The teams have been decided. Mark Holden will mentor the
vocal groups, Kate Ceberano will look after the 16-24s
while John Reid with take on the 25+. To help them will
be their Dream Teams.
MARK HOLDEN'S DREAM TEAM
PIERRE BARONI - Creative Consultant
Mark Holden is accompanied by his long-time creative confidant,
Pierre Baroni. With a background encompassing virtually
all aspects of the entertainment industry, Pierre's multi-faceted
skills mean that Mark has the best in the business by
his side in his pursuit of finding 'the one' with The
X Factor.
Pierre's many and varied talents include photography,
graphic design, art direction, image styling, video direction
and record production. He has worked with many of the
Australian music industry's top names - Tina Arena, Jimmy
Barnes, Deborah Conway, Renee Geyer and Vanessa Amorosi
to name a few. Pierre was the co-executive producer on
Kate Ceberano's most recent album release, 19 Days in
New York. Over the years Pierre has garnered multi ARIA
Award nominations and wins for his creative expertise.
With performance, song writing and skills as a DJ also
part of Pierre's repertoire, there is no one better placed
to help Mark guide his contestants through all aspects
of the business on their rise to the top.
As the competition heats up, Mark will also call upon
the expertise of other industry professionals to help
him guide his charges through the rigorous of the contest.
KATE CEBERANO'S DREAM TEAM
PHIL CEBERANO - Mentor
Phil Ceberano brings over 20 years of experience in the
rock industry to The X Factor. He is a professional guitarist,
actor, producer and writer. He also runs his own independent
record label and happens to be Kate's brother…
Two years ago Phil formed the band Trentwood and his most
recent project was born. Rockshow 101 is a mentoring program
for school students wanting to get into the music industry.
Trentwood tour the country visiting schools, and inspiring
youngsters.
GLENDA WALSH - Singing Coach
Long time friend of the Ceberano family and singing coach
to Kate's contestants is vocal coach extraordinaire -
Glenda Walsh.
Some of Glenda's most memorable musical moments include
performing alongside John Farnham in the musical hit "Jesus
Christ Superstar" and performing for 17 years on
the original production of Hair.
Glenda is a jack of all trades and when she's not singing
jazz in her swing band, Fakin Whoopee, she's a Chaplin
pronouncing couples husband and wife at the local church.
DANIEL HUGH MANNING -Stylist
Cancel the fashion police, Kate's employed fashion stylist
extraordinaire, Daniel Hugh Manning to ensure none of
her contestants suffer from any wardrobe malfunctions.
Daniel will put The X Factor into fashion!
Avidly devoted to sharing his love of fashion, Daniel
Hugh Manning has a strong background in image consulting.
His wealth of experience in the fashion styling industry
has seen him work his magic on some of Australia's most
glamorous stars including Belinda Emmett, Rove McManus,
Sonia Kruger and Kate Kendall.
His ability to combine an individual's own style with
his professional knowledge is exactly why Kate has selected
Daniel to join her Dream Team on The X Factor.
JOHN REID'S DREAM TEAM
MELISSA HOYER - Stylist
Style raconteur, Melissa Hoyer, has been at the forefront
of fashion commentary for over 15 years. She has interviewed
most of the big names in Australian fashion, from sass
& bide to Collette Dinnigan, as well as international
celebrities including Kylie Minogue, Elle MacPherson,
Nicole Kidman and Linda Evangelista.
Between being style editor for the Sunday Telegraph, radio
segments on 2UE and the ABC, hosting fashion events around
the country, covering international events in Paris and
Milan; and presenting the show Arena Style alongside Jodhi
Packer, Melissa will bring her stylish expertise to The
X Factor.
ANDREW MOURNEHIS - Motivational Coach
Originally an optometrist, Andrew Mournehis made the unusual
career decision to ditch the eye chart and get into dancing
whilst on holiday in London. Andrew commenced his dancing
career by choreographing nightclub routines, which led
to him being hired as Tina Turner's choreographer.
On his return home to Australia, Andrew continued working
as a choreographer on video clips and events such as Mardi
Gras. More recently, Andrew has taken up working as a
yoga instructor and spiritual counsellor. It's the combination
of these skills that John hopes will give his motivational
coach an edge over the other teams' experts.
SUSIE AHERN - Vocal Coach
What do Renee Geyer, Tom Jones, Kylie Minogue and Diesel
all have in common? The soulful singer Susie Ahern! She's
toured and performed with the best of them… and that's
just the short list.
Susie boasts over 25 years experience in the music industry
and spends a good part of her time coaching up to 40 students
in her home studio in Melbourne.
When she's not running through scales, she's writing and
creating the majority of tracks for her debut solo album
"Women Are Different", an album which has been
described as "warm, smooth and lyrically sophisticated".
By sheer coincidence, Susie has also recorded with our
very own X Factor judge, Kate Ceberano.
What happens next? The Schedule
| BACK | 16 February 2005
National Auditions
The X Factor begins with auditions right across the country
to unearth truly Xtraordinary, Xceptional and Xciting
Australian talent. Thousands of talent, ambitious and
in some cases deluded contestants will parade past the
judges. At this point, the three judges will work together
as a 'majority rules' selection panel, but only for now.
Contenders will audition for one of the categories: solo
artists 16-24, solo artists 25 and over, and vocal groups.
From the thousands of hopefuls, approximately 30 contestants
will be chosen in each of the three categories.
Lockdown
Once the nationwide auditions are complete, each judge
will discover which category they will be mentoring. It's
now a war between the three judges. Each judge will secretly
assemble a team of experts to help decided who has what
it takes and who doesn't. Vocal coaches, stylists and
other industry professionals may all be called upon by
the judges to give their finalists a competitive edge
against contestants from the other two categories. The
competition now becomes a battle of judge against judge.
At the end of the tow-day Lockdown, each judge will have
to cut their acts down from approximately 30 contenders
to just five.
Master Class
After making it though the rigours of Lockdown, the judges
will each take their group of five contestants to a location
of their choice for some intense one on one mentoring,
and a taste of what their future lifestyle could be. At
the end of Master Class, each judge will have to make
the tough choice of eliminating a further two contestants,
leaving just three finalists in each category to perform
at the live arena shows.
Live Arena Performance Shows - Sunday nights
Only three acts from each category remain at this stage.
Every Sunday night, each act will perform in from of a
live audience and give everything they've got, hoping
to reach the Grand Finale and a shot at a lucrative recording
contract. The battle lines are now drawn - it's artist
versus artist, judge versus judge.
Live Arena Performance Shows - Monday nights
After the Sunday night performance shows, the Australian
public will have 24 hours to vote for their favourite
act. On Monday nights, after the voting lines are closed,
the two acts with the least number of votes will have
to perform again, and then the three judges must decide
who should go. This is where a new layer or drama unfolds,
as the judges fight to keep their acts in the competition.
Grand Finale
In our Grand Finale, live from Melbourne, the remaining
two acts do battle for the right to claim that they, above
the others, have The X Factor. For the judges, it's the
ultimate report card, as their personal efforts to push
their talented charges to the top, result in a share of
the spotlight or personal defeat!
The X Factor's John Reid reckons talent quests can be
a real blood sport. Michael Idato reports.
The music business increasingly relies on TV formats such
as Australian Idol and its sibling, The X Factor, to turn
up new musical talent. It's a steady source, but it has
come at the expense of career durability.
"I don't think really top-notch, top-quality people
will ever be disposable," says Scottish-born talent
manager John Reid, one of the The X Factor judges. "But
we are in danger of creating stars knowing they will be
gone in 12 months. It's the false expectation that creates
the disposability and, if you take them too far, it becomes
a kind of blood sport, which is not funny."
The experience of Australian Idol winner Casey Donovan,
Reid says, is a great example. "I think it's a shame
she won. She's only 15, and I think it may have been better
if she'd come second." Reid doesn't have a problem
speaking his mind. It's a skill honed over 25 years in
the music business, representing Elton John, Queen and
Lionel Ritchie, among others.
The 13-week series, hosted by Daniel MacPherson, began
Monday night with the first of the national auditions
that will deliver 129 contestants into three categories:
solo artists aged 16-24, solo artists aged 25-plus and
vocal groups of any age.
Reid is joined on the judging panel by Kate Ceberano and
Mark Holden. Each judge mentors one category during a
two-day lockdown (culling their category to five) and
an intense masterclass (culling five to three).
This leaves nine finalists who are eliminated through
a series of weekly TV concerts. The last man, woman or
group standing wins a recording contract with Sony BMG.
Superficially, The X Factor differs from Idol by having
no age limit. However, Reid believes the real difference
lies in the way the judges are hands-on, mentoring their
category for the competition.
"The fact that we get to work directly with the people
who are in the finals makes a big difference," he
says. "It makes a world of difference spending more
time with these people and finding out more about them."
The auditions, as you'd expect, are short, sharp and brutal.
Potential stars have 15 seconds, literally, to prove their
worth. "You've really got to be paying attention.
You've got to scrutinise," Reid says.
Choosing who goes through was difficult, and Reid was
surprised at how dismissive his colleagues, particularly
Holden, could be. "The depth of talent in Australia,
I think, is untapped," Reid says. "And I don't
think it's been nearly mined as much as it can be."
Precisely what defines the "X" factor depends
on the individual, Reid says.
"It might be a presence, something in the voice,
or the look ... Sometimes, you only see a bit, but as
long as there's a bit, you've got to have them back."
Elton John's "X" factor, Reid says, was his
talent and the fact that he could not be pigeonholed.
"He didn't fit then the acceptable bill of rock star.
He was not tall and skinny and conventionally handsome.
It doesn't kind of make sense, but it's innate."
These days, the music industry is increasingly playing
it safe. "People are scared of making decisions so
they fall back on known formulas," Reid says.
It's good business, but it is not the creative environment
that gives rise to true immortals, such as Elton, Abba,
the Beatles and Elvis.
"It's not that they are harder to create, but there
is less opportunity," Reid says. "The entertainment
landscape has shifted. The competition for the entertainment
dollar, to put it crudely, is much more intense."
So, will there ever be another Elvis?
"I hope so. God, I hope so. But he would be different."
The X Factor airs on Ten on Sundays and Mondays at 7.30pm.
Looking for that certain something
| BACK | 16 February 2005
Looking for that certain something
February 3, 2005
Channel Ten has high hopes for its latest talent show
offering, The X Factor. By Wendy Tuohy.
Twenty-five years as a manager for some of the world's
biggest names in pop and comedy has taught the quietly
spoken Scotsman John Reid a thing or two about performing
talent. For starters, like television ratings, the remarkable
thing about talent is that it is unpredictable.
It is impossible to forecast who has "it", says
Reid, whose clients have included Elton John, Queen, Barry
Humphries and Billy Connolly, and even if someone appears
to have the elusive gift of talent or appeal, it may not
be consistently on display.
Reid is in Australia as a judge on the latest "event"
talent-search show, The X Factor, which the Ten network
hopes will start its 2005 ratings year on a serious high.
The network had its best ratings year ever in 2004, thanks
in part to the massive success of such so-called "event"
shows - programs where the audience can vote on an outcome,
is encouraged to participate through interactivity and
to see as something of a lifestyle during its several-month
run.
Last year, event shows such as Australian Idol and Big
Brother helped Ten win the biggest national audience in
the prized 16 to 39 year-old market, and come second for
the first time in the viewing age group 25 to 54 (displacing
Channel Seven).
Four of the top five shows (total people) for 2004 were
on Ten, and of those, three were so-called event programs.
The Australian Idol Final Verdict show came first with
an audience of 3.35 million, the Big Brother - Winner
Announced was second, with 2.86 million, and Australian
Idol Live from the Opera House came third, with 2.85 million
viewers.
The network still came third in overall - or total people
- ratings, after the habitual winner, Nine and second
place-getter, Seven. But it narrowed its margin with Seven
to less than half of a share point (Nine's year-on-year
result was stable at 38.5 per cent of the total audience,
Seven lost 4.3 per cent of its audience to finish with
30.9 per cent, and Ten improved by 5.5 per cent to achieve
30.5).
Last year was our best ever year and to try and improve
from there is not going to be easy. It's not a sprint,
it's a 40-week marathon"
DAVID MOTT, NETWORK TEN
Ten's network programming chief, David Mott, says the
network hopes for even bigger things this year, but realises
that the other commercial networks are also in for a battle.
"Last year was our best ever year and to try and
improve from there is not going to be easy. It's not a
sprint, it's a 40-week marathon ... it's fair to say you
need to get off to pretty solid start."
The X Factor is a key element in the year's scheduling,
along with the Australian Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
and the other worldly detective series, Medium (a lineup
Mott hopes will go some way to combating the success destined
for the Seven import, Desperate Housewives).
The ratings bar for The X Factor is set dauntingly high
in the publicity material, which bills it as "set
to be the biggest reality talent blockbuster ever seen".
But Mott believes the show can live up to this, because
as well as returning to the hit super talent-quest format
it adds new elements to the genre. The fact that The X
Factor features The Bill heart-throb Daniel McPherson
as host can't hurt, either.
The X Factor concept, like Australian Idol, is an import,
and was designed by the acerbic English and American Idol
judge Simon Cowell, an acquaintance of the formerly camera-shy
Reid, and the man who persuaded him to do the Australian
X Factor.
Unlike the Idol programs, where judges and the audience
narrow down a winner from a big pool of young singers,
in The X Factor judges take performers from one of three
categories - solo artists 16 to 25, vocal groups, and
solo artists over 25 - under their wings and train them.
The idea is to identify people who may possess the mysterious
"X factor" appeal, and enhance it to the point
where everyone agrees they have more of it than their
rivals.
The judges worked together to select 30 finalists for
each category after the Melbourne-based show began filming
early in the New Year. Then, each judge - the other two
are Australian Idol judge, artist manager and former singer
Mark Holden, and Australian songstress Kate Ceberano -
took over one whole category.
They recruited stylists, vocal coaches and any other industry
specialists they deemed necessary to help them narrow
down the best in their group, during a three-day musical
boot camp known as the "lock down". The last
of these lock downs was filmed in late January.
Once each judge picks their final five, they make individual
home visits, coaching their charges intensively. Then
the judge must knock two more artists off their list of
finalists. Live shows follow, as the surviving three acts
in each category perform for public votes.
Each week the two artists with the lowest public vote
tally perform again for the judges, who decide who should
be eliminated. Judges presumably jostle to have their
own candidates survive, and part of the huge pulling power
of the UK version of the show was attributed to the tension
between rival judges.
The grand final of the Australian show, to be made sometime
near the end of May, will be broadcast live from the Vodafone
Arena. As the publicity material effuses, "for the
judges it's the ultimate report card, as their personal
efforts to push their talented charges to the top result
in a share of the spotlight or a personal defeat".
The winning artist receives a recording contract with
Sony BMG.
Executive producer, Michael Whyte, from Grundy Television,
says Ten has gone all out to support the making of the
show, and made all its resources available for use by
the producers.
Whyte says there is no mystery to the appeal of the show,
that it is simply: "The general public getting their
opportunity to get up on stage and have a go, particularly
this show, which has a widened age group."
Watching the judges put their producing and mentoring
skills to the test will add spark. Whyte has noticed that
despite years each in entertainment, the judges have already
allowed themselves to become personally involved with
the selection and grooming of their charges.
"It is a personal thing, they have to look these
people in the eye and say no, and these are some quite
good people. As they go through each stage and are letting
more people go it's gut-wrenching."
He watched John Reid, though not a performer, became extremely
involved and really agonise over his choosing his finalists.
"He couldn't sleep, his stomach was turning over
and over and over, he will tell you that was really, really
tough."
Reid, who had been invited to be a judge on international
Idol shows but declined (and said yes to this one because
he had planned a holiday trip to Australia already for
this year), confirms the job had been "an emotional
roller coaster".
"The stories, and the changes in dynamics from moment
to moment were absolutely exceptional," says Reed
of his days sorting out his final three.
Having not featured on screen before, Reid says he is
also trying to prepare for the loss of anonymity that
will flow from the show. "I've never really wanted
to be in front of the camera," he says. "In
all my career as a manager or producer it was never really
a goal of mine". He says he is "apprehensive"
about it.
Mark Holden admits the recognition from his two-year stint
as an occasionally ruthless judge on Australian Idol brought
more renown than he had prepared for. "In my first
year, I found it difficult; I was just adjusting to my
(on air) persona, and the way people perceived you.
Two years on Idol has also taught Holden that some contestants
on shows such as these are more at risk of having their
self-esteem crushed than others.
He has learnt to moderate his comments when dealing with
some genuinely "deluded" would-be performers,
and how to detect among crowds of people who would do
just about anything to get on TV, and whom he feels free
to trash with impunity.
"Sometimes there are people in there (for whom) you
know its just sport; you know they're in there for their
five minutes of (being on) TV and are prepared to do whatever
they have to do or say to make some sort of impact - at
which point we are totally at liberty to totally flay
them," says Holden.
"And sometimes you will find somebody that's genuinely
delusional in a way that's heart-breaking, and you feel
that urge to slice and dice, and you've got to stop yourself.
Because some people are delusional in a way that's quite
sad, and there's nothing to be achieved in massacring
them - where with others is absolutely come in spinner.
Some of them ask for it and you give it to 'em."
Those singers who do make it to the finals of such shows,
or win them, deserve to be given more respect by the mainstream
music industry than they sometimes are, says Holden.
Sitting in a Southbank restaurant the day after judge
John Reid had filmed his "lock down", Reid,
Mark Holden and Kate Ceberano all rail against the snubbing
by the industry of talent-shows such as theirs, and the
cynical attitude some parts of the music industry display
towards the artists.
Holden believes there is an anti-TV snobbery in the image-conscious
music business: "There are some people who can't
stand anything that's on television, and because of the
mere fact that its on TV they assume it's somehow diminished
and you're not going to change those people's minds.
"But I defy you to say that Shannon Noll got a free
kick or that Guy Sebastian got a free kick - those guys
were working every day of their lives (to break into the
music industry). They were thinking about it, dreaming
it about it, being it, doing it.
"It (being a bona fide musician) wasn't something
they turned up to that day and suddenly became. All that
happened was television gave them a leg up, just like
Triple J unearthed Missy Higgins."
Says Reid: "I think the recorded music establishment
is scared of other people taking away their power; they're
scared of television. They like to use it, but as long
as it's at their behest."
Ceberano says the talent-quest genre should be lauded
by the music industry for at least putting music onto
prime time TV. "Sport ... has taken a huge profile
in this country and art has taken a back seat.
"If at the very worst this puts music on our television
three days a week again that's great. There are artists,
including myself, who work very, very hard and can't get
arrested because our country hasn't been focusing on that
form or art."
Holden's broadsides will not doubt cause a tiny bit of
controversy in music circles, but a this cannot but benefit
a new show carrying the type of expectations riding on
X Factor.
The network, at least from programmer Mott's perspective,
believes it is on a winner. "I'm really confident
its going to cut through," says Mott. "It may
take a couple of weeks, there is a lot of heavy artillery
out there (attractive year-opening shows from other networks)
as everyone is jockeying for position.
"But if it does 60 per cent of the Idol audience
(which was two million for the performance shows) we're
going to be thrilled."
The X Factor premieres on Sunday at 7.30pm on Channel
Ten.
