Posted August 21, 200618 yr Here at last in reverse order : Rudolf The Red Nosed Reindeer 11 points Let It Snow 15 points Bootylicious 16 Winter Wonderland 22 White Christmas 24 Merry Christmas Everybody 27 All The Small Things 29 Kiss 35 Then there's a bit of a gap Tied : I've Got You Under My Skin 46 Teddy Bear 46 Faith 47 Time Of Y0ur Life 58 and finally :cheer: :cheer: :cheer: Sandy 66 and the outright winner Pretty Flamingo 67
August 21, 200618 yr Author Pretty Flamingo and Sandy are safe and will automatically join Whole Again and Baby Can I Hold You in a rate to find our favourite D cover. Faith and Time of Your Life will have to fight it out again along with Make It Easy On Yourself and Something Inside So Strong in a heat against the runners up in the Live Twice era covers to get a place in the overall final. Edited August 21, 200618 yr by Baytree
August 21, 200618 yr What a shame Teddy Bear went, I love that one. The trouble is, I love most of them and hate them being pushed out. I'm not very good at this kind of thing.
August 21, 200618 yr Author It's one of my faves too. I remember the Des O'C show well. They were a very ill assorted looking trio - Des in his outlandish Las Vegas style catsuit, young Declan in his "leathers" and poor Darius in the Gold Lame suit. When they started off with Des took the lead with Darius and Declan backing. I thought they were playing the medley as a bit of a joke and it continued in that vein with Declan's Hound Dog and Darius shaking his legs THEN Darius stepped forward, opened his mouth and mine dropped open in astonishment - he simply blew me away. I didn't know he could sing like that. I should have but it still came as a complete surprise. The magic went and the spoof went on. I was sad that the only line Darius had in The Wonder of You was spoken by him. It's one of my favourite Elvis tracks and I'd have loved to hear Darius sing more of it.
August 21, 200618 yr Nevermind you can watch it to your hearts content on YouTube now :D :cheer: for the results What's next? :D
August 21, 200618 yr Author Nevermind you can watch it to your hearts content on YouTube now :D :cheer: for the results What's next? :D Thanks you so much for finding it. I still have it on video but it's been played so much the quality isn't great. I can understand why there was so much emphasis on Declan him being young and cute but I'd have preferred to have Darius sing a few lines of the other two songs too. What's next? Should be the Live Twice era covers but apart from the parodies, Bye Bye Busted and Kilt With A Fly, they're basically just from the Maidstone sessions. That presents a problem because even I can't remember all of their names and really only know which ones I remember being impressed with at the time. I don't think they're on the net anywhere.
August 22, 200618 yr You all know I love Darius, but I really wasn't keen on Sandy or Pretty Flamingo :o When D does covers, he always makes the song his own, to a greater or lesser extent, which is great, but his voice is so good, I wish he would sing the songs in the same manner they were originally made, but with his silky smoothe tones :) I have only seen Teddy Bear once, and I thought D was ok, but not amazing as I was expecting :o I think he could do a much better job on other Elvis songs, The Wonder Of You being a good example :) Isn't it fantastic that D is so versatile :)
August 22, 200618 yr Author I'm with those who prefer a cover version to be tweaked rather than too close to the original but I do think when Darius does a copy, he proves he's a very good mimic. Darius has such a range and his voice is suited to so many different styles, he could have been SC's Tom Jones, Frank Sinatra and solo Il Divo rolled into one and IMHO somewhere along the line that hit Simon and his inner till went kerching! Maybe during Big Band week rehearsals because it was then Simon really started to put the boot into Darius publicly - why? who knows? to take him down a peg or two and make him more willing to do as SC wanted? to make him less attractive to other companies in case he did a Rik, walked out anyway and risked being sued ? SC probably had visions of churning out CD after CD stuffed with standards, eg Englebert or better quality Max Bygraves and Daniel O'Donnell. That would that have been soul destroying for Darius and a betrayal of his fans. In my imagination there are so many songs I'd like to hear Darius cover. In reality, I never want covers to be more than just a novelty he throws in as odd b-sides, one-off performances or those he has to sing as part of a musical. Anyway Darius has done a few covers over the last four years. Should we put together a list of the Live Twice ones? Megham, do you still have the list of the Maidstone covers, which haven't already been included in one of the other covers rates, handy, please? Should we include the spoof songs and/or the songs from Chicago? Edited August 22, 200618 yr by Baytree
August 22, 200618 yr Didn't we have a list of the Maidstone covers in one of the threads? I loved 'Cannonball'
August 22, 200618 yr oh yes, that was the first time I actually listened to the lyrics of that song and it made sense!
August 22, 200618 yr I'm not a straight covers fan generally really, there needs to be a personal message and/or reason why the artist has chosen to sing perform a cover of a particular song; or they need to bring something completely new to it for me to feel it's worth buying into anyway. I have mixed feelings about Darius's chameleonic diversity myself - on the one hand it displays a versatile talent which I suppose is good if you want to adapt yourself to different things, but on the other I think it can convey insincerity in his work/what he's about judging by some of the comments people have made to me about Darius being "fake" - i.e. WHO IS HE"??? :D ... So, I'm not sure, in a music sense, whether it's good for him to mimic and dip in and out of such different styles so readily really. But anyway, back to the covers - have you had a look to see if the set list from Maidstone was posted on .net? I know Meg (and others) posted it on Divas at the time, so I imagine it was posted on there too. The spoof covers are sort of better than just covers in a way to me, because the lyrics are unique
August 22, 200618 yr Author You see I just don't understand that. Darius is one of the nicest, most genuine people I've ever known. Have these people ever explained to you what they mean when they say he's a fake?
August 22, 200618 yr You see I just don't understand that. Darius is one of the nicest, most genuine people I've ever known. Have these people ever explained to you what they mean when they say he's a fake? Darius himself/the person may well be nice and genuine, but his public persona is one that has changed quite a lot in a short space of time and I think that may have given rise to the feelings of uncertainty some people have about him. Even going back to the Darius on PopStars and PopIdol, the two public personas seemed characteristically and visually different, people said to me back then, they felt he was "fake", so, perhaps that set the precedent for it. But in addition to that and what I was really talking about here, was musically - he does tend to adopt different vocal/singing styles for different types of music and "mimic" as you put it, which some people have said they find insincere in a music sense, rather than a personality sense - i.e. who is Darius musically speaking?
August 22, 200618 yr Darius himself/the person may well be nice and genuine, but his public persona is one that has changed quite a lot in a short space of time and I think that may have given rise to the feelings of uncertainty some people have about him. Even going back to the Darius on PopStars and PopIdol, the two public personas seemed characteristically and visually different, people said to me back then, they felt he was "fake", so, perhaps that set the precedent for it. But in addition to that and what I was really talking about here, was musically - he does tend to adopt different vocal/singing styles for different types of music and "mimic" as you put it, which some people have said they find insincere in a music sense, rather than a personality sense - i.e. who is Darius musically speaking? Darius did a lot of growing up between Popstars and Pop Idol - didn't he nearly have a nervous breakdown and turn to drink because of all the media negativity!!? Then he pulled himself together and came back to prove himself - I wonder how many of the people who called him 'fake' would have the guts to do that!! Why does Darius have to write/sing/portray one style of music?? when he so obviously loves many genres of music from opera to rock!! If people are looking for an excuse not to like him, then they will find one and nothing will change that - for some reason enjoying writing and performing many different styles of music is being fake and insincere - surely if you are as determined as Darius to follow his love of writing and performing he could be nothing but sincere!! Julie
August 23, 200618 yr If I'm feeling out of sorts...and I get in my car....Darius starts singing and I fall in love again! His voice...his songs....bliss Sometimes I have to listen to just his ballads other times his rockier songs He has songs for every mood I just melt........ I just love him....sing that is :D
August 23, 200618 yr I think Darius was Darius in Popstars - but it was edited. He was also only 19 and didn't have a clue what he was letting himself in to. His friend, Simon, was asked on Pop Idol, if this was the real Darius rather than Popstars and his reply suggested that Darius is just Darius, it can look diferent the way it's shot. The music. I don't like him slotting into a diferent style, which aren't him. I liked the Maidstone sets as he did them all, whatrever he was singing, as him. The This Morning compilation of Xmas songs, I disliked as I felt he was pretending to be Dean Martin or someone.
August 23, 200618 yr Personally, I've always felt that Darius was holding himself back a lot on PopIdol, that perhaps the experience of the editing and media backlash from Popstars, made him apprehensive sometimes and maybe a bit too self-aware/self-conscious during PopIdol, some people have said to me however, that he was 'playing the game' and I think there might be some truth in that too, though I saw him as being genuinely worried/apprehensive/surprised/delighted at times myself I think. But I never had any problems with the Darius I saw during the PopStars series anyway, the things that were seized upon in a negative way, I saw myself to be positive qualities, without which, I don't think Darius would have come through that negative experience and gone on to achieve what he has. I do agree though that to a large extent our impressions of anything are manipulated by the media, and maybe also, how we interpret or see something says more about us ourselves, than it does about what we're seeing - which accounts for why people have different opinions and see things differently anyway in respect to Darius or anything else. But really, when I mentioned that I'm not sure whether Darius's chameleonic diversity was a good thing or not, I was speaking in terms of music, the covers he does and the ability he has to "mimic", not his personality. Neither was I meaning that Darius should be limited to one single genre or style of music either. This is exactly the sort of thing that I was meaning: The music. I don't like him slotting into a diferent style, which aren't him. I liked the Maidstone sets as he did them all, whatrever he was singing, as him. The This Morning compilation of Xmas songs, I disliked as I felt he was pretending to be Dean Martin or someone.
August 24, 200618 yr Author oh yes, that was the first time I actually listened to the lyrics of that song and it made sense! I can understand that. I've listened to Don McLean's American Pie a few times and I just find it flat. I know that's because it's meant to be serious and all that but it's now another song that Darius has sort of covered that I just can't play any more. Secret Song, You are right about Darius holding himself back in PI. IMHO he went along with the Grants so that he would not appear to be a troublemaker, the reputation which went before him, and he sang the songs their way until the breakthrough moment when he thought he could win and realised he didn't want to, so he thought what the he*k, stood up to them all and demanded to sing his own choice of song in his own way - at final 4 stage it was too late. He should have done it his way when he replaced Rik or even earlier at final 50 stage. I also think he was well aware that although the show itself and (later) the results shows were live there was still a lot of editing of the week's activities. He was literally walking on eggshells trying to avoid saying or doing anything which could be turned against him by biased editing. He knew the media were poised to have his head. I remember reading somewhere that Laura Docherty said he wasn't the bright, happy go lucky Darius she and her mum had met at the auditions in Glasgow when she and Darius met again at the Criterion in London. She said he was very quiet and introverted. Quiet and introverted? That is totally unnatural for Darius.
August 24, 200618 yr It worried me in the begining...he was very cautious...and who can blame him. he seemed to be a bit more himself towards the end...perhaps last 5 when you saw him on the videos of the prior week.
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