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.
kaesmel says:
OMG Xcorvettes. Wasn't expecting to see you round here. You disappeared a couple of days before the results so felt sure you were one of the voted bands.
If you haven't got through that is a real shame I was all set to vote for you in the next round. (if that is how it works)
Take care
Kaesmel
About 1 month ago
Leika says:
howdy, pls check out our old/new song Mary on:
www.myspace.com/leikamusic
This was recorded way before Amy and Duffy came onto the scene
About 1 month ago
ART says:
Thats Me In the white hoodie.
This is just after Mr Zane had spoken to me.
Good times.
everyone who reads this..
www.myspace.com/wearearty
Was A Great day!
And hello too Thomas Puskailer
We we're the guys behind you.
and the Golden boys..
Shake Your Fadangi!
Love ART!
x
About 1 month ago
daddy_dent says:
Thanks Rosered,
I just feel that the whole thing was underestimated, ( where’s the bl~~dy vote button again?)
Anyway all of Jamie’s relatives from Italy are provisional musicians
Think we should start there.
Ever on iow the festival bestival so on call in.
About 1 month ago
Thomas Puskailer says:
He that's me sitting on the fence behind Alex Zane, cool, it was a day not to forget, cheers Thomas
About 1 month ago
Rosered says:
Me and my friend were behind Jamie Dent in the queue ^_^ we chatted along the way, if you look closely at the first picture in the blog you will spot him. We got in to audtition together and he was taken to the middle room while i went to a side room. I heard a bit of his song while i was going in my room, twas sounding good :) I think he played well.
About 1 month ago
daddy_dent says:
This has all been an adventure, hard work and, fun, but I just want to know as far as singer songs writers are concerned, who is through!
Then that is the bench mark to make a judgement, for all who did not make it through.
And a good indicator is Jamie Dents case,
After Saturday, playing in a hall! (where the acoustics must have been sh~t ).
that the people making the judgement of him, on whatever panel, are both visually and audibly impaired.
Cannot wait for you to prove me wrong, because at the moment, I, no we have no bench mark to judge your judgement!.
Jamie Dent should be seen and heard.
This is no sour grapes, as it will happen, with or without this competition.
Just let us know
About 1 month ago
Project Alpha says:
Hope everyone enjoyed it, we didn't go due to the fact we are far too good (or because we don't have much acoustic material at all!) and it's a long way for us to travel and seeing that our "Electric" stuff didn't get us in; acouticly we'd've gone down like a fart in a lift and that would've meant we'd have to resort using OLD numbers that aren´t what we do or what we're about and that kind of defeats the object of the contest.
Hope those involved have a great time and make some bloody good TV.
Best of luck
Project Alpha
About 1 month ago
rocks101 says:
hmmmmmm................if they are still doing checks that probably means this will drag on and on and on, considering the fiasco it has been already with things like slicethepie making you ineligable. it'll be a miracle if they can actually find anyone who is eligable at all at this rate and by the time they do we'll probably all be fed up and moved onto something else more interesting lol
About 1 month ago
Run Dont Walk says:
Wow, everyone was seen? That must have been some effort! The judges must have bleeding eardrums by the end of it...
Good luck to the people that got the callback tomorrow. This has been a good comp. to be part of. Looking forward to seeing the TV shows!
About 1 month ago
Lucas says:
We haven't posted the results of the Open Auditions yet because Jo Whiley does not see the recalled acts until Tuesday. She will choose a minimum of 4 more acts to join the 50 who have already gone through. All the acts will then be announced at the same time - and not before we have done thorough checks to make sure that they are all definitely "unsigned". We're not just taking people's word for the fact that they don't already have recording or distribution agreements in place. We hope you understand and appreciate all the hard work that is going on behind the scenes to make this an exciting but also very fair competition.
2 months ago
emilia rigney says:
I'M WEARING A HAT!
AND I THINK IT MAY'VE BEEN SHORTLY AFTER I'D CHATTED TO HIM!
I could be wrong...
2 months ago
emilia rigney says:
i'm in the second to last pic!
i'm looking right at the camera!
argh!
2 months ago
sanedavid says:
Queued for 5hrs. The lady from Princess Productions was really nice the guy from Universal was a prick! Still meet awsome people in the queue including the fit production runners. All in EXCELLENT experience, wouldn't of missed it....... Do I need to say I didn't get through?
2 months ago
NewLine says:
We traveld from Birmingham at 5 in the morning and waited till 5 in the afternoon. Was a long, long wait.
2 months ago
Darnell says:
*****Orange Unsigned video on our myspace page, under the video section****
Darnell travelled down to London to take part in this years orange unsigned open audition. Part of the journey and the queuing up were filmed by Darnell. Hope you enjoy this little video, who knows, you may even be on it!! ps Update, Darnell did not make it through to the next stage of Orange Unsigned, but we had a great time. All the staff and the people we met on the day were great. We travelled a long way for the audition and it cost a lot of money, but we think it was worth it!!
2 months ago
ImAllEars says:
This is really ridiculous. Have you actually decided on the 50 bands that are going through? We all know that there will be some extra acts as well as the 50, but why on earth are you not releasing the names of the bands/artists who have gone through?
It's been over a week now since the voting closed.
2 months ago
Denrele says:
GIVE US RESULTS AND NOT PHOTOS PLEASE!!!
2 months ago
Maria Rosa Young says:
well, thank god, i'm not there, i loooked and felt like HELL by the end of the day pmsl...
2 months ago