18th Mar - That time I was on The X Factor...


The recent spate of glorious sunshine has prompted a rather jolly mood in my soul over the past 24 hours, and I've randomly found myself singing, a sure-fire sign of joy, at regular intervals around the house etc. Sometimes it might just be the screensaver to my mind... "We'd rather have a bowl of Coco Pops", but on other occasions, there have been instances of 'Hollaback Girl', or Rachel Stevens' noughties anthem 'Some Girls'. Pop music, in general, has died a death over the past 10 years. We see very few cheesey bands like A1, Boyzone, or the Backstreet Boys coming through these days, and that may, be partly my fault. 

You see... The first dagger into the heart of pop music arrived in the Spring of 2010, when a trio of chums & I decided to form a 'boyband' and entered our University's talent competition with a somewhat woeful rendition of Blue's 'All Rise', leaving muggings over here to take on the Simon Webbe rap solo. From there, with female fans (half-jokingly) launching their knickers at our feet on stage, things snowballed and we soon found ourselves camped outside London's ExCel Arena on a cold May morning at the break of sunrise. 



We decided to ditch the success of our Blue-inspired tribute act to instead focus on the soulful beats of Plan B's 'She Said', which was storming the U.K charts at the time. And though, in a year when we were up against somewhat stiff (literally, in the case of Harry Styles) competition in the form of One Direction, we returned to campus with our heads held high as the Pride of Hampshire, even earning a gig in a local cocktail bar. From then on in, we told anecdotes of how we had a chat with Dermot O'Leary whilst stood next to him in the urinals, (100% true), and how Dannii Minogue had now joined our fan-club (somewhat less true). And that, is the story... 



... Of that time I was on 'The X Factor'.


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