Waveguide TV and Radio News - Sunday April 20 2008

Former EastEnders actor Dean Gaffney said he is going to appeal against a sentence handed down for careless driving.

Gaffney was offered a two-hour driving course if he admitted the charge after police spotted him passing other cars in a bus lane in his Audi TT.

But Gaffney, who played Robbie Jackson in the soap, said he wanted “justice” and pleaded not guilty.

The 30-year-old, who defended himself at Kingston upon Thames magistrates court in south west London, was convicted of driving without due care and attention and fined Ł200 with Ł300 costs.

He had three points put on his licence.

Gaffney, from Cobham, Surrey, denied any wrongdoing, adding: “I will appeal.”

Richard Quest, the well known CNN anchor, has been arrested for possessing drugs.

The British reporter was detained by police in New York's Central Park on Friday for carrying drugs in his pocket – a small amount of methamphetamine.

After arresting him at 03:42, police officers searched the journalist and found a plastic bag containing methamphetamine in his jacket pocket. He also had a rope around his neck that was tied to his genitals, and a sex toy in his boot, police said.

The 46-year-old anchor was detained on counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance and loitering in a city park after curfew.

"I've got some meth in my pocket," said Quest when police stopped and searched him in the Central Park.

The court complaint which mentioned what Quest said before being arrested also reveals that the methamphetamine was contained in a zip-lock plastic bag.

However, Quest will avoid going to prison if he successfully completes a six-month drug treatment programme.

Quest’s lawyer, Alan Abramson said that his client was on his way to his hotel and was accompanied by friends, but he didn’t realize that the park had a curfew. Central Park is closed from 01;00 to 06:00.

"The matter is scheduled to be dismissed," Abramson added.

Quest's unidentified companion was given a summons for not carrying any identification.

Quest will have to report back in court in October with evidence that he made enough progress in his therapy. He will not be restricted to travel in any way, the judge said.

Richard Austin Quest is a Liverpool-native news reporter based in London on the Cable News Network edition CNN International.

An estimated 10,000 people turned up in Manchester yesterday for an opportunity to take part in the next series of ITV's talent show The X Factor.

Crowds waited at Manchester United's Old Trafford football stadium from dawn. The show's presenter Dermot O'Leary put in an appearance.

Many people said the auditions were a "shambles", one mother posted her feelings on the Unreality TV forum. She said: "My daughter left Doncaster this morning at 6.30am arrived at old Trafford at 8.30, was left to stand in the open for 8 hours along with all the other hopefuls, was so cold and fed up that by the time she was asked to sing she had a dry throat and could not reach her notes.

"This is the most disorganised audition process I have ever seen. After all that time she was given a measly 30 seconds to impress the people employed to choose who goes through to the televised audition..."

One of the organisers said: "We couldn't believe how many people turned up."

08:00 April 20 2008 - waveguide.co.uk

Reader Comment

Well said.

Pascal. North Yorkshire
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It was an absolute and utter shambles.

On a bitter, freezing cold day we were all queuing outside the stadium for many hours...oh, and some of the security were letting some jump the queues as well.

Then eventually the queue was very slowly allowed into the stadium for the auditions. So we were all herded into the Stretford end stand...this in itself took hours and it was still bloody freezing...but no auditions yet and it's now well into the afternoon!

An hour of more filming fake crowd happiness...then they decided to start erecting the kiosks in which the auditions were going to happen. But it was windy and they had problems getting them up...muppets.

Then, by mid afternoon, the auditions started and it quickly became obvious that this was going to be a very late night indeed. People were queue jumping like crazy and the stewards had only a half grip on the situation.

To make matters worse they started shifting the next waiting rows to the front rows...then other rows were taken from further back to form immediate queues at other kiosks...so again people were being taken out of order. After 11 hours of standing / sitting in the freezing cold, this was just a farce.

Finally my daughter was seen at about 7 pm...and we were about half way
through the crowd so heaven only knows what time it all finished.

So , to summarize, we queued outside for hours...to join a queue inside the stadium for more hours...to join a queue at the front for more hours...to join a queue at the audition kiosk for a thirty second audition.

Organisation 0/10
Keeping the crowd happy 0/10
Overall...I don't think I need to say...do I???

Steve from Wakefield.
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The whole thing was a nightmare. Not only was we all queuing about 5 hours in the cold to get in, and another 5 hours in the stadium, but we had to sing behind screens, in the cold with other singers either side of us.

I couldn't hear myself singing also behind us the crowd were giving it 'oggy oggy oggy, oi oi oi' and judging us wasn't even people who were professional, just no-bodies it was ridiculous.

It should have been like it was last year with the producer, we should have gone in, sang and come out, instead we froze our backsides off for so long we couldn't even stand to sing. It was dreadful.

martdavies1958
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I totally agree about Manchesters X Factor audtions i felt like the organisers were not bothered about the contestants but more bothered about there filming.

I myslef was there to audtion and alrady ahd the beggings of a sore throat but eleven hours in the cold later when i finally got to sing the so called judge was stobish and uncaring and my voice. Couldn't take the cold and couldnt get my notes yet someone in a booth next to me who sounded like an idiot messing around got through.

Also by the time i was seen the so called 'golden tickets' that we were all
bidding for were not being handed out as much as near the begining and if
someone who was seen earlier managed to get through they were aparently
told they had to have another audition before the TV ones.

How the orgainsers expected people to sing perfectly in that cold when people had been there hours on end like myslef is truly unbeliveable and i feel let down by the x Factor and would never audition at thaht puppet show!

Again as a singer i feel down hearted but have to remember that in
that cold i had no chance not unlesss maybe i was acting stupid to make a
good show.

Lisa From St Helens
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We too went along to Old Trafford yesterday. Up at 5am, arrived at
7.15am and what should have been a fantastic experience regardless of being
selected, was one of the worst days of my life, NEVER EVER to be
repeated.

Parking facilities around the stadium were not accessible or open which
resulted in total mayhem. However, not to be deterred at this early stage we kept a positive attitude that things would get better. WRONG!

We eventually found the disabled parking, only to be charged Ł10 for the privilege. The charge couldn't be wavered as it's on private land
(Like Old Trafford FC need more revenue!).

Having been in the car for hours at this point we all needed the toilet. No accessible disabled toilets to hand and we were forced to walk virtually all the way to the other end of the stadium to find no more than 20 porta-loos. They were absolutely disgustingly filthy. Now bearing in mind that it wasn't even 8am by this point I shudder to imagine what state they would have ended up in by the time thousands of people had used them! These were the only toilets available to the thousands of auditionees and their families/friends outside of the actual stadium.

We were instructed to be there before 8am and on our arrival joined
thousands of would be X Factor contestants.

A bitterly cold day, left standing in the queuing system for over 6 hours to be treated like puppets. Carrots fed to the 'donkeys' - 'We will be going into the stadium soon. We need to do some filming for the tv show, each and every one of you will be on it as we have a wide angled lens'.

Hours of silent cheering, waving, making X factor symbolic gestures and shouting and so more time passed. Another carrot - send a text message on your mobile and it will be displayed on the large screen at the front of the queue. Keep the donkeys motivated!

Eventually the stadium doors were opened, cameras rolling, the first of the contestants complete with camp beds, duvets & pillows were allowed in but only after they had been forced to cheer and wave at the
cameras.

Auditionee stickers were issued in number order as the queue progressed
through the doors. There was no system or order and was a complete
farce!

Moral was flagging in the crowd & the repetition of pop songs & X Factor signature tune was wearing very thin with all.

A further 2 hours later we got into stadium, no sign of any lifts and were ushered along with the crowds to take a seat. Fine if one is able bodied and can climb steps but I am no David Hempleman-Adams and I found the attitude of the stewards sneering and derisory. When I explained that I was disabled the response was 'Yeah, You and 900 others'. I attempted to climb the steps but it then became evident that indeed I couldn't manage them and was ushered to a seat asap as I was causing a backlog!

The wind howled round the stadium and we waited and we waited. People
still piled in and then a word of encouragement - 'We'll be starting the
auditions soon'.Enter Dermot O'Leary, more silent cheering, muppetry and crowd cajoling for the cameras.

It was then announced that the judges booths would be erected shortly
and the auditions would begin. How many years has X Factor been running? One would think that these booths would have already been in place BEFORE the throngs appeared.

Another hour passes, the wind is howling across the stand and with no
imminent start visible, the donkeys need feeding and watering. Would be
X Factors are still piling in and we now have severe congestion as the entrance and exit routes are not separate. Suddenly, without any announcement, we then realised that the audition process was underway.

A complete and utter shambles, no system in place. Certainly no first
come first come basis, more like a free for all. Contestants were queue
jumping and it was a good while before stewards took control of the
situation.

I would like to ask at this point, what criteria is needed to be a judge? From my seating position I was able to observe 3 of the judges. (I had forgotten to mention that an official steward from MUFC had moved us to some seats further down the stand where there were no steps).Their body language said it all - at times disinterested, distracted and cold like us too, but hey we'd been in these conditions for well over 8 hours, not just 30 minutes and we weren't served latte coffees ad lib!

While we were waiting people around us were practicing, attempting to
warm up their vocal chords. There were some excellent voices but hey guess what? Not one of them got through. Yet the numpty walking round with the saucepan on his head seemed to capture their full attention!

Maybe next years auditions should be named 'Entertainment Factor' as
these judges were certainly NOT looking for decent vocalists or people with REAL talent. Having spoken to numerous people throughout the day the
consensus seems to be that this is an orchestrated production to fit a prime time tv slot. No matter how talented, outstanding and melodious your audition may be there is only a very very slim chance you will get through. They are equally looking for as many dire performances to boost the tv viewings for the comedy factor.

I cannot Xtol the virtues of the X Factor auditioning process. Certainly NOT feeling X-uberant, more X-asperated.

By my experience of yesterday the whole audition process was a complete
& utter shambles. No respect or regard for the contestants and their families. It was like a cattle market, herded from one place to another and long periods of time when we didn't know what was going on, just fed incentives.

Someone should take down their own video camera and record the reality
of the X Factor auditioning process. I'm sure there would be a slot on
prime time tv for the X-tortionate Factor!

From:
The Voice of an Angel
Warrington, Cheshire
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I went to the Manchester auditions yesterday, arrived at 8 o clock to an already heaving crowd, where we were entertained and filmed for about 2 hours, and then left outside in the freezing cold to que for 4 and a half hours whilst they "prepared the stadium" for the auditioning to take place.

We finally got our numbered stickers and made our way into the stadium at around 12.30pm, I was number 2544 out of aproximatley 7000. we were taken into our "designated" seats and told that we would be seen in numerical order! YEAH RIGHT!!! after another hour of waiting whilst they errected 11 plastic booths (screens) for us to sing behind, the auditions started..

They took down 10 people at a time to each booth where they sang in front of someone supposedly from the music business.. hmmm dont think so!

The golden ticket was given to succesful auditionees and if you were
unsucessful a black mark was put through your sticker..I saw about 20
people being given these golden tickets.

At 7.30pm people were still being seen, and the numerical order system had been scraped so people who had a smaller number were being left til last and others with numbers in the 5000s were seen first, this obviously wound people up.

The whole day was a complete farse, and i feel robbed as in the end i didnt get to sing because i was so cold i couldnt even speak let alone sing.

To make matters worse, I witnessed lots of auditions that were brilliant and
they were turned away, but yet total idiots were put through! its disheartening for me and im a 25 year old woman, i can only begin to imagine how it must feel for a 14 year old, I only hope that my kids dont want to put themselves through it

Tracey Greaves. Goole, East Yorkshire
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I was there yesterday too and in my honest opinion I think the whole thing was a set up to make it look like Simon and the others had to audition when in reality they maybe will have a few dozen to see from manchester. I mean lets face it, there they were trying to get us to "pretend" it was summer even Dermot had to stand there in his shirt, because it gets aired in summer...

But the worst of it all was having to audition outside in that cold after being stood for hours then sat like sardines in can inside the stadium. I'd virtually lost my voice from all the "TV" footage that we had to film, my lips were blue, and my teeth chattering, could barely hear myself over the crowd and tannoy announcement and my judge supposedly a top executive in the music world (yeah right) had a face like a slapped behind.

Its a scam and a sham.......

I heard loads of excellent singers they all got turned away. But garenteed we'll see plenty of "entertainment" factor auditionee's singing the likes of Barbie girl infront of Simon again this year.....

l.missnaughty
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I went to the manchester auditions at old trafford , I waited outside
for 2 and a half hours after arriving at 7.50am,the auditions themselves
did not start till 12 in the afternoon thereabouts.

I waited till I was auditioned by a judge, who seemed tired and cold like myself at about 6.10pm as it was bitterly cold. I am a type 1 diabetic and had three
hypoglyceamic attacks during the day my teeth were chattering constantly
due to the cold,so I was surprised I could actually sing a note.

There was no order and people were seen before me who had arrived after me
in the queue . I actually witnessed one girl who had pushed to the front of the queue past me and others, audition once and was turned down, then she stood once again in front of the queue had another audition and then got a ticket , this was so unfair as she had two opportunities.

I myself have had two recording contracts in the past and I reached number 9 in the UK independant charts as a featured artist. I have worked with successul music producers names including Rob davis and steve levine and was disappointed with how everything was handled.

I saw people being turned away with great voices, and people with mental
problems and little talent being given recalls , the x factor has turned into
a freak circus and seems to be intent on ridiculing the vulnerable in its TV show and not developing people who can sing. Every singing tutor will tell you it is not good to sing when freezing cold the throat has to be warm, it seems professionalism has gone out the window and a judge is not going to be interested in finding good vocalists after sitting in the cold for 7 hours on a high stool.

ella
liverpool
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My son went on Saturday, he is 15 , I don't drive so his dad took him this is what they told me what happened.

Arrived in queue approx 7.40am stayed in queue that zig zagged for about 4 hours they thought maybe the audition had started inside already .. but NO ,
some people had camped out all night , finally they got into the stadium
waited for the staff to erect the booths, listened to music.

Some people appeared to jump the queue by "being lost" and some people
got there names called out I was also told that the groups were sorted out first

My son came home , cold, tired, hungry and he didn't even get seen... they saw sense and refused to wait beyond 5pm as they were almost the back of the stadium.. he did however have 3 stickers with different numbers , so in essence he could have auditioned 3 times, the organisation was awful

His dad bought him an X factor scarf to keep his throat warm....I thought he was exaggerating , but after reading everyone elses comments I am glad I couldn't make it.. not because I didn't want to , but I would have caused a riot
I know I wasn't there this year but I was there last year 8am start, home back in Liverpool by 1pm.

Pinky..Liverpool
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My Daughter is just 17 and training to be a classical singer. We arrived with her at the Manchester stadium at 8.10 am on Saturday morning. Did all the silent cheering bit, then the other cheering bit's and about 4 more cheering bits after that. We just wanted to be let in so that we could audition and go home. NOT that simple we were finally seen at 7.30pm, she sang beautifully (it went all quiet, I had tears in my eyes I was so proud) and she got through.

TUESDAY. Waited for 3 hours with her DAD before she was seen (she didn't mind waiting). Saw "2 PRODUCERS", sang, and was asked to then sing a POP SONG as they were not sure. "WHAT", she thought, I'm classical singer. Anyway she sang, they said she had a lovely voice and was talented and wuld go far, but she was not what they were looking for. They said they were looking for POP singers. They should know that classical singers use different vocal cords. I thought this was called "THE XFACTOR", not "POP IDOL". Her exact words to me when she came home was they are "KNOBHEADS".

Sums it up really, NEVER EVER AGAIN. SIMON SHARON & LOUIS I HOPE YOU READ THESE PAGES. PLEASE DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS FARCE.

kimbrad6

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