Dear all,
So I suppose I’d better comment on that daft viola player who threw eggs at Simon Cowell. Firstly, my views on Britain’s Got Talent and similar shows I’m sure are well known and indeed have been chronicled in an interview I did with writer Leon Bailey-Green elsewhere on the web, but let me give you a quick resume. I am not a fan. That was quick. Ok a little more…these shows are stifling the industry and I am if I’m honest staggered at how many people in Britain are so easily impressed. Just because someone can sing vaguely in tune or play a few chords on the guitar and are not the clowns that people laugh at like a freak show in the early auditons because they are so deluded and untalented, does not mean they are that good. Invariably, they are not.
Anyway, the point of me saying that is to say I would quite enjoy Simon Cowell being hit with eggs because…well who wouldn’t? But, assuming this was not a staged conspiracy (which I’ll come to in a minute), the lady Natalie seems a tad hypocritical given her own string quartet entered the competition last year! You can’t really complain about the hold he has over the industry when you yourself tried to sponge off it girl. As for the cobblers about ‘our manager said we should’…well you could not there’s a thought? And the best way to protest against him is possibly not to give the show, beginning to decline thankfully, more publicity than it’s had already…
Plus there is the thought in my mind that it might have raised an eyebrow or too if the viola player brought a box of eggs on stage with her as well as her viola. I read she had them in her tights, well might one of the backing group, production team or anyone else have remarked ‘gosh your thigh’s looking a bit odd, what did you do to it?’. Whether it was a conspiracy or not, one can’t help but feel a tad sorry for the two singers even though they were mind meltingly dull. This was their big moment after all and the potential to be famous and have one single then sing on a cruise for twenty years. There’s also the fact that there was probably an objective to raise the profile of herself and her quartet. A fiver to anyone reading who can name that quartet? Well that worked then. But to be fair we do all know her name now. You know Natalie Holt, the viola player who people assume is a bit mental and probably wouldn’t want to employ.
Good call dear…
Well it’s been a fun little time of travelling and gigging and whatnot. First up was a great gig at the Cumberland Arms in Newcastle appearing in Tony Bengtsson’s band. What a voice that man has – check out his fine album ‘Snake In The Woodpile’ which I played banjo on. Sterling chap too, good at ranting…
Then came a marvellous evening at my parents before a return to old favourite the Railway in Norton Bridge and then another old favourite – Elmfield School in Stourbridge teaching folk music for a couple of days. Tonight I’m adding some banjo to the debut EP of fabulous band Clutching at Straws featuring my old chum James Baskett no less (he co-wrote Wiseman and Every Day Is A Better Day among others).
Back to gigging this weekend at Bath Banjo Festival which is always a blast so woohoo!
My I’m using short paragraphs today.