3 hours ago, Julian_ said:

Is that the first time the judges have defied the will of the people? Outrageous! Not really: I put “Ceremony” above “Intruder” myself and New Order have more left in their arsenal so they made the right call. Getting Gary to the live shows is way more than I expected so thanks everyone!

I’m not a massive Gary nerd like I was with ABBA by any means, but I’ve always liked him. I think it’s interesting how his autism, being obsessed with what at the time were niche sounds and having a slightly monotone voice, helped him become a synth pop pioneer.

It actually all started with the latest Bop Idol where the theme was 21st century songs by 20th century artists. Gary came to mind as we’d been hearing his hits at the ‘80s sessions and I came across “My Name Is Ruin” and absolutely loved it. In the end I used Kate Bush for that contest, who funnily many people thought I was behind at first, but I thought the forum absolutely needs to hear the Gary song at some point. As he was on my mind when the submissions came round I made him my 2nd choice (my 1st still isn’t taken so I won’t say who that was).

So I absolutely had to make sure “My Name Is Ruin” featured before Gary went out, and I figured I probably didn’t have long. However I thought it would be better to start with more traditional Gary. I began with the back to back top 10 hits “We Are Glass” and “I Die: You Die”, showing his robotic synth style and his more melodic style respectively. “M.E.” was the obvious choice for the album track round with its recognisable sample, but with Gary coming 3rd bottom there I decided it was time for “My Name Is Ruin”. After that went down pretty well I was delighted Gary had survived 4 weeks and thought anything else would be a bonus.

When Calum told us to go big for the 6 chair round I felt I didn’t really want to use up “Cars”. I decided using the Tubeway Army classic “Are Friends Electric?” was totally fine because it’s only a branding difference. Gary wrote, produced and was the sole vocalist on the Tubeway Army songs and even kept the same backing band after he dropped the label. So it would be no different from Liberty X using the hits from when they were just Liberty or Prince using songs from when he was a symbol.

After surviving that I knew the top streamed round was going to be a tough one to survive, and again I didn’t really want to use “Cars” when there were still 2 rounds before the lives. On reflection the more gritty “Metal” may have done slightly better than the ballad style “Down In The Park”, but I think either would have likely finished last. I actually think Gary would have had a better chance in the low streamed round as he has plenty of decent low streamers, from his 2014 album for example.

I’d always assumed Gary would have no chance in Gamu, even with “Cars”, because there’d be so many huge hitters. However when the decision was made to bring back one from each category I realised probably nobody eliminated before him had a song to beat “Cars” so there was a chance. Strategically I just needed to hope one of the artists without a big money song went out in Judges’ Houses part II, and it absolutely had to not be Calvin or I was a goner I thought.

So I couldn’t believe it when Calvin crashed out by 1 point! I actually considered just entering “Rip” in Gamu as a swansong, but I decided I owed it to Gary to make Calvin work for the spot. When I saw there was a bit of a backlash to “We Found Love” I thought it could be closer than expected, but I still didn’t really think Gary could win. I was busy the evening of the results and assumed I’d be tagged when Gary went out, but the tag never came. Even then I thought maybe Calum just didn’t do the tagging this time: I was absolutely amazed and thrilled to get the live spot. And sorry to Calvin / Addy who obviously had the potential to go much further.

I thought it would be nice to feature the more recent “Intruder”, and I’ve no idea what I’d have done in the next round so I’m quite happy to sit back and watch now. Thanks all and I leave you with this darkwave number from 2000 that I absolutely love.

This was such a pleasure to read, so well put! ❤️

Well done for getting to the lives again!

I am so enjoying being a part of this, by being a judge. It's made it much more enjoyable to be part of rather than just voting.

But sorry @Julian_ that I was left to make a casting vote and sent you home.

Everyone is doing really well in this. I have sometimes thought of entering an act myself, but for now I am happy on the other side of the judges table 😆

10 minutes ago, ChrisJK said:

I am so enjoying being a part of this, by being a judge. It's made it much more enjoyable to be part of rather than just voting.

Everyone is doing really well in this. I have sometimes thought of entering an act myself, but for now I am happy on the other side of the judges table 😆

Honestly stay there 😂

I was a judge last year and it’s all I wanted to be again. But I stupidly decided to join in and essentially haven’t been able to sleep since 😂😂😂

Gutted to lose Tom Grennan and those pits I mean pics x you did fab with him @ElectroBoy just was a tough round unfortch.

Gary numan had a couple of nice tracks and ill be honest I only knew and loved cars before this but proud of you for doing well @Julian_

Wow club bangers well know Tove Lo woulda brought the HEAT for this theme x

1 hour ago, Lee_J said:

Honestly stay there 😂

I was a judge last year and it’s all I wanted to be again. But I stupidly decided to join in and essentially haven’t been able to sleep since 😂😂😂

Fun fact... this is actually true

I have had numerous texts and in person conversations about this competition causing him sleepless nights

I was sure he was HRVY so I assumed he would be out quickly and it would be all over, clearly I was wrong

I want to make predictions for everybody but not sure how to do that without outing myself 😂

1 minute ago, RobBot said:

I want to make predictions for everybody but not sure how to do that without outing myself 😂

Well everyone thinks you're behind Zara anyway so you might as well play along with that in your predictions

4 minutes ago, RobBot said:

I want to make predictions for everybody but not sure how to do that without outing myself 😂

Well @Mangø outed me so maybe he can do that for you?

9 minutes ago, Viper* said:

Well @Mangø outed me so maybe he can do that for you?

Are we still doing this?

20 minutes ago, Mangø said:

Well everyone thinks you're behind Zara anyway so you might as well play along with that in your predictions

And yet Gooddelta has clocked onto the fact I may be Darin so food for thought, isn’t it, Mr Mango 😇

7 minutes ago, RobBot said:

And yet Gooddelta has clocked onto the fact I may be Darin so food for thought, isn’t it, Mr Mango 😇

Well I have my own suspicions over who is behind Darin and it's certainly not you Mr RobBot

38 minutes ago, RobBot said:

And yet Gooddelta has clocked onto the fact I may be Darin so food for thought, isn’t it, Mr Mango 😇

I really feel like the only other person that would send Darin would be... me.

So it's all i have to go on 😂

24 minutes ago, gooddelta said:

I really feel like the only other person that would send Darin would be... me.

So it's all i have to go on 😂

I could see Lee as Darin too.

My thinking is Lee got Zara and Rob ended up late to the only category left (solo male) and went for Darin.

12 minutes ago, Julian_ said:

I could see Lee as Darin too.

Hmmm, @Lee_J does love a twink but I feel like he loves a pop girl more!

11 minutes ago, Julian_ said:

I could see Lee as Darin too.

@Lee_J will just love being mentioned in the same sentence as Darin

Lee having Zara would be plausible to be fair, but wasn't he late to the party? Was he included in the allocation of people? If so, then yeah he has to be Zara. Pop girlies is his bread and butter (but no bread because of being an aging twink)

2 minutes ago, Viper* said:

@Lee_J will just love being mentioned in the same sentence as Darin

Lee having Zara would be plausible to be fair, but wasn't he late to the party? Was he included in the allocation of people? If so, then yeah he has to be Zara. Pop girlies is his bread and butter (but no bread because of being an aging twink)

But then Darin is also an aging twink so maybe aging twinks attract other aging twinks?

Just now, Mangø said:

But then Darin is also an aging twink so maybe aging twinks attract other aging twinks?

Oh DON'T he will be giddy with glee at the thought

41 minutes ago, Julian_ said:

I could see Lee as Darin too.

Next Halloween maybe

Rob is 1000% Darin x (I think that is now the only identity I am entirely confident about)

Mind this being right after my also entirely confident guess of Jade being Gary Numan was confirmed wrong ddd.