the hopefuls in a big way and a fair few decent singers could see their chances slipping away as they lost their bottle.

We didn’t get to see enough of day one of the camp to judge whether Louis had made the right decisions but suffice to say that the Milky Bar Kid and Cry Baby Michelle got through.

The talent that Simon had to sort through looked at first glance more like a Big Brother audition than one for a talent show. Indeed from some of sounds emanating from them, we’ve heard better singers on that show.

No wonder he was struggling.

Fortunately he had some decent boy band material at his disposal with 4tune and The Brothers managing to shine. You easily imagine either of these gracing the live shows.

Addictive Ladies gave a rendition of Holler that sounded like a bunch of schoolgirls singing at the back of a bus. When singing straight to camera after having faced Simon they sounded ten times better. Odd that. They got through though although we sadly had to say goodbye to "Flabba."

Sharon’s group got off to a good start with glamour girl Michelle showing she was more than a pretty face. It soon became apparent that Sharon would have her work cut out as she had plenty of strong vocal performances to choose from.

82-year-old Dorothy, one of the stranger choices to go through, gave a version of Close to You that had to be heard to be believed and then the other stranger entrants were shown. No disrespect to any of them but I tend to feel that they took the place of people who could actually carry a tune.

As with Louis’ charges we didn’t hear enough of the performances to know whether Sharon was picking the right people.

I love the Singing Vicar though and I’m chuffed that he got through.

Part Two

Now we get down to the real nitty gritty. From here on in there should be no bad singers and getting through or not can be down the standard of one performance and, let’s face it, the individual taste of each judge.

Certainly Louis was faced with a multitude of riches as he was faced with whittling down his final twenty-one to just seven.

Trevor certainly seemed to have got back on the ball and sixteen year old James also came across well, as did Michelle.

I thought that Chenai should have gone through last year and still really like her voice. She deserves her shot.

I thought that Always On My Mind was a lousy choice of song for the youth category. It didn’t really suit many of those trying to show their voices at their best.

It was heartbreaking to see James disintegrate before our eyes but he obviously has talent and he’s young enough to bounce back from the disappointment. We may not have heard the last of him.

I was sad that Michelle and Daniel didn’t make it. I think they’d both have been a hit with Saturday night audiences.

So Louis has seven good singers to choose from but as to whether any of them has that special something that makes a star remains to be seen.

Simon’s a hard taskmaster and you can bet that his gesture of giving his charges a free bar the night before day two was designed to weed out the weaker acts.

Mr. Cowell seemed quite enamoured of duo Two but this is the guy that inflicted Robson and Jerome on us. The Chapman Brothers also managed to impress but there seems something a bit end of the pier about singing twins to me.

Journey South added a bit a rock vibe to proceedings and it was refreshing to hear someone capable of doing more than love ballads.

Addictive Ladies shambolic rendition of Never Ever puzzlingly pleased Simon and his entourage.

The boy band situation was getting very competitive and all three would be worthy of a place on a Saturday night. It would be brave of Simon to put all his eggs in one basket and make them his final three though.

As far as Sharon’s group is concerned, I’ve been a fan of Andy the binman since he popped on show one. I already think he’s got the X Factor and he’s easily my favourite.

It was surprising to see Pop Idol/Eurovision veteran Haifa fluff her audition and she wasn’t the only one to struggle with Walk On By.

Blushing bride Maria sounded very impressive to me.

The singing vicar got sent home. Major mistake! He could have been the novelty act of the year. Still could be. Sign him up someone.

As for Chico making the Sharon’s last seven, what is she on? (Must read her autobiography to find out.)

Great boot camp shows, can’t wait till next week.