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This Weekend's X - Factor, Best, Worst and Results - Live Show 2 (UK)

By Ian Cullen Oct 17, 2011, 5:02 GMT

X Factor\'s Gary Barlow - © Landmark / PR Photos

Last night's X-Factor once again demonstrated how dodgy Louis Walsh is when it comes to staging his acts, and once again we got our fair share of bickering among the judges.

In fact at one point I thought Louis and Gary were going to get their handbags out.  

Either way before we get to the results here is a quick run down of the best and worst of last night. Note that these are just my own opinions and should be taken in that vein. So if you like a particular act that I don’t, it means I have taste and you haven't. Simple really innit?  As Clint Eastwood said in the final 'Dirty Harry' film, “Opinions are like assholes; everyone has one.”   

Anyhow, before I get going, could some of you Americans explain why you spell arse as ass? I mean ass is a donkey for God's sake!

Anyhow, on with the show.   Like last week I am going to go through the best and worst of each grouping, but this time out I will also reveal who was the best and worst overall, which will be tough because unlike last year there are a lot of really cool acts and very few really bad ones.  

Best In The Over 25s 

The best performance in the over 25s last night was performed by Kitty. Although she isn’t well liked, has a bloody attitude that frankly is a big turn off for most people, myself included. Sammi came in second for me last night basically because the song choice she used was a little too obvious.    

Worst In The Over 25s 

Much like last week, Johnny was the worst for me last night.  Here’s the thing. He has a very high pitched voice, which is fine, but my issue is it sounds like he is singing through his nose a lot of the time. Add to this the fact that Louis Walsh is making him into the joke of X Factor by playing up the whole Gay camp thing and giving him iffy song choices, which quite frankly is a little old-fashioned.  

Last night Louis had Johnny dressed like a Geisha and had him singing the Kylie Minogue song ‘I just can’t get you out of my head.’  The whole thing was just far too over the top.  In fact when Johnny came on stage. I’d thought someone had slipped me some hallucinogenics. He looked like some weird cartoon version of Aladdin and sounded like a Smurf on a combination of acid and speed. It wasn’t good.  

Sadly I think Johnny will be around for a few weeks to come yet, and could well be this years Wagner or John and Edward.    Note to X-Factor producers. Get rid of Louis Walsh next year. Please.  

Best Of The Boys 

I’m not sure what it is but for some reason Gary Barlow had two of his acts singing songs that were originally performed by women, which I guess worked for Matt Cardle who won the series last year. 

Anyway, the best of the boys for me was Marcus who was not only pitch perfect, but also managed to convey the seriousness of his song by not smiling too much.   Craig Colton was also pretty good, but fell a little short of his brilliant performance in week one of the live show, but I suspect he is very much still a contender for the big prize, but he has a fight on his hands if Marcus can be consistently as good as he was last night.  

Worst Of The Boys 

Frankie Cocozza wasn’t bad, but not great either. A few people I know critique him for singing with his speaking voice. Known as head singing, which is what you do when you’re trying to learn both the words and the melody of the song.   Thing is, Frankie is trying for the alternate rock or pop scene and to be honest he's not to bad for that scene.

I believe he’d struggle due to the fact that he seems to have a very limited vocal range. His voice would likely break easy if Gary gave him a real challenge as in anything that isn’t by Cold Play.   

Best Of The Girls 

For me it was Janet that shined last night. After having had a tough time with losing her Grandfather she put in a brilliant performance with a new interpretation of the popular Elvis Presley song ‘I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You!’ 

Misha B also put in a great performance last night, but I don’t think she has been truly tested yet.  

Worst Of The Girls 

The worst for me last night was Sophie. She did a new interpretation of ‘Where Ever You Will Go’ by The Calling, and if am honest it didn’t really work for me with her voice. So I think it was more the song choice than it was Sophie, who has a fantastic voice.  

Best Of The Bands 

The best of the bands was a tough one to decide. You have two fantastic bands this year with The Risk and the girl band Rhythmix, who many are saying are the best girl band to ever grace X-Factor and though am not a fan of the type of music they do.

Even I have to admit that they are bloody good and have a good chemistry and presence when performing.   Last week I chose The Risk as the best of the week, but this week Rhythmix just edged it.   

Worst Of The Bands 

Nu Vibe were the worst for me last night. As Gary Barlow said they had “No vibe.”   Added to that they had no chemistry, very little presence and didn’t really work that well together and to be blunt not a single one of them is all that great of a singer.   

Best Overall 

Last night It was to close to call. There were four acts that really stood out for me and they were Janet, Rhythmix, Marcus and Kitty.   However, I have to choose one and the one have decided to go for as best performance overall for last night is Rhythmix.  

As I said they don’t really do my kind of music and am not really a big fan of very commercial sounding pop acts. But Rhythmix seem to have a very fresh and real energy about them, which could likely see them being the next big girl band as in the next Spice Girls or Girls Aloud. 

I’m not sure what it is about them. But they bring something very new and fresh to the girl band genre and their performance last night if anything consolidated them as the best Girl Band ever to hit X Factor.  

Worst Overall 

This one is an easy call. Johnny for me was the worst of the night.   What bugs me is the fact that if he had one of the other mentors he might actually sound better and have better songs to sing.

But instead he has Louis Walsh, who has very outdated sensibilities and poor taste when it comes to how he presents his acts.   Frankie Cocozza as much as I like the kid. He was second worst act of the night, but it was more down to the fact that he didn’t really show us anything new from the previous occasions that we have seen him.  

The Result 

This week the end result was up to both the viewing public and the judges, which sees the return of the sing off between the two least popular acts.  This week those two acts were Nu Vibe and deservedly so and Frankie, which if honest was quite predictable based on his past two performances and the mere fact that we haven’t seen anything great from him. 

As predicted Johnny was kept in by virtue of the fact that even though to me he is very mediocre and over the top. There’s an element of the British public that likes that kind of thing.  

For the sing off Nu Vibe, who have about as much vibe Arnold Schwarzenegger trying to sing the Chicken Song while doing acid sang first and again didn’t really gel that well, but did slightly better than on their previous two performances.

They sang ‘Promises’  Up for survival to the shock and awe of Gary Barlow was Frankie Cocozza who sang ‘Love Isn’t Here,’ which given his lack of popularity with the viewing public felt kind of appropriate.

Though he did seem the most popular from the studio audiences point of view.  When it came down to the judges decision Gary chose to send Nu Vibe home. Kelly also chose Nu Vibe while Tulisa chose Frankie. Louis who had the final vote chose to keep Frankie, which meant No Vibe, oops I meant Nu Vibe were sent home. 

On a closing note I can’t see Frankie lasting more than a few more weeks in this years competition given that all the acts left with perhaps the exception of Johnny have pretty strong singing voices and flexibility in the style of songs they can sing.  

And that is where this weeks coverage of X - Factor comes to an end.

Until next time this is me signing off. 

Ian Cullen is the owner and lead writer for the very popular scifipulse.net website, which surfs the pulse of popular science fiction and fantasy and can be found at: www.scifipulse.net  He is also the main host for the SFP-NOW podcast, which is available through i Tunes and can be found at : www.sfp-now.com