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Saint John Idol 2012

PostPosted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 2:55 pm
by Mathieu Benoit
So... What's Jarrett doing in there? He's like a young, less hairy version of Roach. I like him. I hope he does well. Is there any other talent in the TOP 10 other than him? I haven't been out yet... Is it still as popular?

I'm mostly looking at Nick since I know that he went last night, but if anyone else wants to chime in... By all means.

Re: Saint John Idol 2012

PostPosted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 3:01 pm
by Malcolm Boyce
Jill Godin is a long time participant in the "Rock" camp I teach at in the summer and has come a long way, and from what I've seen.... Could have potential & understands that there is work involved, not just being a superstar. I'll see her next week and will probably get to hear how she is doing vocally. She's back this year in a teaching assistant kind of role.

As far as setting foot down there for one of those events... Count me out unless there's money involved. 8-)

Re: Saint John Idol 2012

PostPosted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 3:05 pm
by Mathieu Benoit
Malcolm Boyce wrote:Jill Godin is a long time participant in the "Rock" camp I teach at in the summer and has come a long way, and from what I've seen.... Could have potential & understands that there is work involved, not just being a superstar. I'll see her next week and will probably get to hear how she is doing vocally. She's back this year in a teaching assistant kind of role.


Apparently she's in the bottom 3 this week. I'm going to try to make it out next week to catch the performers.

Re: Saint John Idol 2012

PostPosted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 5:00 pm
by Nick H.
A lot of Jarrett's performances are posted here: http://www.facebook.com/events/257691487676848/

He's been phenomenal from what I've seen; everyone else... Not so much.

Re: Saint John Idol 2012

PostPosted: Sun Jul 29, 2012 11:15 am
by dylanger
Katie Reid is in it, she's extremely talented along with her whole family. Her brother is an amazing guitar player. He plays in my blues band.

Kyle Mcvae is in it again, he came in second last year. All the young girls looovvve him. It's pretty funny. I played for him last week and he sings pretty good and likes to put on a show.

Jarrets version of Moondance was freaking awesome by the way.

Re: Saint John Idol 2012

PostPosted: Sun Jul 29, 2012 6:42 pm
by Mathieu Benoit
dylanger wrote:Jarrets version of Moondance was freaking awesome by the way.


Like a younger Sean Roach.

Re: Saint John Idol 2012

PostPosted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 2:03 am
by Malcolm Boyce
So... Will there be a live band at this next week?

I caught more this year than all the other years combined. Don't be fooled into thinking I've been up there a lot this year, just that I hardly saw the thing before this year. 8-)

Re: Saint John Idol 2012

PostPosted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 9:37 am
by Mathieu Benoit
Malcolm Boyce wrote:So... Will there be a live band at this next week?

I caught more this year than all the other years combined. Don't be fooled into thinking I've been up there a lot this year, just that I hardly saw the thing before this year. 8-)


The live band usually comes in the final round simply because they need to pad the time. Sidekick normally has the gig. I saw Jed posting on Facebook about how busy he is because of Idol.

If Jarrett makes it to the finals I'll be interested to see how he makes out with them.

Re: Saint John Idol 2012

PostPosted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 10:33 am
by Nick H.
The band does start next week this time. Should be interesting.

Re: Saint John Idol 2012

PostPosted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 12:22 pm
by Mathieu Benoit
Nick H. wrote:The band does start next week this time. Should be interesting.


Really is it already down to the last two weeks? Or have they increased the number of shows they do with a band now?

Re: Saint John Idol 2012

PostPosted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 12:27 pm
by Malcolm Boyce
I don't even know how this thing works. I've prided myself on being able to ignore it for years. I think it's down to just two contestants next week isn't it?

Re: Saint John Idol 2012

PostPosted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 12:32 pm
by Mathieu Benoit
So did Jarrett make it to the top 3?

Re: Saint John Idol 2012

PostPosted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 12:08 am
by Nick H.
Jarrett's in the top two. I guess next week will be the last performances.

Re: Saint John Idol 2012

PostPosted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 9:01 am
by Mathieu Benoit
Nick H. wrote:Jarrett's in the top two. I guess next week will be the last performances.


There will be two more weeks of Idol. The voting will happen next week to determine the winner, but those results are sealed until the following week. They will have another show and they'll bring on previous contestants and such to pad time. Then the reveal is at the end of that show. So we'll only know that Jarrett won on the 29th of August.

The Wave wrote:Collins Tours Saint John Idol 2012

Thank your for your votes!

With over 35,000 votes, the bottom 3 & the guaranteed contestant moving on to the next round of Saint John Idol are:

Guaranteed a spot in the top 2:

Jarrett Gautreau

Bottom 3:

Kyle McVea

Katie Reid

Jill Godin

The grand prize winner will revieve a $5000 travel voucher from Collins Tours and $5000 cash from Market Square!

Join us every Wednesday @ 8pm....on the Market Square Boardwalk!

See you on the Boardwalk


Basically the judges are going to save one person next week to move on to the Top 2. I like this way better because it allows for talent to get a change to have a chance against the voting system. Of course, that is if the judges can recognize that talent.

I'm excited that Jarrett could win this. He deserves it, he's a very talented kid that could take it all the way. He can perform and he's a great writer. $5000 in travel vouchers used wisely could fund a small tour. The other $5000 could pay for a badass EP. ;-)

Re: Saint John Idol 2012

PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 1:25 pm
by Nick H.
As previously discussed, a backup band has been enlisted for the last two weeks of idol. Due to the generally derogatory nature of this post let's call them The Assistants; a local band analogous to a musical revolving door of talented sidemen, rotating around a fixed, largely untalented married couple. Presumably, this band is hired on the strength of these sidemen, who seem to rarely associate themselves with with the group for very long.

In any event, The Assistants got this gig, musical shortcomings and all, and canvassed the performers they were to backup for their song selections. This was two weeks ago. As one would expect, upon submitting his song requests, my friend began practicing his selections as if $10,000 was at stake. That is, he practiced up until Monday night, two days before the performance, which is when the bandleader (also 50% of the underwhelming musical married couple) called to say that he would need to change his selection. My friend had selected an Audioslave song (the name of which escapes me) which was apparently far too advanced for ANY bass player to learn without weeks of prior practice. My friend rebutted by claiming that - and I'm paraphrasing - the song was well within the grasp of a competent bass player who has a few spare minutes she is willing to dedicate to listening to the song. This ultimately led to the suggestion that he bring his own bass player. He accepted.

In the meantime, and seemingly missing the memo about their being the backup band, he was told to give them four song titles that he knows and that they would pick one for him. When he called back to confirm that a bass-playing friend of his would step in, the bass player replied, "obviously it must have taked him weeks to learn it". My friend answered honestly, "Ah, no. It actually took about five minutes. He has several years of professional music experience". At this, the bassist-bandleader became hugely defensive, and hollered for his wife to come deal with this person, who he wasn't going to talk to. What followed was the wife adamantly boasting her husband's superior bass knowledge, earned in part by his tremendous 35-year music career.

This all seems sort of insane and unprofessional, doesn't it?

Re: Saint John Idol 2012

PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 2:22 pm
by Malcolm Boyce
I would first submit that the problem lies within the "Idol" organization for hiring anyone who can't stand up to what is being sold as a professional backing band behind the 'Idols to Be'. I know my expectation would be people that could cut almost anything laid in front of them. That being said, the nature of the small city biz dictates that may not be the case in these instances and doesn't entirely surprise me.

You can't argue that someone who has essentially been playing professionally for a long time, including backing up many of these kind of "talent contests", doesn't know what they are doing. That is a losing battle, no matter how much you believe it to be the case. They may not be living up to the expectations of you, or me, or your friend, but not being able to carry on as a performer in the case of the "Idol" participants in a situation that is less than ideal, not only now but for the entire duration of the "contest", is questionable as well IMHO.

If every other contestant that works with "The Assistants" has a great time this week, who comes out looking "professional" to the general population if this becomes an issue for your friend? I know it may suck to be that person in this case, but it's just the nature of the biz sometimes.

Re: Saint John Idol 2012

PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 4:58 pm
by Mathieu Benoit
I agree with many of Malcolm's points but I also focus on different espects of this situation. What that particular bass player's comfort is with a particular song is neither here nor there, how they chose to deal with the situation is more the issue. I'd be pretty upset as a contestant if I was dealt with in that fashion.

Since it's so close to the end of the competition I'd let it go for now, but I might bring it up in a tactful manner to the organizers after the event was done. As a private grievance the situation can be dealt with more directly and then the organizers can decide whether or not it warrants any action on their part.

I certainly don't think it would make the contestant seem "unprofessional" to take up their issues with the oraganizers in a proper, and respectable way.

Re: Saint John Idol 2012

PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 5:59 pm
by macrae11
As with many things in life the music business is political. Now perhaps your friend isn't a "professional" musician, but acting in a professional manner isn't limited to professionals. This is what I'm referring to:

Nick H. wrote: When he called back to confirm that a bass-playing friend of his would step in, the bass player replied, "obviously it must have taked him weeks to learn it". My friend answered honestly, "Ah, no. It actually took about five minutes. He has several years of professional music experience".


Honesty isn't actually always the best policy. Even if he wasn't being treated professionally, I've always found it best to instead of responding in a similar fashion, to respond with extreme over the top professionalism that's impossible to be faulted. In response to this question, where it seems like he's about to get his way with his own bass player, I would have responded very noncommittally. Something like "Gee I don't know how long it took him to learn it, he has been playing a long time and he's a great player though." This not only lets the player think whatever they want in their own head about how difficult the song is, but also makes him feel better about passing the gig off to another player who is of excellent caliber.

Not knowing either player in this dispute, it might not be that the original player was incompetent, perhaps they were strapped for time with other commitments and couldn't find time to learn another song regardless of difficulty and so was just giving excuses. Now this is quite unprofessional since that's the job he's being paid to do, but getting a friend to fill in might be the best situation for all involved and letting the existing unprofessional player exit graciously will make everything easier and everyone gets their way. I'd much rather have somebody I trust playing, and leave the original player delusional, rather than trying to make a point and putting yourself in a no win situation.

Re: Saint John Idol 2012

PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 6:13 pm
by Mathieu Benoit
I want the number of your therapist/zen master. He/she is very good. Your self-control is uncanny. :twisted:

It is good advice, but it would be hard to pull off when emotions get flared, which in this case, they seem to have.

Re: Saint John Idol 2012

PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 6:14 pm
by Malcolm Boyce
Mathieu Benoit wrote:Your self-control is uncanny. :twisted:
...and correct.

Re: Saint John Idol 2012

PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 6:19 pm
by Mathieu Benoit
Malcolm Boyce wrote:
Mathieu Benoit wrote:Your self-control is uncanny. :twisted:
...and correct.


I'm not arguing that at all. Its just hard to tell how one would act in that situation without being in that situation. Hindsight is 20/20.

Re: Saint John Idol 2012

PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 6:20 pm
by Malcolm Boyce
Mathieu Benoit wrote:Hindsight is 20/20.
I'm pretty careful with my words.... Especially in person.

Re: Saint John Idol 2012

PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 6:24 pm
by Malcolm Boyce
...and especially when it's business.

Re: Saint John Idol 2012

PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 6:30 pm
by Mathieu Benoit
Malcolm Boyce wrote:
Mathieu Benoit wrote:Hindsight is 20/20.
I'm pretty careful with my words.... Especially in person.


I don't doubt it. But that's what experience has taught you. I can't say how I would've react in the same situation because I wasn't there. However I can certainly appreciate how dealing with certain people or situations make it harder to keep a level head.

Dealing with emotional people in the music business is unfortunately a reality since you are dealing with artists and they place a lot of emotional value in their craft. It's easy for conversations to get get out of hand.

Re: Saint John Idol 2012

PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 7:24 pm
by macrae11
Mathieu Benoit wrote:I want the number of your therapist/zen master. He/she is very good. Your self-control is uncanny. :twisted:

It is good advice, but it would be hard to pull off when emotions get flared, which in this case, they seem to have.


You already have her number, she answers to Julie... :-P

Seriously though, it can be tough, especially for some people who respond emotionally. I generally tend to be slow in getting riled, always have been. Working in a call center when I was younger, as you know can help with learning how to deal with ridiculous people, as can working in the music biz.

With this situation where it was over the phone and fairly obvious that a confrontation was coming, proper preparation is the key. Being aware of sticky situations before they arise can easily help diffuse said situations. As you get more used to dealing with these types of things you get better at handling them on the fly when they come out of left field.