48 minutes ago, jimwatts said:

If by "remix" you mean a certain 23-week #1

This was my first thought too 😂

Oh no I've lost another punching bag. Who to move onto next ~

Seriously though, I hope you didn't take the teasing from me too personally ElectroBoy, Tom's music is for the most part not really for me but I think you made mostly pretty good choices (his best song for me was in the round that we couldn't vote in unforch!), and he went out on a bit of a high for me as 'Royal Highness' was my favourite of the songs you sent from him that I didn't already know I think. Did well to make it to the live shows!

A bit gutted to see Gary Numan dipping straight out again but I did say after the Wagner that he probably wouldn't last that much longer anyway so no great surprise - still glad that 'Intruder' got its moment even if it was his undoing in the end (although only because of the judges!!) I ranked him 1st in nearly every round prior to the live shows, mostly with songs I already knew (either from being classics or from already having discovered them through the SyncTube sessions) but 'My Name Is Ruin' was a brand new one to me and also one of the best songs I've discovered from this. Have to say though I am truly shook at Gary not being Jade...! Genuinely no idea who she will have sent now, I was going off assuming she'd have sent a solo male act to complete the trio (as I'm sure I remember her saying before she wanted to do that - Gary jumped out from day 1 as seeming like the kind of solo male act I thought she'd go for and none of the song choices really contradicted my assumption there) but there's no way she is any of the remaining men so x

New Order should not have been in the mix to be eliminated but it was a risky entry and I see they got a little bit lucky being saved by a judging panel that didn't deadlock for once - good that they played it while they still could without completely dooming themselves I guess, I assume safer choices will be on the way!

I only really have one sensible choice for the theme for the second live show so my hand is forced! May or may not be blocking myself from being able to send the original version which I also wanted to do at some point but who knows if I'd have got the chance to anyway x

HA! This theme would've had me struggling a tad for Leona as I'd played the key "club bangers" from her earlier in the contest ('Outta My Head', 'Collide', 'Come Alive' and (would've been) 'Glassheart' last round)

However, I did toy with playing this at some point so I actually may have opted for it in the end as it's an absolute BANGER!

Underrated beaut!

--

Results:

Tom's voice really doesn't do it for me (this round really not for me - I'm sorry :( ), but I do like a handful of his songs. Again, Gary is someone who doesn't really appeal to me but I did actually really enjoy this rounds effort!

You guys made the lives, you should be really proud!

31 minutes ago, Tafty said:

HA! This theme would've had me struggling a tad for Leona as I'd played the key "club bangers" from her earlier in the contest ('Outta My Head', 'Collide', 'Come Alive' and (would've been) 'Glassheart' last round)

However, I did toy with playing this at some point so I actually may have opted for it in the end as it's an absolute BANGER!

Underrated beaut!

--

Results:

Tom's voice really doesn't do it for me (this round really not for me - I'm sorry :( ), but I do like a handful of his songs. Again, Gary is someone who doesn't really appeal to me but I did actually really enjoy this rounds effort!

You guys made the lives, you should be really proud!

It would’ve been a massive risk but Scene Of The Crime is an absolute

pop banger.

I've submitted, but I was tossing up between 3 songs. Hopefully I've made the right choice.

3 hours ago, Paddington James said:

It would’ve been a massive risk but Scene Of The Crime is an absolute

pop banger.

The song that birthed my username. That would’ve taken my top points!! ❤️

5 hours ago, Bror said:

Seriously though, I hope you didn't take the teasing from me too personally ElectroBoy,

erm, no comment x

Have a good rest of your series x

I am gutted Tom has left and for me i see his first two albums as quite alternate pop!

Amen ,Never Be A Right Time, Lets Go Home Together, Something In The Water are personal favourites.

Chin Up @ElectroBoy and remember you placed Sade last every round. Her voice will soothe you right now 😉

For the theme of the next round just send your artists most upbeat best song if they dont generally fit with this theme.

Commiserations fellow eliminee @ElectroBoy - Tom isn’t my cuppa but you did well with him. You’re always great fun to have around in Pop Factor and I love reading your comments and quips!

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.

1 hour ago, vibe said:

Chin Up @ElectroBoy and remember you placed Sade last every round. Her voice will soothe you right now 😉

Not quite every round; pretty sure Vengaboys took that accolade for the 2nd Round 😆

They HAIMed

14 minutes 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.

Well done Julian - I love reading your write ups and your passion for music ❤️

Again, as with ElectroBoy, I hope none of the comments have left you feeling any kind of way. I know I haven’t put Gary very high at any point of the competition (bar the Gamu round where I put you 2nd I believe, Cars is undeniable and reminds me of a childhood of playing Grand Theft Auto all day) but I do always try and slip a compliment or a positive into my notes so people know I’m not just blindly marking down acts that aren’t as much to my taste. I know it is disheartening to see the same people mark you down time and time again though.

A solid follow up to ABBA aswell - making the final again!

4 minutes ago, RobBot said:

Again, as with ElectroBoy, I hope none of the comments have left you feeling any kind of way.

Not at all - it’s all part of the fun. x

Well done @ElectroBoy you did great with Tom and I learnt a few songs I didn't know and I enjoy him a bit more because of you. I'm just sorry that I and others couldn't get into Royal Highway, it just really wasn't something I could get into, his vocal at parts feels a little forced and I couldn't keep going back to it. But that shouldn't over shadow the efforts made, I think @Julian_ said it really well above that reading your posts in the thread really adds to the enjoyment of this event and hope you keep involved till the end!

And to Julian, great run with Gary, you managed to play it so well to win the Gamu round, you did just right at the right time and wasn't shocked you got the callback! Caused me to listen to more Gary than I ever have really tbh so I gave you the vote for that reason as I think that's a big part of this, introducing people to songs from an artist they might not be overly aware of and you achieved that well with me!

Sad to see a loss of 2 from the male category, I know BJ is always going to be quite favoured in the direction of the ladies/female vocals, I hope those same people that were willing and able to rally a tactical vote to eliminate Calvin are now willing to do the same thing to get behind the others in that category to keep them going!

@ElectroBoy thanks for sending Tom Grennan.

Always really enjoyed him as an artist (especially Little Bit of Love). I personally think he’s been done a disservice here….

@Julian_ always admire a left field choice and hopefully some of the pure pop fans heard a song or two that they liked. Proud to have (accidentally) joined you in representing the old man singers this contest :)

9 hours ago, Bror said:

Have to say though I am truly shook at Gary not being Jade...! Genuinely no idea who she will have sent now, I was going off assuming she'd have sent a solo male act to complete the trio (as I'm sure I remember her saying before she wanted to do that - Gary jumped out from day 1 as seeming like the kind of solo male act I thought she'd go for and none of the song choices really contradicted my assumption there) but there's no way she is any of the remaining men so x

I had Jade down for the Fontaines. But now I'm thinking you're behind them so maybe she's Kate Bush? 🤷‍♂️

Some updated guesses from me anyway:

Depeche Mode - DanG

Fontaines - Bror

Kate Bush - Jade

Sam Smith - Jack

Sam Fender - Paddington

Sophie - Gooddelta

Zara - RobBot

New Order - Elgornio

I'll be happy if I've got even half of those right!

Somebody is dark horsing one of the retro acts for sure - I’m wondering now if Rich could be showing his versatility and playing New Order.

Rich is my guess for Texas but who knows!

Sophie, Marina, Texas, New Order, Bananarama, who really knows 🕵️‍

Must admit I thought I’d be rumbled early on, but then I am so confused by many of these now after some of these reveals threw me off.

I am 99% that Depeche Mode is Dan and Darin is RobBot, Fontaines is one of Jade or Bror, and Paddington is either Sophie or Adele.

I was near certain Mango was Texas but he ranked Halo low so now I have no idea! Then again I did rank my act low on one occasion.

Edited Thursday at 14:355 days by gooddelta

The more in the arsenal / catalogue comments are unnecessary.

The point is to judge that particular song otherwise, there really isnt any point in the rounds.