Your Face is an Advert

Hello there, first blog as a fully fledged face!

Well, I’ve been watching Last Choir since the beginning and have loved every single moment - well not loved as choirs I’ve loved have been knocked out well before their time, (I’m looking at you Sense of Sound) but, I’ve felt part of the show and a better person after watching it.

As for X Factor - I feel dirty after viewing it.

Last Choir has no prize money, no massive ad campaign, no supposed nationwide search (they had videos sent in) (X Factor auditions aren’t shown as they actually are) and yet the people involved care as if their life depended on it. The people on ‘Last Choir’ do it for the love of singing and the want to be the best. No one is shown up, no one is taken advantage of and most importantly the audience is not lied to!

For those of you who haven’t seen ‘Last Choir’ it is a talent show for choirs - they sent in a video of themselves singing and the better ones were called in for auditions, then callbacks, then recorded knock out shows, then live shows that worked like ‘Maria’ or ‘I’d Do Anything’ where the bottom two have a sing off and are then saved by the Judges. It is the warmest loveliest show without the need for sob storied and massive show pieces (I’m looking at you X Factor Helicopters)

Each week the Choirs have sung for their lives and with musical proficiency that is unparalleled on prime time television the passion and technical accuracy of the choirs has to be heard to be believed so to back up my point here are two of them…

Awesome, right!

But the thing to remember is they do this in their spare time FOR FREE!

Now I hold my hands up. I loved X Factor. Series 1. Then it took itself too seriously and now it’s just a farce. Sharon Osbourne, love her or hate her, has seen a sinking ship. They way X Factor treats its entrants is horrific and next to abuse. Now, let me let you into a little secret - not all the X Factor entrants get to meet the Judges. In fact hardly any of them do. just the good and the mental. As picked by a producer. To me this seems irresponsible, as in order for our entertainment they put through the good - fine by me as they’ll end up on the actual show, wonderful let’s showcase talent, and the mental, they deliberately put through bad contestants, they put through people they know have no way of getting through just so we can laugh at them. Now to me that’s abuse, that’s raising someone’s self esteem and deluded dreams and smashing them in front of a baying audience so that we can laugh. Now don’t get me wrong quite a few of these people know that they’re shit and never going to get on and are aware that they can actually make a bit of cash from being shit - just ask the chicken killer. Now this was good telly when we hadn’t seen it before but these poor sods are being sold a dream they’re never going to fulfil. X Factor makes me feel bad for everyone on the show, even in the live shows as they over milk the sob stories and in some cases appear to make them up!

Last Choir Standing fills people with warmth, those choirs that aren’t put through are gutted but never are they mocked. The judges know what they’re talking about and are articulate enough to tell the choirs what they think, there’s no forced rivalry and they want the choirs to succeed and don’t put them down too quickly to attract boos and jeers. Sharon D. Clarke is warm bubbly and looks for the spirit and emotion of the choirs, Sizi Digby looks for the technical accomplishment of the choir and as such is their harshest critic and Russell Watson is the ‘face’! he looks for showmanship and is the only judge that is a little off putting as a veiwer but I’m more than ready to ignore his ill-informed platitudes because he also gets excited and enjoys the show and what it is doing.

Even the presentation is better, we see them rehearsing, we meet members of the large choirs and we see them drumming up support. It has the most amazing ‘for the fun of it’ quality and the music makes the hairs on the back of your neck not just stand on end but curl. Watching it is the equvilant of church for me, I feel close to something and just awesomely happy. Even my reluctant friends enjoy it now as the excitement and joy of the competitors is catching.

I could gush for longer but you have better things to do.

I’m saddend that Last Choir Standing is over and X Factor is with us til christmas but that’s the way of things. I hope that people agree with me but I can’t deal with anymore exploitation of wannabees it’s not nice to watch nor does it make me feel good. Last Choir makes me joyful, the way music should.

Can’t belive I did all of that without bitching about The Cole

More Last Choir Standing, Blackett posted about Sense of Sound and their version of Gabriel, pure awesomness click here to watch.