X Factor : Is that Rowetta the Rowetta off of the Happy Mondays?

y

If you'd said "yy", I could assume you were two y's.

Yeah it's definitely her alright! There was a bit of a thread revive on the Happy Mondays C/D thread when she was first on the other week. It seems that nobody associated with the programme has twigged yet...

It's hard to believe none of them know though. Or that she's not mentioned it. Maybe they just haven't mentioned it cos they think that 95% of their core audience would've thought "Happy who?".

She's through to the final five though! Go girl. Let's all vote for her!

They mentioned she was a 'former backing singer'. There wouldn't be any legal reason for them not mentioning the Mondays, would there?

Thanks!

I do find bizarre that she can perform in front of various 'business luminaries' and not one of them has twigged. Obviously it's not going to help her in the voting stakes as she's in a category where the 'plucky unknown' is going to win the hearts and minds of the voting public, who will telephone vote in their droves and then not buy the resulting record under any circumstances.

Former backing singer? what, as in now she's a fronting singer. Psssh. Having said all that, she's got a helluva voice and I hope she does well. ROWETTA FROM HAPPY MONDAYS! WE'RE NOT WORTHY!!!

I'm not sure about this - the first week she was on she more or less said "when I was in the Mondays..." and Cowell has definitely referred directly to it (if none of you have seen it, presumably on the ITV2 show).

I think the whole point is that she's trying not to let it affect (favourably or adversely) her chances. I mean who was upset when "ex-Brookside actor Danny McCall, making one last chance at stardom" didn't go through?

Whether she'll get through to the final three from Cowell's group is less certain. Louis Walsh has said he's going to pick the groups he think the public will like irrespective of how good he thinks they are: that says 'sympathy' or 'novelty' to me and so I think he'll pick the blind guy, the fat black women and the opera blokes. Sharon O is clearly only going for people she fancies: the Irish bloke, the one that made Terry cry and... probably the Charlotte Church lookalike.

Cowell could go for either strategy, or actually look for singers. I think she'll get through if it's singers (along with the fat black bloke and the ONJ-a-like). If either of the others - she might get through on the Les Dennis/Vanessa Feltz vote, but Cowell seems to be aware of this and has said more than once he thinks she might not mentally be up to it.

i think they have just chosen not to mention it, for one reason or another. The fact that people have had a career of some sort before doesn't rule them out. I mean one of the guys from One True Voice (the anti-Girls Aloud) even auditioned - he didn't get through but that wasn't because he had already released some records but just because "he didn;t have the X-Factor (ha!). I hope Rowetta wins although her first audition was awful. Simon's group overall seems pretty shit tho - that big singing teacher guy is fucked, it's exactly the sort of singing i hate: all fills and twiddly bits and no talent. He's better than the blonde woman - Verity is that her name? - how the fuck did she get through!?

She's got a nice triumph-over-adversity backstory.

The singing coach seems like such an affable chap that I hope he does well.

I was disappointed nobody else got as excited about Rowetta as me, here and elsewhere. Finally somewhere I can cheerlead - GO ROWETTA, GO! I can't believe she's made it to the top five.

They totally know about her Happy Mondays past - they even used the hook from Loose Fit as incidental music on X-tra Factor.

subtle.

So, now she will be on the live show, this saturday. And each saturday until she wins, presumably?

(The groups: The opera bunch? give me strength!)
(The 'kids'? Who knows)
(The over 25s? The lady is 'nice', the bloke is good, but Rowetta has it here.)

Dumbest move ever: Sharon NOT putting Andy through.

Agreed, she was thinking with her groin and not her head. Which is worse, because she reminds me of your mate's mum who flirts really strongly with you, blissfully unaware she's a MYWLF (even if your life depended on it).

So, I only got two wrong from my predictions above - I think if Sharon was only going to pick one out of Tabby and Andy she picked the right two girls, and Simon (for me) has made a mistake picking Steve, although he's clearly working on the logic that if all the rest of his team fancy him then he may well get a decent vote every week.

Rowetta should do far better on the live shows, as there's less 'personality' evident. I think Tabby could well go at the first time of asking - it's hard to see who he appeals to.

Steve's niceguy image was ruined by the footage on Xtra Factor of him gleefully riling Rowetta. He'll be gone first, I hope. Sharon's non-Charlotte Church girl doesn't have a chance, all of Louis's choices are hopeless (is it just me who finds Two 2 Go truly unlikeable?) and it has to be Rowetta to win. It would have been tight between her and Andy though.

Actually how does this show work? Do we lose one of the nine each week or one from each category?

There's only one overall winner, so I'd imagine one goes each week regardless of category.

Are Two 2 Go the one with the blind guy? They're creepy. And Simon should've picked Lloyd - much more likeable than Steve.

Yeah that's Two To Go. Blind Guy's personality is coming out and umm, it's not very nice. And nor is his grasping-eyed chum's. Lloyd's definitely a nicer guy but he did get a bit full of himself toward the end.

Louis is coming across as an unpleasant guy in this one so it'll be good to watch him squirm while his nemesis trounces him. Not understanding the appeal of Voices With Soul either, they sound terrible coming from my tv (admittedly I know zilch about what makes a voice technically good).

Yeah, Louie's definately my least favourite of the judges. He's so completely unprepared to take a risk of any kind.

22Go are this generation's Peters & Lee.

That is extremely true.

I said that on Saturday night.

None of you were there, admittedly.

And that wasn't even Louie's house they were filming at! What a cheat. Simon's got by far the best final three. He's got a good combination of the personalities people will go for (the woman who gave it all up for a bastard husband, the nutter and the looker) and two good singers out of the three. I'm not sure about WWGIAUFABH's voice, but it may improve with coaching and get back to what I imagine it was in the eighties.

I think the opera boys will be voted off first.

A crime tonight. Worst three were Cassie (big song, too big for her perhaps, and the stylist wants shooting), Tabby (personality, yes, but ability in a contest like this, no) and 2 to Go (yes, yes, you're blind. But your mate can't sing, can she?). Steve barely ahead of them.

Still, the public seem to be going for looks over substance. (Having said Rowetta should win on ability, poor song choice tonight I thought. Should have been acers, was a bit meh.)

surely Verity is the absolute worst though?

in fact, no. tabby is much much worse. painful to look at.

Tabby is truly the worst person in history. Like a combination of James Nesbitt "cheeky Oirish" stereotypes with some sort of Top Shop sk8r ish.

Rowetta was great even though her song was awful. Sharon is an idiot for picking two women with no distinguishing traits. And I know that blind dude is, well, blind, but he could at least smile every now and then.

Was anyone else as astonished as I was that Voices With Soul (dreadful name) were in the bottom two? I thought theirs was not only the best performance of the show, but maybe the best I'd seen on any such show. At least Simon made the right choice. Have they not spotted that that final format means that it's all down to the one person who isn't the mentor of either of the acts? Unless both are in one section, of course, but that shouldn't happen often.

VWS is SWV backwards. And yes, it is a dreadful name.

On Xtra Factor the point was made that someone could actually have two choices in the last two - honestly, and even despite tonight's result, I think Sharon is in serious danger of that and for someone whose judging style has been being 'nice' to everyone she could come massively unstuck. Twice tonight I would have picked her up on inconsistencies over what she'd said 10 minutes before - she refused to back up the 'people are voting sympathetically' angle, despite having repeated it; and said twice that people should vote for the "whole package" for Rebecca, despite having picked her because she "didn't use her beauty" and 'that was what made her stand out'.

Tabby is like the lead singer of a band you might see playing in the Dublin Castle to a crowd of seven.

So who actually went last night? I saw the show but missed the results...

And this system where the judges get to choose between the bottom two is very skanky. Is basically negates the whole choice-of-the-public angle, and ultimately allows Cowell (it's his show don't forget, so the other two judges will presumably do what he wants, once the panto is over) final say over who he gets to promote. That's probably the legacy of Michelle McManus though...

Rebecca went. The judges were united that having to choose, in Week One, between her and Voices With Soul was ludicrous.

Interestingly, Louis was the first person to mention "sympathy votes" from the public - presumably because he thinks one of his own acts benefitted from such voting (2 To Go).

tabby to go.

bizarrely i think Louis was actually referring to Verity and Steve (is that his name?) when he was talking about sympathy votes and didnt even make the connection with 2 to go. Lois has gone really fucking bizarre actually.

death to tabby.

Tabby's cool. He reminds of a bad Japanese rock star.

Tabby reminds me of Gem from Heavy Stereo, when he was in Heavy Stereo.