Reality Ravings

This year on Australian Idol there is a mixture of musicians who are sick of playing to empty pubs, and teenage singers who have dreamed of being on Idol since they were ten. Every year the judges always try to pump it up by saying best year ever, but this year they could right there was barely a bad performance on a night where they were to sing a song by one of their Idol's so basically singers choice.

In fact the judges should be bottom three with their weakest performane yet. They need to lift their game as there was no wit or advice given, except for them competing with each other to show their style credentials.

Wes Carr - U2 - Beautiful Day.

Birthday boy (he turned 26) Wes Carr in his montage revealed he was using Idol to get seen by a broader audience. The piano he started on appeared to be an accessory, he played about twelve bars and then got up and ditched it. As Dicko said "Why the piano?....Too gratuitous and too try hard". However he was positive about the rest of his performance.

Wes has certainly threw down the gauntlet to the other contestants that he is the one to beat. His problem will be voters thinking he will get through anyway and won't vote for him - however with the new money making machine of voting on the bottom three on Mondays will ensure he sticks around for awhile.

Kyle who appears to be angling for his own reality show on "what to wear" talked about his facial hair and hat before giving him the thumbs up.

Tom Williams - Aerosmith - Don't Want To Miss A Thing.

Pitch problems is the polite way of putting his performance, I am still wondering how this kid got through are eight year olds now voting? Can't they make a new rule that you have to have reached puberty before you audition for the show. He is trying to cash in on last years Matt Corby popularity by having the exact same haircut. Can't we flick him off to some boy band? Unfortunately for me he probably will be around for awhile.

Marcia, and Kyle liked him, and Dicko just said pick songs to suit his voice. Then they made comments on his outfit and that he should stick to jeans and t-shirts. At this point I was wishing Simon Cowell was on the judging panel as he would have shredded him.

Roshini Pridis - Josh Stone - Tell Me About It.

She was not going to be hit by nerves as she said in her montage she said she was looking forward to standing in the spotlight. This girl wants fame and fortune.

She decided to show the audience that she was not going to lay down and give the title to Wes just yet. Her voice was rocking. Made Tom Williams look like someone singing in a High School Musical not to be mistaken for THE High School Musical.

Judges gushed about it and called her sexy chocolate.

Teale Jakubenko - Rick Price - Walk Away Renee.

This guy has a personality bypass. For him love is what makes the love go around, so nice guy, but zero sex appeal. His performance was about as interesting as he is - boring. Even with the falsetto. Have I been on a Buddist Retreat for the past five years - who is Rick Price?

However Kyle had taken his happy pills tonight and loved it.
Dicko said "he needs to find more confidence ... good effort."
Marcia named dropped that Rick Price had been in her band and told Teale that he did good.

There was far too much love in the hair tonight - could one the judges please show some acerbic wit.

Sophie Patterson - Counting Crows - Mr Jones

What was happening with her eyebrows? Or was it the makeup - there looked like a big chunk then it thinned out. I like Sophie but her James Reyne style of singing where she runs her words together could get a bit annoying. However the judges did pick up on it.
Dicko said "pronouciation is a bit slovenly"
Marcia said "need to find better articulation" and "Prefers her looking funkier" She also must have thought she was going to fall on her face as she was teetering away in very high heels that even would have had Posh Spice scared to wear them.
Kyle said "Look like you have a smashing body." but "A little under done tonight"

Luke Dickens - Joe Cocker - Feeling All Right.

Apparently he now lives with 11 other people with his pregnant 20 year old girlfriend Brooke. Does DOC's need to look into this? Luke has some appeal and with his very smart song choice and normally his performance would have been enough to avoid the bottom 3. However it was a strong night so he could be in danger. But he will start to struggle when the theme weeks kick in.

Judges liked him the only negative comment was from Dicko and that was about his facial hair. Christ if I want to watch Tim Gunn's Guide To Style I will switch to Arena.

Brooke Adamo - Natasha Bedingfield - These Words

She revealed her birth father was a complete prick, but this families story appears to have a happy ending with a nice step dad. Her real dad is going to be embarrassed going to work tomorrow now it has been revealed on national tv he was a wife basher. Fantastic.

After the criticisms from the judges about doing ballads she decided to sing this light pop song. I thought it was nice it was not getting me to pick up the phone but I am sure it will appeal to the young girls.

Kyle said "Maybe you should have stuck to the ballads, though maybe not." "Not sure you gave it the same magic as Natasha does" At this point tears welled in her eyes - she needs to toughen up as they were gentle with her tonight.
Dicko said "It was a joyous performance and you have one of the best voices in the competition."

Thanh Bui - Maroon Five - This Love.
Why would a former boy band member sing a cover of a boyband song? He deserves to be eliminated because of this. Had some of the traditional boy band moves the hand near the heart, the finger pointing and the semi squat. He needed to be smacked down for it and Kyle obliged. "That was like something out of a Adam Sandler comedy movie... arrangement was dodge." and "You are much better then that."
Dicko said "You are going to have to learn to keep it simple... you over complicated it." "That was wrong"

Madam Parker - Neo - Moving Closer

Wearing the Bec Hewitt huge hooped earrings, Madam Parker looked great, and her voice was good too. But she needs to work on her conversational skills or she will be in the Casey Donovan level of monosyllabic interview style. Great voice but her lack of presence may mean she will be a casualty sooner rather then later.

Dicko loved her " Loved the way you commit physically to the song"
Marcia "Fantastic"
Kyle "You are on fire."

Jonny Taylor - Pearl Jam - Better Man

I know he was in a car crash but the song was a train wreck. He sang it like he was jamming in a garage - he looked like he needed a band behind him and indeed he kept on looking back at them.He really needs to be attacked by the Maybelline Girls or at least brush his hair.

Kyle enjoyed it.
Dicko named drop how he worked Pearl Jam told him he needs to break out a bit.

Chrislyn Hamilton - Aretha Franklin - Think

Christ I nearly started clapping at home. How fucking good was she? Encore, encore. I will interupt my blog to get onto Sportingbet while they are still paying $16. Oh and Wes who?

Mark Holden will be ringing his intellectual property lawyers to see if he has the rights to touchdown as Kyle has now appropriated it.

Mark Spano - Inxs - Never Tear Us Apart

If he had not tried to be so like Michael Hutchene with all the posturing movements it may have been ok. But to me it was a bit try hard, however the judges loved it. Kyle thought it was the "cherry on the cake." and Dicko thought he was a "Rock Star".

On a strong night on Idol - I think the bottom three will be Sophie Patterson, Thanh Bui and Tom Williams (Ok so I am hoping the teen voters have now swapped to Carlyn). Alright if not Tom, Jonny Taylor.

For the lucky Australian Idol fans who have their mobile phones contracted to Vodafone they will be able to access free of charge video recaps of every episode including on-demand access to every performance from the Top 24 onwards, video highlights from the first five years of Australian Idol, an exclusive weekly blog, plus all the latest news and profiles on the 2008 Top 12 finalists – direct from their mobile handset.

This will ensure they will be obtain the viewers who have a life and are out on Sunday nights.

Punters whose handsets are not contracted to Vodafone will also be able to access this service however it will cost them. This will be data charges to access the site, subject to their individual mobile plan. Caveat Emptor.

Has Channel Nine's magic rating bullet Gordon Ramsey suddenly imploded? The much trumpeted new series of Kitchen Nightmares USA appears to be tanking.

This was confirmed when Nine's boss, David Gyngell yanked Ramsey from the Monday timeslot after just the first program in the new series was shown. With just 732,000 viewers it will move from 8.30 Monday's to 10.00pm on a Wednesday.

Gyngell only has himself to blame for the Gordon fatigue that has suddenly struck viewers, as earlier this year everytime you switched to Channel 9 there would be his scowling face on the TV screen as they continually screened one of his many TV shows.

However Media Monkey in The Guardian has a different view blaming this viewer malaise on the Brits winning more gold medals at the Olympics then the Australians.

Dean Geyer must be weeping into his cornflakes when he heard that the The Veronicas were going to get their own reality TV show in the United States.

Geyer currently performing in Neighbours is no stranger to reality TV, he is an alumni of Australian Idol, was recently engaged to Lisa of The Veronicas. However a recent split will mean he will unable to use the show as a springboard into the US market.

Dean Geyer would have definite appeal in the American market where his evangelical christian views are in contrast to the racier image The Veronica's project. He pledged to stay a virgin until he was married, something that is seen with derision in Australia, but is quite normal in the states where 'promise rings' are common place.

The Veronica's have been trying to crack the lucrative US market and this reality TV show may assist. It makes me wonder is some of the racier rumours surrounding the pair particularly Jess is a setup to make them more appealing for producers to pick up the show. For example the faux lesbian affair with It gay girl of the moment Ruby Rose, and then ex-boyfriend Azaria disappearing then turning up with Jess in Las Vegas. What next rehab? However a new nude photo of Jess scandal has just emerged. Details here.

More news coming to light indicates the reality show will be their regular web diary Untouched on the Yahoo Yaz channel from next month.

More information on this is available from the Daily Tele website here and here.

The shock of Liu not making it to the Project Runway Australia, has now been ameliorated by the news Akira Isogawa apparently asking for the DVD of the show to look at this amazing designer.

I would still like to know the reasons they gave the third spot to Petrova.

Anyway it was time for the final three of Leigh, Juli, and Petrova to make 10 outfits to show at fashion week and they had $10,000 to do it with.

Henry Roth did the rounds to see the designers a few weeks before the final catwalk to see how their collections were going.

Juli was told to tone down the sparkles on her dresses. The diamante bow tie was so kitsch in a bad way. However she made Carrie Bradshaw from Sex In The City restrained when she showed Henry her boudoir with her $40,000 worth of shoes. Though once I heard she spent $3000 of her budget on crystals I was thinking more Rose Hancock.

Leigh when speaking about why he was not further into his collection said "If I cannot do something perfectly I either procrastinate or don't do it at all." Memo to self next time at a job interview and asked what is my worst characteristic use that will be answer.

Petrova's collection was a kaleidoscope of colour and creativity. It was worth going on the show for her because of the plug she got to give her shop Lady in Melbourne.

Then it was Madison Editor Paula Joye to look over their collections in Melbourne. She really liked Juli's however told her not to go to over the top. Leigh did not want to take her advice regarding removing the tassel from the cheongsam he had designed - he really needed to. Henry was gobsmacked at this.

And Petrova was not too impressed about the advice she received from Paula either. I think Petrova is the only person in the world who likes the lime green short sleeve leather jacket.

We have to wait until next week to see who wins.

I think the safe but well designed collection of Juli's will win.

Last year the trend on Idol was scarfs, this year it is babies, two of the contestants, Luke Dickens and James Spargo having partners that are pregnant. Lets hope this trend does not spread to some of the younger contestants.

What was Marcia on tonight I barely understood what she was saying? Is this the new mean Marcia? So when she gives criticism you cannot understand it. She would speak gobblygook then go to the singer do you understand what I am saying, and they would nod their head affirmative but with a bewildered look in their eyes.

Before the start of the singing it was announced that Chrislyn Hamilton, and Wes Carr were through to the top 12 - no surprises there.

First to sing was the laconic sheep shearer Luke Dickens who is the amateur amongst the pros. I think that was the reason he was put through to have the "It could be you up here on Idol like Luke just following his dream" resonate with the public. There is something to really like about this laid back lad who sang Mustang Sally pretty well. I think he may get through to the top 12 but he will crash and burn once he has to sing the weekly genres.

Brooke Wilke looked like she wanted to crawl into a black hole on stage, with her voice really struggling with a bad case of laryngitis. At times she did sound like this years It Girl Gabrielle Climi expect to see her on Sunday in the second chance show.

Mini Me Matt Corby, Tom Williams sang "You Raise Me Up" very badly. I am still not sure why he got put through as his voice is so weak, but apparently he is popular because he is cute. If he gets put through Australian Idol will lose a lot of what little credibility it has. I don't know why the judges are pushing him through. Have they been told to do this to ensure the phone profits roll in from tweens voting on their parents phones?

Natalie Colivito singing a song"Listen" from the movie Dreamgirls. She was trying to do the big Diva song and it didn't quite cut it. It had some power notes but it was too screechy for me.

Dicko gave the fat girl talk and told her to use her body more and embrace it. What is with having to tell the fat chicks they are fat? They don't raise these issues with other performers eg "Your far to skinny - please eat a burger" It is even more insulting coming from two men Kyle and Dicko who are not slim themselves. That's right it is ok for blokes to be big, old and ugly on TV but not women. It is like the US where there are 60 year old anchor men with 30 year old women doing morning TV.

Amanda Grafenakis sang a Pink song - she looked like a rock star on stage, but when she opened her mouth that image dissipated. However to be fair she did improve as the song went on. Even if she gets through to the top 12 she is not the next Australian Idol.

Thanh Bui from Melbourne who was formerly was in a boy band sang a the U2 anthem One. After too many nights in Asian karaoke bars he is the singer you want on after the third bad rendition of Endless Love. Even though he still has some of the boy band moves (that is a negative thing) he was the stand out performer of the night.

They ended show by panning to John Foreman who was looking very cheery. This must mean his relationship with another reality tv star, So You Think You Can Dance Judge, Matt Lee must be going strong.

I predict Thank Bui and Luke Dickens to get through to the final 12.

Are the Australian Idol producers trying to manipulate the top 12 by placing the strongest singers in the first semi-final first and last? Or did they think viewers would just keep watching until Wes Carr sang?

Anyway the ads were tantalising us with an announcement of an Idol first. Dicko after much waffling said the winner would get an Artist Development Program worth $200,000, as well as the record and management contract. This raises the question of how much the record contract is worth - clearly not much.

Chrislyn Hamilton from Qld the seventeen year old soul singer had to ignominy of being the first singer of the night. She sang Proud Mary. this girl has a huge likeability factor as well a big voice.

The young cowboy Mitchell Steele with the Marty Simpson eyebrows, is more Brokeback Mountain then A Fist Full Of Dollars , looked like a guy right out of his depth. We know he is country does he have to wear the hat all the time. I was surprised when Marcia said he was one of the more seasoned performers in the competition. He sang "Life Is A Highway" he was beyond ordinary - he won't even be able to get through on home town support as the town he is from has only 300 people in it.

Jaden Dowd was one of the expats from London sang "Finally" it was a great arrangement, except her voice was a bit wobbly. I must confess I was distracted by her black type pantsuit, and could not stop staring at her crotch because of the weird ruche arrangement it looked like she had multiple camel toes. She looked a bit shocked when Dicko said her performance was like something from an office piss up. I think she will be back eating dodgy curries and drinking pints very soon.

Olly Corpe the school student who appears to be more musical theatre and not pop - sang "Wonderful World". The french charm is not going to translate into votes after this ordinary performance. Maybe he needs to move back to Europe and audition for Eurovision.

I was gobsmacked that Kyle loved it - are they pushing for Olly to get in? Why are they so obsessed with the young boys this year?

The musical theatreish Nicole Banks from Melbourne sang "Black and Gold" was too cutsie from the song choice to the bow in her hair. She said she was ready to get away from her musical theatre background - I did not see any sign of this. The judges liked it.

The producers were not taking any chances with their star find Wes Carr, and gave him the prize last position to ensure he had the best chance to get through to the final 10 or was it final 12 even Andrew G was getting confused. He was outstanding. his issue will be people presuming he was through and voting for other people. It was a given that we will be seeing more of him. He satisfied Kyles marketability requirements as well as having an interesting voice.

Dicko had a good point when he said Wes may have a hard time as front runner, because if he does not improve then people get fed up and move onto other people to vote for.

Hard arsed Marcia is yet to emerge - her criticisms were equivalent of being smacked with a piece of wet lettuce.