Thank you so much, Judely.
Listening to Ainslie right now, via his Myspace ( www.myspace.com/ainsliehenderson) hearing his voice on the song "coming up for air" has made me even more nostalgic for Fame Academy.
Brilliant.

I love "coming up for air", pure class from Ainslie. Reading his blogs are like listening to his ramblings on the bench with Malachi

FA1 is the reason that I joined this place.

It's still the best reality tv show ever.

Lemar was lucky that he didn't get signed to Universal. All the ones that did weren't treated that well.

I'm glad that I've finally got an Ainslie album. I've been waiting for this since FA1.

I actually have more on video from FA2 than I do from FA1 and that annoys me because FA2 on the whole was a waste of space.

You know what I prefer to have Ainslie and Lemar being creative with Lullaby on video than anything from FA2.

Lullaby was brilliant - I much preferred the FA version to the one on Lemars album.

Alistair and Peter from FA2 are both recording some good stuff at the moment.

You can hear some of Alistair's new songs with his band Albion plus get a free download of Alistair singing "Born Again" at

http://www.reverbnation.com/albion

Peter has a new acoustic EP out - listen to it on his myspace page

http://www.myspace.com/petebrame

There's a bit of a mini-reunion of FA2 on Wed Jun 27 @ 8:00 pm !!

From Pete's calendar:

Sadly, James Fox has now posted on his website that he will not be able to be there

Oh that's a shame was looking forward to seeing him again.

Alistair Griffin fans will be pleased to know that his original main fansite has been completely refurbished and re-designed, and has now re- opened under new management

It's still at the same address:

http://www.alistair-griffin.co.uk/

That fansite looks a lot better.

I haven't posted on here for ages, but I'm still a big fan of David Sneddon and I vaguely follow the careers of others from FA1.

Just thought other FA fans might be interested to know David is currently presenting a five week series of a light-hearted sports based show called 'Keep off the Grass' on BBC Radio Scotland.

The first show went out yesterday, but it will be available to listen to all week online (follow the links for 'Off the Ball' - the slot David is covering for the summer.) Even if you're not interested in sport, its still an enjoyable listen. David was clearly nervous to begin with, but he soon relaxed and got into his stride and his infectious sense of humour shone through.

I came across some live stream footage on youtube last night. The Bad Bad Butcher, Fine Fine Waitress performances were on it along with Ainslie and Malachis old man routine and Ainslies rant about his washing not being done in nearly a week.

It had me PMSL!

Brought back great memories and I spent the whole day in work singing Bad Bad Butcher to myself!

Alistair's band Albion now have a profile on Channel 4Unsigned - Slash Music.
Please visit:
http://www.channel4.com/music/myband/AlbionOfficial
to rate and/or review their music.

not been here for ages nice to see we all have fond memories of Fa 1 and 2.
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I liked Fa 1 but really liked Fa2 found it a lot funnier and got more hooked on it than the first one.

Did anyone watch behind celebrity star in your eyes to night did you recognise Michelle the musical directer from Fame academy

Alistair was defently my fave still go and see him gig mainly around yorkshire area he has 2 myspaces one for just him and one for his band Albion

Check them out

lol yes, it was her voice that I immediately recognised. Will have to play the DVD to remind myself what she looked like back then.

Loved the antics of Ainslie and Malachi in FA1 and James and Alistair in FA2, and have followed their careers with interest since. Ainslie is going to release Coming up for air shortly on ITunes I went to see James in JCS, he was brilliant, but didn't manage to see Movin Out unfortunately. Been to quite a few of Alistair's gigs and keep going back for more as and when I can. Not yet seen Ainslie or Malachi live but would love to sometime.

It's such a shame the tour didn't come about after FA2, it would have been a great opportunity to see them all live.

Perhaps FA missed an opportunity to follow them up, it would have been great to see what they are all up to now.

With a bit of luck, today's new government cabinet will see the end of Tessa Jowell at Culture. Maybe a new minister will not instruct the BBC not to do Fame Academy, unlike Tessa Jowell.

Alistair's band Albion have just put another free download up on their Reverbnation page:

http://www.reverbnation.com/albion

"I Have Lived", another of my favourite Griffin originals, highly recommended!

Watch Albion on Youtube!

http://www.youtube.com/user/albionmusicuk

Good stuff. Thanks.

Loved this show, series one was outstanding, was great watching them living together, write together, their solitary moments, their hopes and fears for the forthcoming live shows, why they wont bring it back is beyond me.

James Fox has been a really busy guy of late. He's been supporting the Wets again and finishing off his new six track cd at the same time. Anyone who's interested can order it from his my space right now

There's a fun video diary behind the scenes at the recording on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIY_1BM0ERg

The BBC position has now become totally absurd. We now can't have FA but we can have shows to pick west end singers, choirs, tribute acts and dancers .

FA is derivative somehow but they are unique - actually only by altering the focus slightly and doing a musical show before ITV got there with grease. Meanwhile none of the other BBC shows shows more than a few seconds of the educational/creative process that FA could by televising how songs developed. FA just cries out for a BBC 2 daily back up show to make it tick most requirements of the BBC charter and what do they give us - umpteen shows with an identical format to X factor.....

I agree with you.

For me FA was ahead of its time and so much more enjoyable than the more recent shows you mention.

It seemed a case of the BBC spending money developing a great series but somehow not totally committing to it.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first series of FA, mainly because I watched the live streaming, as did many others.

I believe it was unfortunate timing on the part of the BBC to screen the first FA so close to the first Pop Idol, as comparisons were made when in fact the format was far more original. Had it been made at a later date it might have become an established series that would have found real performers capable of songwriting and performing skills. Instead what we now have is the more derivative singers signed for recording others material, in the main.

[quote=Gillypoots;25687610]I agree with you.

For me FA was ahead of its time and so much more enjoyable than the more recent shows you mention.

It seemed a case of the BBC spending money developing a great series but somehow not totally committing to it.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first series of FA, mainly because I watched the live streaming, as did many others.

I believe it was unfortunate timing on the part of the BBC to screen the first FA so close to the first Pop Idol, as comparisons were made when in fact the format was far more original. Had it been made at a later date it might have become an established series that would have found real performers capable of songwriting and performing skills. Instead what we now have is the more derivative singers signed for recording others material, in the main.[/QUOTE

Not sure about the last point. The comparison is Leona who has sung exactly what she was given and Alex who wrote her own stuff in her own style - one sold millions one vanished. Ironically Alex was the one who could interpret a song and Leona can't. Happy enough to see them do something interesting that sounds good on the show covering something and interpreting it rather than trying to write their own stuff in an artificially short time too.

One of the weaknesses of almost all the shows since FA for me is that most people don't do anything interesting with the songs or in some shows the vocal coaches seem imaginationless.

I loved Fame Academy so much. It was one of the best reality shows ever. A nice mix of talent and knowing-me-knowing-you. In fact I would rather scrap BB at the moment and replace it with Fame Academy.

I wish it would come back soon. Why have the celebrity version (which is hugely successful) yet not the normal one?