X Factor 2011 Live Tour

Nine acts, fantastic production values, incredible staging, spectacular sound, actual fireworks. In fact so many fireworks that by the time Matt Cardle came on in the second half the air was literally foggy with smoke.

You pretty much know what to expect with X Factor and they definitely know how to put on a brilliant show. Everything was slick, choreographed and branded to within an inch of its life. Each finalist was introduced with their X Factor show intro and best bits, and each performed a number of their most popular X Factor songs complete with extensive live backing, an energetic troupe of dancers, ever-changing sets and lots of costume changes.

Okay, some auto-tuning would have been welcome at times but otherwise this was just a great bill of X Factor finalists and the audience loved it. There was a little pantomime booing at times but only at the video indents and all the acts were treated to generous applause from an engaged audience, quite a few sporting flashing bunny ears and giant pointy foam fingers.

The surprise was which acts had stage presence live (Cher Lloyd, Katy Waissel), which acts made the crowd erupt with excitement (One Direction – memo to some of the middle-aged Mums: they are mere boys, stop looking as if you are lusting after them, it is frankly inappropriate.) And which acts the crowd retained great affection for (Mary Byrne, Wagner). Runner-up Rebecca Ferguson was predictably classy despite the fact that her style is less suited to this type of venue and bill than, say, Paige Richardson who stuck to a winning formula of up-tempo bubblegum. Aiden Grimshaw was stylish and made girls scream though he too is perhaps less comfortable with being paraded round to the masses…

In general the boys were the undoubted stars of the show with heartthrob Aiden and cute pop boys One Direction (GET READY TO SCREAAAAAAAM!!! shouted the video indent) whipping the crowd into a frenzy ready for Matt Cardle (YOUR WINNER!!!). A gracious and worthy winner, Cardle has star quality, a unique voice and some of his song choices and arrangements are simply stunning. His version of ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ had a restless audience sitting silent and enraptured with just the giant foam fingers and flashing bunny ears serving as a reminder that we were a captive audience for a globally-branded ITV talent-show… That and the record number of fireworks being set off.

Brighton Centre, 15–17 March
5/5
Candy MacNamara