news articles- 28 July

[Inside Australian Idol]

Wannabes wary of Judge Dread
By Toby Forage
July 28, 2003


AUSTRALIAN Idol has arrived on television screens to fill the void left by Big Brother, but the judges are arguably providing more entertainment than the contestants.

Ian Dickson (far right) with fellow 'Idol' judges Marcia Hines and Mark Holden.

Not least Ian Dickson, affectionately known as "Dicko", and already the owner of some less flattering monikers, thanks to the barrage of barbs he launched at young hopefuls in last night's premiere on Channel 10.
The marketing guru for record label BMG, who is joined on the judging panel by soul diva Marcia Hines and writer/producer Mark Holden, held nothing back in his assessment of the Australian pop wannabes who auditioned in their droves across the country for a place in the finals in Sydney.

The Englishman's acidic tongue delivered such gems as:
"Your voice isn't strong enough to overcome the way you look."

"You've got as much chance of winning as I have of playing cricket for England."

"So, you choose to worship God through your voice do you? Have you thought about taking a vow of silence?"
"Your looks could stop traffic, but your voice is more likely to cause an accident."

And there was more, including - after a rendition of Staying Alive by a rather hapless Western Australian - Dickson's own cover of the Bee Gees' classic, with the chorus "Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, staying in Perth, staying in Perth".

All of which reduced as many grown men to tears as it did nervous teenage girls.

Dickson is almost sure to become the judge we'll all love to hate over the coming weeks, a role his fellow Englishman Simon Cowell played to perfection during the first series of American Idol in the United States.
However, Cowell appears to have paid a price for his carefree comments ahead of the next British series of Pop Idol. He has reportedly hired a bodyguard in recent days to fend off potential attacks from disgruntled contestants and their supporters.

So will Dickson be taking similar steps to avoid any unwanted advances. "Not at this stage," a Channel 10 spokesman told NEWS.com.au, perhaps suggesting that it could happen in the future.

But such revelations are of no concern to executives at Channel 10, who are hoping the "Idol" phenomenon which enthralled more than 60 million viewers around the world will generate similar success in Australia.
If Dickson's comments remain uncensored, his cult following alone could break new records.

Dickson, though, will not have the final say on who will become the first Australian Idol.

While he, Hines and Holden will continue to offer comments and analysis of the 40 performers they will push through to the finals, it will be the viewers who choose the winner.

And that lucky "Idol" will not only enjoy adulation of Regina-esque proportions, but will also win a record deal with BMG and more marketing muscle than J-Lo could shake her hips at.

Whether it will all lead to lasting fame remains to be seen, but past winners' form has been good. American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson has hit No.1 with no trouble in the States, while Will Young has topped the British charts on more than one occasion, rivalled only by Pop Idol runner-up Gareth Gates.

entertainment.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4459,6824196%255E10229%255E%255Enbv,00.html

[Inside Australian Idol]

You be the judge: how Australian Idol works

By Richard Jinman
July 28 2003

Australian Idol kicked off last night with one of two 90-minute background programs. The second will air this Sunday. It continues the story of how 10,000 hopefuls were reduced to a group of 40 finalists by judges Marcia Hines, Mark Holden and Ian Dickson.

The 40 remaining contestants will be divided into five groups of eight. Each group gets its own performance episode - a one-hour studio show in which each contestant sings a verse and chorus of a song of their choice under the guidance of musical director John Foreman. Viewers vote for their favourite singer by telephone or SMS.

The first of these performance shows airs next Sunday, August 10. Viewers' votes will be tallied overnight and the top two performers will be announced in a 30-minute results show on Monday, August 11. This format will continue, with performance shows on Sunday evenings and results shows the following night.

When the pack is reduced to 10 finalists, the competition intensifies. Each singer will be asked to give a live performance of a complete song each week, and each week the genre - R&B, pop, rock, for example - will vary.

The judges will continue to provide feedback and the audience votes will continue to be announced during the Monday night shows.

"Once we're down to 10 finalists we up the ante," Tate explains. "They perform in front of a huge live studio audience, the sets grow, they work with a full band and the competition is far greater."

In the final stages of the show, one contestant is eliminated each week by the viewers. In the final two-hour episode the last two contestants go head-to-head, backed by a full orchestra. At the end, the Australian Idol will be announced.

www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/27/1059244486431.html

[Inside Australian Idol]

Almost famous

July 28 2003

Last night on Australian Idol we watched the first of 10,000 hopefuls have their dreams dashed. Richard Jinman reports on the reality format that has taken the world by storm.

Tuesday, June 17. 11.30am. Tyrone is about to have his dreams of pop stardom ripped into little pieces. The 20-year-old from Baulkham Hills is singing the Natalie Imbruglia hit Torn in front of Australian Idol's three judges.

His a cappella performance isn't bad, but it's not great either. As the performance reaches a wavering climax, his voice suddenly cracks and he's thrown into confusion."

F---!" he exclaims. "Wait, I'm so cool. I can do something really cool."

The judges give him another shot. He launches into a Savage Garden song, but the performance is unlikely to cause Darren Hayes any sleepless nights.

Ian thingyson, a record executive at BMG Australia and Idol's resident hard man, leans forward.


"You honestly think you can sing?" he asks.

"Yesss," gasps the ashen-faced Tyrone.

thingyson shakes his head. "You're looking at three people who make their living in the music industry," he says, indicating fellow judges Marcia Hines and record producer Mark Holden. "You must be deaf, deluded or stupid if you think you can sing."

"F---", whimpers Tyrone.

"Stop swearing!" thingyson snaps. "Jesus, Tyrone, it was rubbish and you appear to have a mild form of Tourette's syndrome. I wouldn't let you near a microphone. You're a liability."

Tyrone, whose body appears to be turning to jelly beneath his leather jacket and artfully distressed jeans, continues to plead his case.

"I can sing, I promise you," he wails.

thingyson's had enough. "You can't," he says. "You're boring, horrible and you've got a foul mouth. Go!"
Tyrone exits stage right, a broken man.

Continued below

[Inside Australian Idol]

Once upon a time, television talent quests were cosy affairs. Contestants would sing a song like Wind Beneath Your Wings and a panel of sympathetic judges would try to be encouraging.

In the reality-TV era audiences expect something a bit more edgy, a bit more visceral. Australian Idol, the new Channel Ten series that blends elements of Pot of Gold and Big Brother, aims to deliver it. Dickson's barbs are part of a format that has already conquered Britain and America and made its creator - former Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller - one of the UK's richest men.
Pop Idol, as the show was known in the UK, seems conventional enough on paper. It's a talent quest with a big prize: a guaranteed single and album release (on BMG, naturally). But in a hyperbolic industry, Idol has proved a genuine sensation. Almost 14 million Britons watched the final episode last February and a staggering 22.8 million Americans tuned into the climax of the US version, American Idol: the Search for a Superstar, later in the year. The format has been successfully exported to countries including South Africa, Poland, Germany and the Netherlands. Now it's our turn.

Australian Idol began last night, much like Popstars, by showing the "cattle call" auditions that were held across the country over the past few months. Hopefuls had about 30 seconds to demonstrate some star quality and Ten says more than 10,000 people aged between 16 and 28 took part. (An upper age limit is stipulated because record companies are allergic to investing time and money in the nascent pop career of anyone over 30.)

In Sydney, the auditions were held at the University of Sydney. They attracted an army of Britney Spears look-alikes and Justin Timberlake clones as well as a smattering of goths, punks and hippies. A few had camped out overnight for their shot at stardom and the mood was nervous but buoyant. As they waited, the poptastic youths strummed guitars, practised harmonies and chatted excitedly to Australian Idol's hosts, Andrew G and James Mathison (both on loan from Channel V).
One of those in the queue was P. J. Sykes, a 22-year-old from the outer Sydney suburb of St Andrews. She got up at 3.45am to travel to the city and was clutching her acoustic guitar for luck. Sykes is a country music fan but she intended to sing the jazzy Norah Jones hit Don't Know Why in her audition because she considered it more fashionable.

"I'd love to make it to the final stages," she said. "But I've been listening to people sing all morning and I'm thinking I've got nothing on a lot of them."

Sykes, like just about everyone else in the queue, is convinced the show could transform her life. She's probably right. Australian Idol's producers like to refer to the main prize as "a career", and it's true that several Idol alumni have gone on to huge and lasting success.

Gareth Gates was the runner-up in the first UK series, but his version of Unchained Melody topped the British charts, selling 850,000 copies in a week. Recently, well over a year since his final appearance on the show, Gates scored his fourth No. 1 single in the UK. Kelly Clarkson, the young Texan singer who won the first American Idol series in September last year, saw both her single and album go to the top of the US charts after the show.

Stephen Tate, head of entertainment at Ten, reckons the winner of the Australian series will be virtually guaranteed a hit single, and the early success of Bardot and Scandal'us - the two groups created by Popstars - suggests he's right. The winner of Australian Idol will still have a career in 10 years, Tate argues, because of the "amazing dedication, talent and tenacity" needed to go all the way.

If you're thinking the outcome is predictable, that the Australian Idol will inevitably be a buffed Home and Away-style stud with John Farnham's voice or a blonde beach babe with Olivia Newton-John's pipes, Tate says you could be in for a surprise. The fact the winner is ultimately chosen by viewers voting via telephone or SMS makes the outcome difficult to pick. Big Brother has proved that thin, cute and stylish doesn't always cut it when Mr and Mrs Australia are the jury.

"Clearly, they need a great voice and personality," Tate says, "but around the world, nations have been falling in love with all sorts of contestants. The final four in the US weren't typical pop stars. The winner [of the second series] was like a very young Barry White, but there was something about him. We could be surprised, too."

Judge Marcia Hines knows exactly how tough it will be for the finalists. "I don't know if I could do this," she admits during a brief break in the Sydney auditions. "It's so hard and I think, 'But for the grace of God that could be me.'"

It would be easy to assume the elegant, empathetic Hines has been cast as the judging panel's "good cop" to Dickson's "bad lieutenant", but she demurs.
"I'm the performer who is naturally sympathetic to what they're going through," she says. "But if it's not right, if they shouldn't be doing this, I'm going to tell them."
There are all sorts of ways to tell someone they're not cut out for showbiz, of course. It's hard to imagine Hines telling a sweet-faced teenage girl, "You wouldn't get a place in a local eisteddfod", as Dickson does during the Sydney auditions.

Ten likes to downplay Dickson's "bad cop" role. Says Tate: "We're not in the business of delivering negative comments for the sake of entertainment." But it's a fact that this brand of no-holds-barred criticism was a vital ingredient in the popularity of the British and America versions of Idol.

The scary-judge blueprint was established by British BMG executive Simon Cowell. As a Pop Idol judge he quickly became British TV's Mr Nasty. His most distinctive trait - high-waisted trousers - was discussed endlessly by the London tabloids.

When the Idol format was exported to the US, Cowell was part of the package. He was even less kind to American Idol contestants, unleashing stinging rebukes such as: "Did you really believe you could become the American Idol? Well, then, you're deaf." At one point Cowell's fellow judge, US record producer Randy Jackson, became so irritated by the Englishman's abuse he jumped out of his chair and threatened to "take him outside".

It was ratings gold, naturally.

British-born Dickson is BMG Australia's general manager of marketing. The 40-year-old cuts a fine rock'n'roll figure with his mane of grey hair and shoot-from-the-hip attitude. The perfect man to step into Cowell's steel-capped boots.

Dickson, who once shared an office with Cowell, insists he's his own man and denies he's playing a role. "It was never discussed like that," he says. "But I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a consideration. I did watch the tapes from the UK show but I was desperate not to play a pantomime baddy."

Dickson says there's a serious point to his sometimes abrasive criticism. BMG will invest a six-figure sum in the winner of Australian Idol, so he has to take the selection process seriously. "It's a huge undertaking on our part," he says. "[Australian Idol] will find real talent in a way Popstars didn't. I'm hoping we can keep the bar high. I demand a lot from myself and the eventual winner."

Dickson jokes that he didn't set out to be a bastard, it just turned out that way. But "Dicko" can be a sweetheart. When Martine Robert, a 26-year-old blonde from West Pennant Hills, bounces into the same room in which Tyrone was so comprehensively demolished 30 minutes earlier, we get to see Dickson's sunny side.
Robert, who is wearing her sister's shoes and a bright red poncho that matches her nails and lipstick, sings the Shirley Bassey hit Big Spender. The gutsy performance has Dickson beaming. He compliments Robert then confers briefly with Hines and Holden. She's through to the next round.

"Omigod!" says Robert. "Thanks so much guys. Am I allowed to shake your hand?"

As she floats out of the room on a cloud of adrenaline and euphoria, Dickson allows himself a smile. "I liked her," he says. "She filled the room with joy."

Australian Idol continues on Sunday at 7.30pm on Channel Ten.

www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/27/1059244486330.html