We've revealed the Top 50 - but who sneaked in via the open auditions?
In a web exclusive, we'd like to reveal the 4 acts who got through via the open auditions here on the site before they are revealed on TV.
They are:
Bo Bruce
Tommy Reilly
Sleepercell
Toby Sebastian
You can only find out how they fare alongside the other 50 by watching the TV show on T4 from 2 November...
We hope you’re enjoying the selection of finalists revealed so far, we’re definitely pleased with the positive reaction in the comment section – and excitement is building towards the first auditions on Saturday.
The show airs on 4music and T4 in less than a month, but if you can’t wait that long, have a free treat on us - use this last chance to get tickets to this weekend’s auditions by visiting www.sroaudiences.com.
Remember – the event takes place all day on Sat 4th and Sun 5th October at:
ULU
Malet Street
London,
WC1E 7HY
Exciting news...
Every day this week until the first auditions we will be revealing 10 of our finalists.
We've randomly selected 10 for you to meet today - and what a great bunch they are.
Who's your early tip for the top?
Has one of your faves made it through?
Or do you disagree with the public and judges who put them through?
One thing's for sure - you'll be getting to know these acts - and the other finalists - much better over the coming weeks and months.
Tune in tomorrow to see 10 more finalists....
That’s right - five days to go until the first batch of our finalists take to the stage at London’s ULU – with the nail-biting task of impressing our judges, their fans and millions of viewers to grab a place in the next round.
Will this year’s crop of artists deliver sterling live performances in front of our cameras and the world… or die trying?
In five days we’ll also discover the identity of out first celebrity guest panelist who’ll be casting an eye over our acts. Will they be charming, polite and courteous, or mischievous unruly and uncontrollable – and will the artists behave themselves too?
We’ll also find out just how much Alex James hates singer-songwriters – and if our security will be needed to hold him back.
We know some of you are getting restless – you really want to know who the finalists are. To reiterate what we’ve said in earlier posts, the final acts will be revealed after all checks have been carried out to ensure they’re all eligible. We understand why you’re restless; and we’re not doing this to be cruel – we have to do everything by the book… so keep your toys in the pram and play nice!
If you want to keep your finger on the pulse of Orange unsignedAct and discover all the juiciest details from the auditions before it’s aired on TV– you’ll just have to be there. So check our previous blog here, work out how many tickets you and your mates need and visit www.sroaudiences.com
We’ve been doing some research into what’s on in London and surrounding areas next weekend… it’s a tough choice.
1. Chris Bayliss Line Dancing Classes
Get those legs-a-movin with this fast paced, rigid, communist style of dancing.
2. Riva Bingo
Wield that special red pen, browse a card full of numbers and grab a granny (or granddad) on a Saturday night.
3. Labyrinthe Live Role Playing Club
Get your best axe and shield out of the cupboard and prepare to do battle with Vikings, goblins and fat goths in a farmer’s field.
4. Orange unsignedAct MAIN AUDITIONS
A cluster of the choicest, hand picked unsigned artists delivering the performance of their life in a bid to wow celeb judges (including a special guest), millions of TV viewers and a crowd thirsty for fresh exciting music.
Hmmm…
If you like options 1-3, ask your parents what went wrong.
If you’re up for option 4 – visit www.sroaudiences.com - telling us how many tickets you’ll need and what date you’d like to attend.
The dates are now as follows:
London ULU – Sat 4th & Sun 5th October 2008
Leeds Met University – Sat 11th & Sun 12th October 2008
Get your requests in quick people – Line Dancing with Chris Bayliss is filling up fast.
Although over a thousand people turned up to the open auditions on Saturday, with the general standard being very high, we could only bring 26 acts back to perform for Jo Whiley.
Fresh faced youngsters Skyhorse were one of the 26 acts to perform in front of Jo.
Tuesday saw our production floor rammed with all manner of characters waiting for a chance to play in the studio for Jo – with the tension in the air thicker than Winehouse’s matted barnet.
Soulful Wreh Asha was one of the last artists to perform – the wait adding to the tension.
The 26 brought back to play for Jo spanned a variety of genres… not just indie bands.
Folk singer-songwriter Sarah Howells at the top of our studios.
Some acts travelled long distances for the chance to make it through to the next round. Tommy Reilly travelled from Glasgow, Charlie Barnes from Huddersfield and Jamie Joseph (below) from Derby.
Jamie Jospeh and the Jive Talk came to perform their jazz and country influenced music.
Some of the acts amused themselves during the long wait until Jo Whiley’s judgment by playing their tunes on and around our production floor – providing a livelier working atmosphere for the offices surrounding our studios.
Rap lyricist Jae P warms his hands up before he performs for Jo.
As all the artists would be told the outcome by Jo at the end of their performance, with only four being chosen for the main auditions - nervous looks were evident on lots of faces.
Charlie Barnes looked calm but was feeling the nerves on the day.
Some acts had to really change their set up to adjust to the acoustic environment. This was especially the case for hardcore metal band Zenith – only the front man performed while the rest gave moral but silent support.
The lads from Zenith look to their front man (centre) for their chance to make the Channel 4 auditions.
Joanna and the Wolf show their distinctive style as they pose for the camera.
The acts all put plenty of effort into their image as well as their music. Not that we'd like to grass, but a couple of acts may have skipped school to make it to the auditions too.
Alex Zane was on hand to interview the artists and put them at ease with his banter, while some of the artists had some amusing chat of their own. Dr Robert (below) definitely had the gift of the gab with his distinctive northern twang – and was confident of winning the competition.
Dr Robert charms Alex with his confident northern banter while our crew films them.
As acts entered the studio the pressure was on – with Jo Whiley sat on the sofa poised to give her all-important verdict after each performance.
Rochelle gets ready to perform for Jo in the studio.
After chatting with a lot of the performers throughout the day, it was really tough to see most of them leave the studio without a Channel 4 spot, but for those that got through there was applause, high fives, jubilant cheers and joyful tears.
We'll be hosting exclusive previews of some of the open audition recall performers next week.
You'll also be able to see the full reports on Channel 4 and 4Music from 30th October.
Yesterday we brought you part one of the open auditions report, where over a thousand people turned up to perform for our judges with the aim of playing in front of Jo Whiley, getting to the main Channel 4 auditions and grabbing the big Universal record deal.
Here's the second installment of our report - and the eclectic bunch of characters that go with it.
Alex Zane wasn’t the only TV celeb at the auditions – Daisy Lowe did a photo shoot in the alley, Razorlight walked past - and Che Watson, the singer in Dirty Muzzle, told us of his day job – playing the part of Eddie in Hollyoaks. I don’t watch it personally, but does anyone know if Che is telling the truth? One of our runners said she’s watched Hollyoaks everyday for five years and never seen him – yet someone else thinks Eddie does indeed exist.
Next up is a guy who goes by the name of Poser. If his shirt doesn’t match the name then his shoes definitely do. Luckily the queue wasn’t by a busy road – otherwise there’d have been traffic carnage caused by the piercing glare from the golden slippers.
His defining moment came when he set himself on fire during a performance. This unplanned pyrotechnic display showed what can happen when you drink flammable spirits while drunkenly smoking cigarettes on stage. It’s rumoured that RATM dropped him for their album cover at the last minute to make way for the flaming monk.
There were no microphones present at Saturday’s acoustic auditions – so this girl thought ahead and brought along her own. I think the height needs adjusting though.
What did you say to her Carpet Bang Bang man? Is that the look of disapproval on her face or a coy ‘hard-to-get’ expression? I think he asked her if she’d like a bit of carpet bang bang, but there’s a 99% chance I’m wrong.
Now now boys – we don’t want any fisticuffs here. Save your aggression for the blog comments like everyone else!
Curtis and James from Thief Taker recounted the violent, harrowing tale of how their band formed. James used to beat up Curtis at school – one time stripping him naked, giving him only a ping pong bat to cover his loins with (Curtis needed at least a squash racket (he said) and then proceeding to hit him repeatedly with a wooden bat.
Curtis wisely lay low for a while – until he was spotted by James on the school bus. Fearing for his life, Curtis began to flee – but the Led Zeppelin T shirt he wore that day saved him. Through their mutual appreciation of Zep – they put their differences aside – formed Thief Taker and never looked back.
Here we see them share a moment together over Led Zeppelin and the violent feud they overcame to become lifelong friends. Guys…that’s a whole lotta love.
On Saturday over a thousand of you turned up to play for a place in front of Jo Whiley and a chance to get past the qualifying stages of Orange unsignedAct with the ultimate aim of winning that big record deal with Universal.
Armed with an array of acoustic instruments (we saw sitars, xylophones, bongos and cellos to name a few) people came from far and wide to play for our judges.
Even though the queue stretched round about 73 corners (one band left their house in Luton and were instantly at the back of the queue) – everyone managed to perform their piece. Here, in pictures – is part one of the story of our open auditions.
The Orange unsignedAct team arrived at the open auditions venue at 7:45am – and we were took aback by the long queue which had already formed stretching around the corner of the venue, with some people looking wearily at us from within their sleeping bags after choosing to camp overnight. Dedication!
Gavin Ellis was one of the long sufferers – along with his mum, who left Huddersfield at 3am to drive him to the auditions, and then waited in the queue with him for 6 hours. Round of applause for Gav’s mum everyone!
Some took it upon themselves to provide the queue with some impromptu musical entertainment – The Jackpot Golden Boys sang most of the way through their wait – only stopping to eat the free jelly beans we gave out and have thirty minute conversations about the pitfalls of liquorice and aniseed (boy they could talk!)
Our host Alex Zane arrived and helped keep everyone’s spirits up with his banter. Quite why he’s walking sheepishly away in this photo is unclear though – perhaps someone dropped a stinker!
We’ll leave part one of the blog with two members from the band Thief Taker sharing a special moment together in the queue – find out why tomorrow.
Huge thanks to the thousands of you who came down to the open auditions on Saturday.
It was a great day and somehow we managed to see everyone who came down.
We've now spoken to everyone that we would like to come back for the recall with Jo Whiley, so if you haven't heard from us yet then unfortunately you haven't made it through. We're really sorry we couldn't invite more of you back - the standard was very high all round.
Thanks again for being so patient and, in some cases, sleeping on the pavement to get a spot near the front.
A full report and photos will be posted later today.
One more day to go until the open auditions - exciting times. We’ve got two final pieces of information for you to digest and take note of…
We need to ask anyone who attends to try and refrain from wearing big logos on their clothing, as we aren’t allowed to show these on TV. Otherwise we’ll have to make you perform in your underwear (joking).
Also, could everyone bring ID with them please – a passport or driving licence. We need to know you’re over 16 and are who you say you are. We don’t want David Bowie turning up and pretending to be Jason Donovan.
For further information on the open auditions check out our earlier blog post here.
Whoever’s coming down – see you tomorrow, bright and early.