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Britains Talent Barrel Scraping


pedg

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Hmm interesting read. I kind of already thought it was corrupt but can't really imagine it can be that corrupt. I can't believe established singers like Leona Lewis and Will Young are being shafted constantly by the person who gave them their *fame*

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Any programme run by Simon Cowell, with Michael McIntyre, Amanda Holden and David Hasselhoff passing judgement on other people's talent should never exist. The fact that it's completely corrupt on top of it just makes it worse.

 

Leave Deppo out of this.

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Any programme run by Simon Cowell, with Michael McIntyre, Amanda Holden and David Hasselhoff passing judgement on other people's talent should never exist. The fact that it's completely corrupt on top of it just makes it worse.

 

Leave me out of this.

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Having just seen the blatent manipulation of a young female singer on the show tonight - force her to sing an unsuitable song, run her down mercilessly - this all seems just far too credible.

 

Can't remember the title but Ben Elton wrote a superb satirical novel on the whole subject of talent shows and fixing the results. And the more I see, the more it rings true. Sick.

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Don't watch Britain's got Talent personally (I have a very low cringe tolerance level) but interested to see this that appears to blow the whole scheme. What do people think? Is it true or a well worked fake?

 

http://justpaste.it/c8g

 

"Removed due to a claim from Simco Limited ("Syco") and Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited ("Sony")"

 

???

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"Removed due to a claim from Simco Limited ("Syco") and Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited ("Sony")"

 

???

 

try this:

 

http://s3.amazonaws.com/files.posterous.com/litmanlive/W8Rlr26SKTz92GmVWvJ7408nP2NvSHRcNNAu6eIKHpi4qecDYB6Im1Ra5bDa/c8g-justpasteit.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJFZAE65UYRT34AOQ&Expires=1307042027&Signature=rceprTwZetp8gbELKCHMKGOnmv0%3D

 

as a certain r.giggs has found out once something is on the net its almost impossible to remove all traces of it.

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This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.

AccessDeniedRequest has expired5CDDC74F1825C3582011-06-02T19:13:47Z17neO6BSZ1sSTIwdSiY78o71JL6GHmYBsYpGlIKl1f/hg0gxUue+UM59IbDq0z3N2011-06-02T20:57:15Z

 

It seems you were wrong :-(

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Having just seen the blatent manipulation of a young female singer on the show tonight - force her to sing an unsuitable song, run her down mercilessly - this all seems just far too credible.

 

Can't remember the title but Ben Elton wrote a superb satirical novel on the whole subject of talent shows and fixing the results. And the more I see, the more it rings true. Sick.

 

This

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Copied from the site....

 

 

"

BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT and the RONAN PARKE CONNECTION

 

 

 

 

For reasons which will become obvious, I can't reveal my full identity. But let me just say that, I am an executive with Sony Music UK with many years experience in music mangement. My work involves close liasion with Simon Cowell's SYCO company (specifically SYCO Music and SYCO TV) and, as a result, I have seen what goes on from the inside and this has left me increasingly uncomfortable about the integrity of Britain's Got Talent and particularly the workings of SYCO.

 

It's long been known that there is a quite a degree of "fixing" in BGT. ( Daily Mail http://bit.ly/fxkWne ) But press reports on "fixing" are only the tip pf the iceberg when it comes to SYCO's manipulation of, not only the show and the contestants, but also the viewing public and hopefully, in this email, I can shine some light on the smoke and mirrors trickery of SYCO.

 

Take BGT 2011 for example. Scouts working for SYCO first saw Ronan Parke (the 12 year old singer) some two years ago when he was just 10 and was singing at a birthday party for former Norwich City goal-keeper, Bryan Gunn. Following that, Ronan was privately auditioned by SYCO scouts on two more occasions and, as is usual practice on BGT, he was "invited" to audition for the show as a "preferred" contestant. At the same time, Ronan and his parents were "required" to enter into a contract with SYCO. Like all SYCO contracts, it is heavily weighted in favour of the label and are notoriously bad, even in the cut-throat world of the music industry. Simon effectively signed Ronan for life and he's got little or no chance of ever getting out of it...unless Simon decides to terminate. Recording contracts are legally extremely complex and usually require input and advice from very expensive, specialist contract lawyers. SYCO knows that such legal advice goes well beyond the means of most contestants. As one senior SYCO executive said to me recently. "These people are mugs. They'll sign away their own mother just to get on tv. It's a ****ing turkey-shoot and then we own their arses!"

 

As is common for "invited" contestants that SYCO likes and have already signed, Ronan and his parents were provided with a car to drive them to the audition in London. These "invited" contestants don't have to queue up with everyone else, they don't go through the preliminary auditions with producers, but perform straight to Simon and the judging panel at a pre- arranged time-slot. And so it was for Ronan back in 2009 when he was just 10.

 

It was at this initial audition that I first met Ronan and he looked very different back then. He was a skinny, 10 year old lad who, even at that time, was a bit effeminate. His voice needed a bit of working on, but that wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately, nerves got the better of Ronan and he was unable to perform. Simon however, had already seen the audition tapes from the scouts and took Ronan into an unused dressing room and got him to sing in there with his mum for support. Clearly Ronan was not going to be part of BGT in 2009 and nothing from this was ever televised.

 

Ordinarily, you would think that would be the end of things, but with Ronan already signed to SYCO, far from it. This was just the start of a two year grooming and manipulation process to prepare Ronan for stardom.

 

It's no big secret that Simon has been looking for an artist who could crack the very lucrative pre-teen market for some time, particularly in the US. If you like, he wanted his own rival to Bieber and, taking a leaf out of how professional football academies develop youngersters to feed their main team, Simon wanted his own singing academy and Ronan was just one of a number of identified youngsters, with whom SYCO intensively works with.

 

A development package, which included professional singing, dancing and stage-craft tuition was arranged for Ronan and the SYCO machine kicked into gear with the view of Ronan entering BGT 2010. Lots of work had been done with Ronan and his voice was much improved, unfortunately nerves were still a major issue for him and it was decided by SYCO not to enter him into the 2010 series.

 

At a following senior exec meeting at SYCO it was suggested that Ronan be dropped, but with Simon confident that he could be the kid he had been looking for, it was agreed that Ronan would receive "intensive support and input" to ready him for the 2011 series. Although Ronan's voice was now stunning, there were other major problems to be dealt with in order to sell him to the public. With respect to Ronan, he was nothing more than a cooky-looking, skinny runt of a kid and this was identified as a major handicap to sales.

 

It was agreed at a high-level, secret SYCO meeting, that if they were to do anything with Ronan, he needed totally restyling from the toes up. And so with time running out to develop Ronan into the star Simon wanted, SYCO went into overdrive. Ronan was even given speech and elocution training to rid him of his rural Norfolk accent, again in preparation for the potential US market. As for his effeminate and girlishness, this posed a bigger problem and resulted in many highly confidential meetings. At one of these meetings, the unthinkable was raised as a way forward....

 

Until now Ronan had been encouraged to "boy-up" and it was planned to present Ronan as an everyday skater-boy. But with his girliness still showing through, the image just wasn't believable. So a decision was taken to encourage and allow Ronan to "release" and enhance his campness . Disgustingly, SYCO planned to sexualise him. They were well aware of course, that if they sexualised a young girl to look sexually older than she is, all hell would let loose. But with Ronan, as one executive put it, "no one has ever seen a 'gay' kid before, it'll be a novelty." As for the pre-teen market, it was accepted they wouldn't care if Ronan appeared gay or not...most probably don't know what gay is anyway. And so, with a total gay- sexualisation of Ronan secretly planned, SYCO got to work. I should stress, Ronan's parents were not aware of any of this and were never consulted about Ronan's development or management. When I first met Ronan he was a bit effeminate in his ways, but nothing like the camp, girlie-giggling kid you see now on BGT and this is a direct result of SYCO's styling. Even his clothing worn at the audition and live semi-final were chosen for him by SYCO to match his new image.

 

Continued in next post, personally by now i've lost the will to live.

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SYCO took over everything to do with Ronan. His hairstyle, his clothes, his poise, giving tv interviews, you name it, Ronan was styled within an inch of his life and all on the promise of stardom, just as long as he worked hard and listened to his mentors. As for Ronan's parents they were constantly reassured that Simon was personally looking after Ronan and "it's all good".

 

And so to BGT 2011. With Ronan ready to be unveiled, SYCO bosses, under instructions from Simon did something not done in previous series of BGT; the winner of BGT 2011 was decided long before the first auditions took place and that winner HAD to be Ronan Parke. With Ronan now 12, he looked and sounded just as SYCO had planned, but time was running out. Soon Ronan would be going into puberty and his voice would eventually break, so BGT 2011 had to be the vehicle to launch Ronan's career; another year and as a singer he would probably be beyond any meaningful career and the opportunity will have been missed. With all this investment in Ronan, the production managers at SYCO TV are ready to deliver Ronan as ordered. Again, I need to stress, Ronan and his parents know nothing of this and have no idea Ronan will win BGT this weekend.

 

So far in the history of BGT and X-Factor, for that matter, no one has ever won who has not been an "invited or preferred" contestant, and it does sadden me that, all those thousands of people, lining up outside, often in the rain and cold, are basically wasting their time. The producers of BGT are not looking for the talented people, they aready have those. The reality is that the producers are hunting out oddities, freaks and, I'm ashamed to say, mentally ill people, to act as amusing fillers in the audition shows. They are nothing more than unpaid extras and they don't even qualify for traveling expenses! It's quite disgusting and shameful really, how the production team on BGT operate. People come from all over the country, often at great personal expense, because they think BGT is a talent competition and they stand a chance of realising their dreams. I can tell you from the inside that BGT is no more a "competition", than I am an astronaut. Nothing is left to chance on BGT, everything is micro-managed, choreographed, manipulated and planned down to the last detail including, the telephone voting.

 

The ability to manipulate viewers opinion is vital if you are to control telephone voting and indeed get the required result. SYCO see this as essential to the success of the show and are very open about fact; planning and delivering live shows of quality is impossible if it was purely left to the public vote. As Simon said in a meeting once. "The public NEED to be told who to vote for." Everything on BGT is geared towards telling you who you should for, particularly on the production side. It's an art really, which Simon has honed to perfection and SYCO are now world leaders at.

 

The micro-management of Ronan's audition performance was incredible. I was really quite shocked at his new image. From a starting point of wanting Ronan to look cute for the pre-teen market, SYCO had totally gayed him up in the process. Ronan's not a 16 year old expressing his sexualty for the first time, he's a 12 year old boy. It was horrible and I was very uncomfortable as to where this was going to end. Ronan, still suffering from nerves, performed his song and received a standing ovation from all three judges...why? Because it was in the script to give Ronan a standing ovation. As for Louis comment. "Ronan Parke. Remember that name. This kid's gonna be a star!!" - that was actually fed to him from the production gallery and I know the guy who wrote the line. And when it comes to Ronan's tears...well, check it out on YouTube or something. You see Ronan crying and wiping away tears. Only you don't see any actual tears, not even on close-up and on an HD tv. Yep you guessed it, even that was choreographed, right down to the lip-biting!

 

It was also interesting to see that even before the final credits rolled on Ronan's audition show, SYCO TV had uploaded the offical video of Ronan onto YouTube. Today, that particular video has been viewed over 2.5 million times and growing. SYCO don't do that for other contestants, so why Ronan? The gaying-up Ronan plan slightly backfired on SYCO when lots of negative comments were being posted on YouTube and Twitter about Ronan's image and the supposed sexuality that represents. Things got so bad on YouTube that the posting of comments had to be suspended. But SYCO learned from this and dressed Ronan more appropriately for his semi-final show; preferring a much more Bieber inspired look to the 'gay- kid' image presented in the audition.

 

In another unusal move for BGT contestants, SYCO created Ronan's Official Facebook Fan Page and Twitter account. Both these services are managed from within SYCO and they post messages and pictures, not Ronan. This is because they don't want Ronan posting anything controversial and is standard practice for currrent artists signed to SYCO.

 

And so this weekend will see Ronan crowned as winner of BGT 2011. Oh and let's not forget the £100k prize money. It's unlikely Ronan will see much or any of that. He's been signed to SYCO for two years now and under the terms of his contract, while SYCO stump-up for costs in advance, this is paid back from future earnings. So he will need to pay for all those lessons, coaches, cars, clothes, styling and management... I wouldn't be surprised even after winning BGT, if he is not still in debt to SYCO.

 

As a recording artist Ronan has a relatively short shelf-life. Simon knows he is going to have to hit the ground running to maximise Ronan's earning potential, particularly if they go ahead with a planned break into the States and the pace is going to be frantic for Ronan. If you think the music industry is bad in the UK, you haven't seen anything until you experience it Stateside. With an "anything goes" attitude all morals have long since gone out of the window. There will be no allowance for Ronan's age and he will be expected to perform on late- night shows and dinners etc. And if he get exhausted, there's always some sleaze-bag on hand ready to put a line of coke under his nose. I've seen it a million times.

 

I know for a fact, that the songs have already been chosen for Ronan's debut single and album, and that the backing and drum tracks have already been laid down.

 

Of course, once Ronan's voice breaks, it's game-over and he will be commercially redundant for a few years. By the time he gets through that, the world will have moved on and his fan-base will have grown-up a bit. Will he make a comeback? In my experience I'd say probably not.

I've met Ronan a few times over the past couple of years. He's a really nice kid with a generous, warm personality and the most wonderfully cute, girlie-giggle. There's nothing to not like about Ronan. He's a really sensitive soul and this comes across as him being a bit effeminate. But in a world of thuggish chavs, Ronan's a real breath of fresh air really and a real delight to chat to. Do I think Ronan's gay? No, is the short answer to that. SYCO have got a lot to answer for in their initial styling and image for Ronan. Like many 12 year old boys, Ronan may have issues in coming to terms with his sexuality in a couple of years. But right now, he's just a great kid...a bit different, I admit...but a great kid just the same.

 

I hope Ronan is not damaged by this experience, unforunately, history warns otherwise...but whatever, the genie is already out of the bottle and come this weekend, Ronan's life will change forever. Whether it's a good or bad experience being a 12 year old star in today's music industry, only time will tell. But as an industry insider I have serious reservations about what is about to happen to Ronan Parke and I doubt he or his family are ready for what's coming.

 

Thanks to my friends on Twitter and Facebook for getting this document out. Without you my voice would be silent.

 

** If you want to help expose the lie which is Britain's Got Talent, please feel free to republish this article or post a link to it http://justpaste.it/c8g

 

Anon

Sony Music UK"

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Oops

 

I say chaps you may want to edit some of your posts.....

 

(In the light of the Twitter Footballer issue)

 

Police called in by Cowell

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/britains-got-talent/8554015/Britains-Got-Talent-fix-allegations-Simon-Cowell-contacts-police-over-Ronan-Parke-claims.html

 

Telegraph

Syco and Sony Music said they would take legal action to "prevent further publication of these unfounded allegations".

Syco said in a statement: "There has been speculation on the internet that Britain's Got Talent finalist Ronan Parke was known to and worked with Syco/Sony Music before entering the show. There is no truth in this story whatsoever.

"Ronan first came to Syco/Sony's attention when he entered this year's competition.

"Syco/Sony Music will not hesitate to take whatever legal action is appropriate to prevent further publication of these unfounded allegations."

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These things need to be taken with a pinch of salt. Take The Apprentice too. You can't tell me these people are the best business talent we have to offer. Two or three are real contenders and the rest there for TV appeal. You would want many of them to run your local chip shop but some of the wannabees to liven up th process. So it is a money making machine for Simon Cowell. He is one in a long line of people who have milked other people's talent for their own means. You just have to look at the queues of people lining up for the auditions. Do the panel actually see everyone of the acts? Its a bit of fun at the end of the day and if people then choose to go and buy records made by people on the show that is there choice, not Cowells. Even established stars are wheeled out to sell their latest single on the show. That's entertainment....or not depending on your taste.

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It is a well known fact that Simon Cowell uses scouts to trawl the internet looking for potential Forum Supertars. About 3 years ago I got a PM from someone called Saint Simon saying that they had been monitoring my posts and thought that I had real potential to become an internet hero. A meeting was arranged and I, along with my mum, sat down with Simon Cowell and his representatives. He asked me to type some brilliant posts into the internet, but I froze, unable to perform when people were watching me. I was shaking like a leaf and quite distressed by it all. Simon took me into a quiet room and was great. He just said "How do you normally post?" and I said "normally I'm in my bedroom, in my pants, with a weak lemon drink and a 24 pack of Walkers crisps". As quick as lightning, Simon had sent a runner out to get some Lemon squash and some crisps. When they returned he encouraged me to remove my trousers and post something on the internet. Everyone was so pleased with the results that Simon immediately signed me up. It seemed like such a good deal - I would post on the internet, winning people over and every now and then saying something nice about Simon and he would keep me and my family supplied with Lemon squash, crisps and Gin for my mum. Three years on, and as much as I appreciate the training I have recieved from Simon Cowell, I just want to be free now. I can't get out of this contract and feel a fool for trusting him so much.

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Fake article or not it's blatantly obvious to see that it is in fact what's going on... No idea where ronan suddenly got those tears from!! Fake ducts?? Looked very false. Could the judges or ant and dec have kissed his ass any more? No other contestant got input from Louie in the audience following their performance either....

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BGT, strictly come dancing, X factor - you name 'em and I don't watch any of them. Unfortunately for a while at least we'll have to put up with people talking about them because they are undeniably popular. Are they fixed? It wouldn't surprise me but then I've never watched them. My theory is that given the multitude of channels and options on viewing now on offer that non family viewers long since gave up viewing mainstream channels during peak viewing times - there's enough to offer elsewhere. Sport, films, documentaries etc. It's pantomime TV, it's cheap but people find it entertaining - helped by the mainstream media who have vested interest anyway. The good thing about anything this formulaic is eventually it gets boring and people won't watch it - I have no doubt something equally moronic will take it's place though.

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But seriously, have seen a few episodes over the years when I have been back in UK and it really is awful.

 

When you compare it to American Idol and the actual talent (apart from thick bimbo Haley) that they seem to dig up.

 

Think the difference is that the Yanks understand from the start that it is simply a marketing exercise and they get it.

 

Might get off my ass one day and try and compare how many winners of each have made second or third albums or won an Oscar....

 

Scotty McReery vs WHO???

 

yeah you're right, Cowell's got no talent

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Gutted that little Ronan didn't win tonight after such an incredible performance (3 incredible performances if you include his first audition and the semi-final). He has a beautiful voice and there's absolutely no doubt he's going to be a massive star in the future, probably bigger than Justin Bieber(!!!) and is nice to see a child who's so well spoken an polite. Also has a fantastic dress sense for someone of his age which I think adds to his appeal. I have voted for him a few times in the past week, but in hindsight it's probably the best thing for him that he didn't actually win. It'd be bad for him to have too much at such a young age (in a similar way to why A O-C shouldn't move to a big club just yet).

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I think that during BGT, and with the additional remarks Ronan received, was commented on, was referred to, and reminded of, that the public were being led to vote for him... TBH, it wasn't even subtle even before the Ronan story hit the press this week.

 

If... and whether true or not, the grooming story about Ronan hadn't surfaced this week I think the general public would have voted differently and he probably would have won BGT tonight. It appears to have been close but how many people may have chosen to change their vote for the winning finalist due to the stories that surfaced in the past week and not voted for Ronan because of it?

 

If the story hadn't broke, I think the outcome would have been successfully engineered exactly how was described in the allegation... and given the amount of **** that went through as finalists this year makes the whole program now more of a joke that in the past years I thought had been pretty good. Hope there is no BGT next year.

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