MUSIC REVIEW: X Factor was sadly absent from show

Mar 5 2008 by Emma Pinch, Liverpool Daily Post

HIGH-END karaoke outfit X Factor Live rolled into town last night giving contestants a chance to squeeze out the very last droplets from their 15 minutes of fame.

Though generously sprinkled with clips of the TV series, and Dermot O‘Leary beaming out introductions on two of the five screens – X Factor fans love screens I guess is the thinking – the show felt oddly soulless without the actual presence of any of the TV hosts, and the first couple of acts’ underconfidence heightened the general sense of directionlessness.

The show kicked off with cobbled together girl group Hope, sexed up in satin basques, fishnets and hot- pants who shakily, but pluckily belted out Queen’s We Will Rock You.

It picked up pace when a handful of freakish rejects from the auditions appeared after a medley of the most painfully funny moments from those early days – one of them the Japanese Simon Cowell fan – who was so tremblingly off key she had one reviewer welling up a little.

Similarly “dinner lady diva” Niki, from the older batch, has no particular hopes achieving global domination and was plainly just enjoying herself.

Saucer-eyed brother sister duo Same Difference jived and bopped and messed around in beds with energy and their trademark raciness and had the audience screaming their appreciation to Wham’s Wake Me Up.

Rhydian arrived in a white mink coat and a cloud of dry ice and made the show his own, although the songs he did had me groaning in disappointment.

From Pink’s Let’s Get This Party Started he moved on to the startlingly camp Go West then the nerve grating You Raise Me Up. Pop elf Leon, who came on last got the best pyrotechnics, the best screams and the best songs.

The theme of the show was obviously X Factor the after party, determinedly up tempo, everyone on message with expressions of “without you I wouldn’t be here, I’m so blessed, etc, etc”, and steered well away from teary power ballads and painful desperation that makes the show so watchable.

Simon Cowell – you were missed.

emma.pinch@dailypost.co.uk