London auditions Wednesday 5th January (spoilers)
![[Deleted User]](https://w7.vanillicon.com/v2/7f1d7e84471de4b632e981b467bf693c.svg)
[Deleted User]
Posts: 4,134 Forum Member
✭✭✭
Ok so far its a good show. A majority of the acts are decent and one BLEW ME AWAY.
We've had a hula hoop troop, a girl who read a poem about poaching animals with a snake around her neck and a good singer from Holland.
The people who blew me away were an Irish dance group. The judges are Louis, Amanda who isn't showing at all and Michael.
We've had a hula hoop troop, a girl who read a poem about poaching animals with a snake around her neck and a good singer from Holland.
The people who blew me away were an Irish dance group. The judges are Louis, Amanda who isn't showing at all and Michael.
0
Comments
I got there about an hour before the show and managed to get good seats. I really would recommend getting there about 2 hours before the show
No they just took my tickets. As long as you loook like you are over 16 then it should be fine. I hope you feel better soon.
The Irish girl group, The Celtic Colleens were really good, I could definitely see them performing on the Royal Variety Show.
The gymnastics group Cobra and the first dancing/singing group Dice, were also good.
Is Amanda going to be available for the live shows, seeing as she's due in 3 months
Two acts impressed me overall. Theo McKenzie-Hayton( he was on got to dance) and a dance group called the celtic colleens. I think they will be in the final.
Michael Mcintyre was quite a competent judge to be honest. Amanda was harsh but fair. However, she was rude at times.
The show did feel a bit manufactured, I think they have a quota of good-bad acts. We had to do a couple of takes and one act had to perform twice because the lighting wasn't right.
Out of all the acts only 4 did not get through which was very surprising. 80% of them were average to good and one was really terrible she sung phantom of the opera:eek:. I left at that point because I felt I had seen enough lol.
One girl was a good singer and kind of reminded me of Mutya from the sugar babes. She didn't get through because I think they reached their quota for the day.
So in order there was a dance troop.
7 year old girl who recited a poem against killing endangered species whilst wearing a snake around her neck.
Guy with red guitar.
A tumbiling group (boys aged 8-16).
3 asian lads who performed karate moves and danced to bhangra.
The irish dance troop celtic colleens.
The little boy who was on got to dance.
A black girl from holland who sung really well.
Hula hoop kids.
Two twentysmething year old women doing gymanstics on a hula hoop.
Two magic tricks.
The gospel choir
Mutya/Cher Lloyd singer and the phantom of the opera woman. Phew
I have some grainy videos that I will upload to youtube in a moment. They are not good quality but its better than nothing.
Thanks for that, it sounds really good and I'm definitely looking forward to it starting on TV.
Tickets said doors open 5.15-5.45pm. We only got there a few minutes before 5pm and still got in the main queue and got our hands stamped for entry fine. I would say a further 200 people or so also successfully joined the "you're getting in" queue in the next ten minutes. But then they closed it and people coming after that just had to wait across the road in a very loose looking sort of standby queue. One thing worth noting, they were being very strict on all members of a group having to be there before they would let you join the queue. You won't get away with one person turning up at 3pm and the others joining them at the front of the queue later!
Despite the times on the tickets it was gone 6pm before the queue started to be allowed in to the Apollo.
Whilst queueing there was a constant stream of coaches bringing people to both the stage door and the main centre doors and being let straight in, presume these were family/supporters of the acts (who had been there since 8.30am apparently!!!)
Once let in we got marshalled up the stairs to the circle. Maybe people that got there earlier had the option of the stalls, I don't know. Circle is fine for seeing the stage but from most seats up there you can't see the judges table at all (unless you stand up and lean over). Which did make it a bit crap. And it was hot up there, there's loads of extra lights around the back to make it look good on TV but they make it hot too.
Ushers spent quite some time packing people into every single seat that didn't have a light or camera in it already.
Warm up man from about 6.20pm, he was good at first, but very quickly got very dull. Introduction to the director or producer or something, few words from Ant and Dec but upstairs you couldn't hear what they were saying. Once they went back stage to do their stuff they were not seen or heard of again until the very end when they came up to the circle and filmed a short piece of them standing there while everyone else left the theatre.
Judges entered, introduced by And and Dec, but as mentioned you could not see them from the Circle. I thought they might have stopped filming for a sec and have them come up on stage for a minute to say hello to everyone but they didn't, very disappointing.
Then we got 20 acts altogether, I made a note of them all and will be checking the broadcast show to see if they all appear. You don't get a formal list of them, just if you're lucky enough to hear them say their name clearly. As I said the sound upstairs was really bad. It was fine and loud for the warm up man, for any recorded music, and for the SERIOUSLY loud buzzers, but anything else like the performers or the judges themselves it was shocking. Loads of people were complaining to the crew around the circle but they weren't interested in even passing a message on to downstairs to get it sorted. Loads of people even left. Luckily after about the sixth or seventh act the warm up man did eventually address the upstairs circle and almost as a whole everyone shouted back down to him to get them to sort the sound out. Technicians on the stage looked a bit puzzled and they talked to each other for a bit but did now get their act together and it was much better for the rest.
Basic format is that there is a new act roughly every ten minutes although sometimes it was 8min, sometimes 15min etc. Usual thing as the show, they come on, talk to the judges a bit, do their act for 2 mins or so, get buzzed or not, talk to the judges, vote, go off, wait till next one is ready. So it is actually quite dull to watch, apart from the actual 2 mins or so of each act, with all the empty stage gaps while Ant and Dec bits are happening I guess, hearing the judges' voices but not being able to see them etc etc. Consequently upstairs at least everyone was talking the whole time (even through the acts), walking about all the time, it was like pub noise level all around, which I found quite annoying and odd!
There was one lengthy interval-like thing about 20 mins long between the 10th and 11th acts while they set up the stage for a more complicated act. Warm up man was still really crap and pretty much resorted to just throwing sweets at people.
Loads of people continually leaving during the "second half", probably especially depressing for the very last act (which the warm-up man had said in advance was the last, maybe he shouldn't have!) because the very moment she opened her mouth literally hundreds of people got up and left!!!
I'm glad I went to see it being recorded once but as I say, not being able to see the judges, the lengthy pauses all the time, the crap sound, and everyone continually walking about and talking even through the acts etc, made it something I'd not rush back to next year.
So what of the actual acts? Don't read any further if you don't want to know ...
I won't list them all in detail or be too precise with their names as that will spoil it and is best kept till the series airs I think?
But we got a great mix of new and original stuff, the expected assorted Diversity clones, bad booable loonatics etc so it's going to be a good series I think. Louis seemed quite dull, Holden was Holden (i.e. buzzing the actual talent half the time since she's jealous of it), McIntyre was pretty funny and he seemed to be leading the panel most of the time. Oh and predictably we got a couple of "oh you didn't like that, please let me quickly try this then" second chances too.
Highlights were the Fulham Brass Band (better than they sound like they would be!), a drag queen called Mandy Gap (whose act wasn't great but the way she owned the judges and basically interviewed them rather than the usual way round was phenomenal, you could tell that Holden was furious at the way Mandy was driving the whole thing not her, can't wait to see how they portray it in the show), and a guy (Robert?) with a ukulele was probably the next best.
Comedy was a girl singing a Cheryl Cole song (Promises) in an operatic style (badly) without musical accompaniment, best thing was when McIntyre mocked her by singing operatically himself (and better!).
Lowlights were a girl begging to be allowed to finish her act even before she started it; a mini Diversity clone on roller skates; a nutter from Hong Kong singing in a mask; another cocktail flinger; various nonsensical twirlers; and one of the last acts who ran around impersonating pigeons, I'm not sure what he did as he jumped off the stage and ran towards the judges so we couldn't see, but it caused a lot of booing downstairs, and they stopped for quite a while afterwards and separately re-recorded Louis saying "definite NO from me" so I guess he ran and did something to Louis!!?!!
I hesitate to give the fail boy any further publicity as he was just terrible and doesn't deserve it, but if anyone does need to know it was this guy. Don't give up the day job, mate! Sounds like he's got lucky with the mad act in the past but it totally didn't work at BGT.
What magic tricks were there? Any good ones?
Oh and to googleking when I got in it depended which security people we went in past as to whether we went circle or stalls but we were near the front of the queue, ended up sitting 3rd row from the front of the circle and could just see the judges if we sat on the edge of our seats with a clear view as soon as we stood up
The first magicians were two teenage boys playing cops and robbers and they switched positions behind a curtain. The second ones weren't even worth mentioning lol
Really funny that even Michael commented on the audience all buggering off whilst the last act was performing. I was a bit mystified that he audience were so lax and noisy, walking around etc. Thought the showsec bods would have been more strict.
It's going to be weird to see the broadcast and edited show, to see how the "cut aways" will fake things for the producers.
Yep evening show she was in pink for, and the bump was pretty obvious!
I don't think it helped that the last act wasn't v good at all... I would've legged it to avoid the rush if we hadn't wanted to see Ant & Dec again. But then all Ant & Dec did at the end was come up to the circle, stand in the corner facing the stage and do what we presume was "after a busy day of London auditions the audience leave...." link cause we all just got told to leave by the warm up guy.
If they had bothered to put a few simple monitors up for the circle audiences to see the judges even slightly, even if it was just a fixed camera of them and not a polished feed, I think a lot more people would have stayed, and everyone would have been more attentive to the whole show due to being that little bit more involved in it.
As it was I got the impression they did not really care about the audience, or not the upstairs one anyway, most likely they need to use venues of a certain stage size to get some of the acts in, and they want to use places around the country to "take it to the masses", but then "oh Hammersmith has an upstairs, well we might as well let people sit there then". Maybe the people downstairs were kept regimented in their seats better since they'd be on camera behind the judges all the time.
Great report so thanks for sharing!
So there are two different queues and they count how many people are in the "you're getting in" queue so you won't end up spending an hour or two queuing to be told there are no spaces?
Also, my ticket is for 6 people but a friend has backed out of coming so does that mean I have to have 6 of us in total otherwise we will be refused entry?
Sorry, I have never been to anything like this before
Yep if you got allowed through to the main queue and your hand stamped then you definitely got in the theatre
You can join the queue with less than the number of people on the ticket, you just can't join the queue (which is barriered off) until you are ready to give up the ticket. So effectively you can't have some of your group come along later than the rest, if they're not there on time you all have to wait "outside" the queue area until they show up and join all together. Which is a much fairer way to do it than other shows, there's nothing worse than being at something like the Have I Got News For You recordings really early but still worrying about whether you're far up the queue enough to get in and some scumbag in front of you lets their five mates that just turned up five minutes before doors open in with them.
I reckon a lot if not most of the "standby queue" will have got in too but I was no longer stood outside to see! But being the last to be let in they were squabbling about to find empty seats, and were being sat here there and everywhere by the ushers.
LOL I know, it made me jump every time
The other magic act mentioned, was a man and wife pairing, pretty cheesy.
I take it you were at the Got To Dance auditions in October? I was there as well, so we recognised Theo when he came on stage. Notice they didn't mention the Jacko pelvic thrusts to him, though I suppose he wouldn't probably catch on to that, only being 6
Amanda was her typical self, babbling on, and I thought she was quite rude, especially when she said to the Karate guys 'I didn't think I was going to like you, but I did' Oh ta Amanda, cheers for that then :rolleyes:
The last woman on, who sang Phantom, just cracked me up. I wondered if we were going to get a SuBo moment when she walked out on stage....but, no :eek: When she got all high pitched at the end, went straight through me! She was pretty bad in a funny way. Needless to say, she didn't make it through LOL
We had a great view of the stage, only a few rows from the front, just off-centre behind from the judges. It was a long day though, and I think you could feel the audience flagging a bit, especially as the acts were all a bit pants towards the end.
Was a right mix of different acts, I presume they are selected that way, so there's a variety throughout the day.
The warm-up guy, as googleking said, was cheesy and it got dull very quickly. Ant and Dec did a few links for the show, Steven Mulhern did one for ITV2.
I'm glad Louis was there instead of The Hoff actually, I felt it made it a good balance on the panel. Michael McIntyre was pretty funny, and I'm a bit hit and miss about his stand-up routines, but he was funny. He kept delaying the poor little girl who did the poem with the python wrapped round her neck, and asking her daft questions when she clearly needed to get off stage before she got strangled to death
Just to mention for anyone else going for the daytime shows that we arrived around 11:15, got in when the doors opened just after 12:15 ( I was in the priority queue, so we got in a little before non-priority) and the show kicked off around 1:15, and ended around 5:15.
All in all, a really funny day out.
Thanks for your replies
I can't wait