Olly Murs singing “Dance With Me Tonight” with The Muppets is the greatest X Factor guest performance of all time: discuss.

Nov 27, 2021Dec 16, 2021 ~ Alex the Pensmith ~ Leave a comment

Olly Murs in rehearsals for The X Factor with The Muppets, November 2011. Image credit: Idil Sukan / Draw HQ With The X Factor finally given its official resting by ITV earlier on this year after 18 series, the dust has largely settled on the obituaries that said it should have happened sooner being delivered, … Continue reading Olly Murs singing “Dance With Me Tonight” with The Muppets is the greatest X Factor guest performance of all time: discuss.

Pop Essays #17: Diana Vickers, ‘Cinderella’

Apr 29, 2021May 6, 2021 ~ Alex the Pensmith ~ Leave a comment

Welcome to this week's Pop Essays, our series bringing a fresh polishing up of a lost pop music diamond for your eyes and ears. This week: the first single from the second album of an X Factor legend... Artist: Diana VickersSong: CindrellaRelease Date: 19/07/2013Writers: Diana Vickers / Miranda Cooper / Simen Eriksrud / Simone LarsonProducers: … Continue reading Pop Essays #17: Diana Vickers, ‘Cinderella’

Pop Essays #14: Maria Lawson, ‘Sleepwalking’

Apr 8, 2021Apr 15, 2021 ~ Alex the Pensmith ~ Leave a comment

Welcome to this week's Pop Essays, our regular series offering a chance to revisit some of the lesser started gems of pop music and rightly giving them the chance to shine. This week: an early discovery from one of the biggest shows on British TV in the 00s that truly didn't deserve to get away... … Continue reading Pop Essays #14: Maria Lawson, ‘Sleepwalking’

JLS: a retrospective piece on the 10th anniversary of their debut album

Nov 9, 2019Nov 9, 2019 ~ Alex the Pensmith ~ Leave a comment

It's funny how much has changed in ten years. Not least of all The X Factor. Once the cornerstone and an unmissable powerhouse of Saturday night entertainment on ITV, pulling in 16m viewers at its peak, it actually once did what it said on the tin and produced stars. Nowadays, it's a pitiful and irrelevant … Continue reading JLS: a retrospective piece on the 10th anniversary of their debut album

#SongoftheWeek: Rak-Su – ‘Touché’

Feb 16, 2018Feb 16, 2018 ~ Alex the Pensmith ~ Leave a comment

ARTIST: Rak-Su SONG: Touché SO ALEX, WHY IS THIS YOUR SONG OF THE WEEK? You've got to hand it to the Rak-Su lads, for they are nothing less then men of their word. After storming to victory on last year's series of The X Factor, today the Watford based boyband follow up the number 2 … Continue reading #SongoftheWeek: Rak-Su – ‘Touché’

#CrazyStupidTV: The X Factor (ITV)

Sep 2, 2015Sep 2, 2015 ~ Alex the Pensmith ~ Leave a comment

'The X Factor', it's fair to say, is a show with which I've had a notoriously on again-off again love affair. Much like Ross and Rachel, only without the girl from the copy place which yesterday, I took full responsibility for (and I make no apologies to anyone who doesn't get that reference). At the … Continue reading #CrazyStupidTV: The X Factor (ITV)

#AwesomeBoresome (Week ending 19/04/2015)

Apr 20, 2015 ~ Alex the Pensmith ~ Leave a comment

Apologies for being slightly late to the #AwesomeBoresome-ness this week. Blame this on the fact that I am currently fending off a sore throat and thus have the energy and attention span of a fruit fly. Being slightly ill isn't one of my #Boresomes though, but there are a couple of things that are. So … Continue reading #AwesomeBoresome (Week ending 19/04/2015)

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	The Story of Pop: 20… on The Story of Pop: 2000 (Chapte…
	The Story of Pop: 20… on The Story of Pop: 2000 (Chapte…