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X Factor - Recap: The Face Off That Should Never Have Been

By Ian Cullen Oct 25, 2010, 2:51 GMT

09/06/2010 - Stephen Fry - London, UK © Landmark / PR Photos

This weekend's "X Factor" didn’t especially get off to a great start last night.

I felt that some of the song choices were incredibly generic and boring. Especially when your talking about the opening few acts.

The first up was Paije who sang well, but the song choice for me didn’t really show us what he could potentially do. His first audition, the one the judges didn’t like was better than what he did last night.

Of course things brightened up for my eight-year-old niece when Cher Lloyd came on and did another uninspired mishmash of Rap and mediocre singing with the classic Tears For Fears song ‘Shout.'

She maybe the people's favorite, but she isn’t mind. She comes off as a little too confident and sure of herself for my taste.

The remaining bands in the show put in fairly solid performances last night, and would have pleased their teeny bopper audiences. I personally would rather watch Alvin and The Chipmunks while repeatedly stabbing my ear drums out with a high powered nail gun.

Louis Walsh made some generic comment regarding the Beatles in regards to the hysteria of the studio audience. I say crucify him.

This just goes to show why Louis Walsh should do stand up. He’s either unintentionally funny or a complete idiot when making sweeping generalizations like that.

The Beatles were great, they wrote their own songs and were no where near as manufactured as the bands and acts that come from this show. I mean, come on, ‘The Right Direction’ causing mass hysteria like the Beatles? Where were the police officers holding the audiences at bay? I didn’t see any. Must be those Government cutbacks.

The stand out acts for me last night were Matt Cardle who did a really good rendition of the Britney Spears' classic pop song ‘Baby One More Time.’ Cardle actually improved the song by giving it a much stripped back feel, and sang it better too.

The second stand out was Rebecca Fergusan, who did an excellent cover of the Jazz song ‘Don’t You Do It Right’

And my final choice will prove controversial given that she was almost voted off in the results show, but TreyC Cohen, who put on a fantastic performance of the classic Led Zeppelin song ‘A Whole Lot Of Love’, really excelled for me, and could get away with doing more rock type songs.

However they need to put her in rubber. And make her look more Rock Chick as apposed to the X Factor Costume designers ideas of what a Rock Chick should be.

The rest of the show was made up of the usual suspects of Katy who did a rendition of ‘I Want To Be Like You’ from Jungle Book. My guess is because no would want to be like her.

Mary Byrne put in a good performance as always, but the audience and judges are now starting to get wise to the fact that she can only do a certain type of song. Something, which Louis Walsh really needs to work on with her is getting her to sing something a little more modern. If the great British Diva Shirley Bassey can do it, which she did on her last CD. A fairly new act in Mary Byrne should be able to the same. Its all a matter of production. You can’t blame Louis though. He’s only ever had the bands and has little experience when dealing with solo acts.

Wagner, who has been in the news this week due to a parody of Steven Fry appreciating his work did his usual thing, which is entertaining even though no one is quite sure what its all about! He’s a little like the Borat of X Factor. I think Wagner should run for political office he’s much funnier than Prime Minister David Cameron and George [Gideon] Osbourne combined. I’d even trust Wagner with the budget.

The results show came down to two acts. Neither of which really deserved to be there, but the viewing public chose not to get behind either TreyC Cohen or John Adeleye. The sing off being a formality as TreyC’s power won through over a nervous Adeleye who sang another soulful ballad, which is what he’s been doing for months. Something really different from his usual stuff would have really helped him stay in the running. Even Danii Minogue admitted as much when she voted.

Thankfully the judges voted with their heads and saved TreyC over John Adeleye, but despite this. Adeleye threatons that he’ll be back!

Wagner Video