Red Moon
17-10-2008, 09:22 PM
The fiX-factorLIKE millions of Britons, Richard Wilkinson was more than aware that X-Factor was a show which was largely orchestrated – but until he became a contestant last year he had no idea just how orchestrated.
The 25-year-old from Rawdon made it through to the live finals only to get booted off in the third round as part of "spontaneously formed" boyband Futureproof.
In fact there was nothing spontaneous about their formation.
That was just one of countless carefully contrived elements which he says the show's bosses threw into the mix, ironically to make it seem dramatic and unpredictable.
"In their first auditions they asked all the other guys in Futureproof how they'd feel about being put in a band," said Richard. "But the way they made it look on TV was like they'd ingeniously come up with the idea afterwards and took a gamble.
"They always have a script or a plan of action, this year you can see already they're trying to steer it more towards an urban/Amy Winehouse vibe, and in that way it isn't really a talent contest, it is just pure TV, it's about entertainment.
"I've watched a few of the early audition episodes but I have to turn it off after a while because you see these contestants saying 'This is all I wanna do, it means the world to me, I don't know what I'll do if I don't get through.'
"And I know that there's one of the X-Factor people stood just off cameras virtually telling them what to say – I know because I did it myself."
But the biggest surprise for Richard came when, during the first round of publicity for the live shows, he was asked to keep quiet about the fact that he was gay.
He said: "The show's press officer told me 'I know you're very comfortable with your sexuality but if you could avoid talking about that.'
"I asked why and she said: 'You'll have loads of teenage girls voting for you and they might not if they know you're gay'. I got a little bit offended by that.
"And when I was interviewed by The Sun they immediately asked me something which meant I might have had to have talked about my sexuality, which was awkward but then when one of the other guys, Aaron, revealed his mum was a drug addict that suddenly took the attention off me.
"In the end I ended up saying I was bisexual so as to soften the blow a little – but I am in fact completely homosexual."
Even their departure from the competition, which shocked many observers because they were initially seen as favourites to win, may have been partly orchestrated, Richard suspects.
He said: "It's only a suspicion, but when you live in the house with all the other contestants the producers come and live with you too and they feed back to the rest of the team what all the contestants are like.
"And one of the guys in the band was very erratic.
"I wondered if they saw this and thought the band might have been too risky a proposition with him in it, I don't know, but we were all very shocked when we were knocked out so early."
Initially, Richard was heartened by comments from the judges when they referred to him as having a similar voice and persona to that of Will Young but even this ended up counting against him.
He said: "I dated one of the producers after the show and he told me the only reason I didn't get through as a solo artist was because I was a bit too much like Will Young. Though I suppose I'd rather be like Will Young than Michelle McManus."
Despite all this, Richard remains largely positive about the last year which has seen him perform across the country with Futureproof, surfing on the attention and support they gained from their three appearances on X-Factor's live shows in 2007.
The band are officially still together – minus one band member – but the boys are now each pursuing 'solo projects' and Richard has returned home to Leeds and, in his own tongue-in-cheek words, is "available to sing at weddings and funerals.'
This positivity comes in spite of the fact that he's financially worse off than he was when he used to work part-time in bar Fibre and various clothing stores around Leeds like Zara, Reiss and Ace.
And he's still smarting from the realisation that being a part of X-Factor wasn't quite the golden ticket he hoped it would be.
"In some ways it can be a curse," he said. "We discovered there is a certain stigma to being a reject from a talent show. For example, we managed to get a demo tape of our own material to one of the bigwigs at Polydor and he just refused to even listen to it because we came from X-Factor.
"If you come in the top three it can be a blessing particularly if you're a singer like Leona Lewis, for example, who's a bit of a puppet. They can just throw songs at you, because they have in mind what they want to do with you.
"But I think there would have come a point with Futureproof where they would have had us dressed in white suits and standing up on key changes and I don't think I could have dealt with that."
Richard waxes lyrical about the judges – including Cowell – who he says were all very pleasant people. Even his female rivals Hope he insists were always a lot of fun.
His favourite was Aleisha while his least favourite housemate was actually the winner Leon Jackson who, despite being a thoroughly pleasant chap, used to steal Richard's food when they were in the house together.
It's been a rollercoaster 12 months, but Richard seems remarkably calm and happy. But he's reached a milestone in his personal life as well as his professional life. He may now be a healthy 13 stone and comfortable about the fact he's gay but it wasn't always that way.
Richard said: "I was about 16 stone when I was in my mid-teens because I comfort ate as I struggled with my sexuality. In turn that meant I was picked on massively at school because, basically, I was fat AND gay.
Now Richard is looking forward to pursuing his own music, though he has no hunger to become a celebrity.
"X-Factor dangles the fame carrot in front of you," he said. "But I never want to be famous. I can't think of anything worse than being chased by photographers or having people go through your bins.
"The music I wanna do is a bit of Zero Seven/Massive Attack style. I'm not even bothered about being a pop star, I'd just like to do enough to earn a comfortable living from singing and making music, basically.
"For some reason people think if you've been on the X-Factor you're instantaneously a pop star and earned millions of pounds but I'm still the bloke who used to work in Fibre – only now I'm worse off.
"So if I can do two or three gigs a week singing at weddings and things like that then brilliant if that means I can do my own music the rest of the time.
"I just keep reminding myself that I'm happy and, more than anything else, I'm still young and there's tons of things I can still do with my life."
l Visit www.myspace.com/ dickieblues
Source:Yorkshire Evening Post (http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/features/The-fiXfactor-.4603410.jp)
The 25-year-old from Rawdon made it through to the live finals only to get booted off in the third round as part of "spontaneously formed" boyband Futureproof.
In fact there was nothing spontaneous about their formation.
That was just one of countless carefully contrived elements which he says the show's bosses threw into the mix, ironically to make it seem dramatic and unpredictable.
"In their first auditions they asked all the other guys in Futureproof how they'd feel about being put in a band," said Richard. "But the way they made it look on TV was like they'd ingeniously come up with the idea afterwards and took a gamble.
"They always have a script or a plan of action, this year you can see already they're trying to steer it more towards an urban/Amy Winehouse vibe, and in that way it isn't really a talent contest, it is just pure TV, it's about entertainment.
"I've watched a few of the early audition episodes but I have to turn it off after a while because you see these contestants saying 'This is all I wanna do, it means the world to me, I don't know what I'll do if I don't get through.'
"And I know that there's one of the X-Factor people stood just off cameras virtually telling them what to say – I know because I did it myself."
But the biggest surprise for Richard came when, during the first round of publicity for the live shows, he was asked to keep quiet about the fact that he was gay.
He said: "The show's press officer told me 'I know you're very comfortable with your sexuality but if you could avoid talking about that.'
"I asked why and she said: 'You'll have loads of teenage girls voting for you and they might not if they know you're gay'. I got a little bit offended by that.
"And when I was interviewed by The Sun they immediately asked me something which meant I might have had to have talked about my sexuality, which was awkward but then when one of the other guys, Aaron, revealed his mum was a drug addict that suddenly took the attention off me.
"In the end I ended up saying I was bisexual so as to soften the blow a little – but I am in fact completely homosexual."
Even their departure from the competition, which shocked many observers because they were initially seen as favourites to win, may have been partly orchestrated, Richard suspects.
He said: "It's only a suspicion, but when you live in the house with all the other contestants the producers come and live with you too and they feed back to the rest of the team what all the contestants are like.
"And one of the guys in the band was very erratic.
"I wondered if they saw this and thought the band might have been too risky a proposition with him in it, I don't know, but we were all very shocked when we were knocked out so early."
Initially, Richard was heartened by comments from the judges when they referred to him as having a similar voice and persona to that of Will Young but even this ended up counting against him.
He said: "I dated one of the producers after the show and he told me the only reason I didn't get through as a solo artist was because I was a bit too much like Will Young. Though I suppose I'd rather be like Will Young than Michelle McManus."
Despite all this, Richard remains largely positive about the last year which has seen him perform across the country with Futureproof, surfing on the attention and support they gained from their three appearances on X-Factor's live shows in 2007.
The band are officially still together – minus one band member – but the boys are now each pursuing 'solo projects' and Richard has returned home to Leeds and, in his own tongue-in-cheek words, is "available to sing at weddings and funerals.'
This positivity comes in spite of the fact that he's financially worse off than he was when he used to work part-time in bar Fibre and various clothing stores around Leeds like Zara, Reiss and Ace.
And he's still smarting from the realisation that being a part of X-Factor wasn't quite the golden ticket he hoped it would be.
"In some ways it can be a curse," he said. "We discovered there is a certain stigma to being a reject from a talent show. For example, we managed to get a demo tape of our own material to one of the bigwigs at Polydor and he just refused to even listen to it because we came from X-Factor.
"If you come in the top three it can be a blessing particularly if you're a singer like Leona Lewis, for example, who's a bit of a puppet. They can just throw songs at you, because they have in mind what they want to do with you.
"But I think there would have come a point with Futureproof where they would have had us dressed in white suits and standing up on key changes and I don't think I could have dealt with that."
Richard waxes lyrical about the judges – including Cowell – who he says were all very pleasant people. Even his female rivals Hope he insists were always a lot of fun.
His favourite was Aleisha while his least favourite housemate was actually the winner Leon Jackson who, despite being a thoroughly pleasant chap, used to steal Richard's food when they were in the house together.
It's been a rollercoaster 12 months, but Richard seems remarkably calm and happy. But he's reached a milestone in his personal life as well as his professional life. He may now be a healthy 13 stone and comfortable about the fact he's gay but it wasn't always that way.
Richard said: "I was about 16 stone when I was in my mid-teens because I comfort ate as I struggled with my sexuality. In turn that meant I was picked on massively at school because, basically, I was fat AND gay.
Now Richard is looking forward to pursuing his own music, though he has no hunger to become a celebrity.
"X-Factor dangles the fame carrot in front of you," he said. "But I never want to be famous. I can't think of anything worse than being chased by photographers or having people go through your bins.
"The music I wanna do is a bit of Zero Seven/Massive Attack style. I'm not even bothered about being a pop star, I'd just like to do enough to earn a comfortable living from singing and making music, basically.
"For some reason people think if you've been on the X-Factor you're instantaneously a pop star and earned millions of pounds but I'm still the bloke who used to work in Fibre – only now I'm worse off.
"So if I can do two or three gigs a week singing at weddings and things like that then brilliant if that means I can do my own music the rest of the time.
"I just keep reminding myself that I'm happy and, more than anything else, I'm still young and there's tons of things I can still do with my life."
l Visit www.myspace.com/ dickieblues
Source:Yorkshire Evening Post (http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/features/The-fiXfactor-.4603410.jp)