Actually, though, all the judges to me matched their own groups well. Mara Maionchi was a mother hen to her under 24s; Morgan made his vocal groups sound less like Manhattan Transfer and tried to mke them more experimental; and Simona knows what plays well on TV if nothing else, so she had the over 25s, who in general were more serious, and made them more marketable.

You have to know that X Factor is the first – and only – “reality” show I’ve seen. Well, I did get sucked into Amici (don’t tell anyone), but that’s really it.

Glad you like the Morgan vids – Morgan does seem to be a captain of Italian pop cool, well he tries to be. Anyone who makes fun of Simona Ventura iPod playlist scores highly in my book – even if I doubt whether it would be too difficult to take the wee wee out of SV’s playlist… I did wonder what heck SV was doing as an X Factor judge, I mean, just what connection does she have with the music biz??

As for lunch with Morgan, well, let’s see if he reads this and gets in touch! No breath holding though!

Alex

PS What was on SV’s playlist? Brittany Spears?