X Factor - Goodbye To The Binman?

Special Bets thinks it may be too close to call.

Brenda was impressive, but not flawless... We would take profits.

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Shayne - Song Choices

We're thinking that there's no way that Shayne can possibly do Queen - Don't Stop Me Now for his next song. He sounded awful in the sound check; Louis knew and Shayne knew it. They must have made a last minute change. Looks like Shayne might be safe from elimination, judging by Andy's poor performance in his first song.

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X Factor - In Running

Andy - an ultra, ultra abridged version of an odd song for him anyway. Disappointing, flat and the judges didn't like it much either...

JS - Sung just as previewed. Very good as expected. Simon - "i really hope you make the final" another one of his clever comments to generate votes. Louis "everyone in the North is voting for you" - a little slip reflecting an anxiety about their popularity?

Brenda - RESPECT - brilliant as previewed. Judges could not contain themselves with compliments. Expect Brenda's price to continue to fall...

Shayne - What's going on? This isn't the soundcheck song! Which one of Queen or Righteous Brothers is he not going to do? If he does Righteous Brothers next - his chances are vastly improved by leaving out that awful Freddy Mercury impression.

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X Factor Soundcheck Review - Louis Walsh In Shock As He "Smells The Coffee" Over Shayne Ward;

ITV treat us to two soundchecks this evening - Journey South singing Rod Stewart's
"You're In My Heart" and Shayne singing Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now".

Journey South sounded very polished and very comfortable. Saturday's Rod Stewart rendition is going to be an acoustic (unplugged as MTV would say) treat - two voices, one guitar and the only backing a violin (unseen on the soundcheck). The small audience were impressed and gave JS a warm, unprompted round of applause at the end.

Shayne Ward's performance however was the reverse and the penny seems to have finally
dropped for "Mentor" Louis Walsh (see our "What mentor" preview) http://specialbets.blogspot.com/2005/12/x-factor-preview-1012-mentor-louis.html

We've discussed Louis' poor song choices for Shayne and Shayne's sore throat but tonight we heard something new from Shayne - his voice actually breaking down on stage. We're not clever enough to host the actual sound file (yet) at Special Bets but here's what we heard;

.....There’s no stopping me
I’m burning through the sky yeah!
Two hundred degrees
That’s why they call me mister fahrenheit (Shayne goes flat on 'fahrenheit')
I’m trav’ling at the speed of light
I (voice breaks) wanna make a supersonic man out of you ('you' sung out of tune & poorly)
Don’t stop me now I’m having such a good time
I’m having a ball don’t stop me now
If you wanna have a good time just give me a call - (to protect his voice Shayne sings this all an octave lower - that's 8 notes lower for non-musos).
Don’t stop me now (’cause I’m havin’ a good time)
Don’t stop me now (yes I’m havin’ a good time)
I don’t want to stop at all
Don’t stop me don’t stop me
Don’t stop me hey hey hey!
Don’t stop me don’t stop me ooh ooh ooh (I like it)

The defining moment came from Shayne's own "mentor" - Louis Walsh. The camera turned to Louis as Shayne was finishing this tragic showing;

*Ben Shephard - "Louis, talk us through the song ..."

*Louis - "Its a very... (hard song to sing?)... nobody can sing a Freddie Mercury song like that, that is...you really have to be a good singer to do that"

*Ben Shephard "He's had a bad throat all week hasn't he... GENUINELY "

*Louis "Yes he had the doctor... but Shayne's a PERFORMER as well as a singer and he's a very versatile singer.. versatile, he can do anything, he can do The Darkness, he can do Take That .."

Interview ends with..

*Ben Shephard "feeling confident Louis?"

*Louis "No, I'm not confident...(no irony or cleverness in Louis' voice) "look at what happened last year... I'm hoping people vote for Shayne Ward"
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Special Bets think Saturday is going to be the defining moment of the show... Shayne's voice is wrecked & Louis has not helped - meanwhile Brenda sounded amazing and Simon Cowell is being highly effective with Journey South.

We fear that on Saturday Shayne may lose his status as favourite, Journey South will challenge for the top spot, Brenda will become the new contender for 2nd favourite and poor Andy will sing his swan song. Special Bets.

Current Betfair outright odds; Shayne 2.24 Journey South 3.7 Brenda 5 Andy 12

X Factor - Winning Manager

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UK Christmas #1 - It Was The Sun Wot Won It?

VSThe Sun - "DIG THE JCB DUO"

Christmas Number One Contenders Nizlopi have a new fan in the form of The Sun's 'Bizzare' column, who Special Bets can reveal attended the "secret gig" on Wednesday night. The Currant Bun compare Nizlopi's Luke Concannon to Chris Martin and describe the group as "much more than one hit wonders"
-Britain's most read tabloid is obviously a handy ally to have running into Christmas - The Sun after all have famously claimed to have swayed General Election results - perhaps they'll run a JCB vs Cowell story at the crucial moment?

Bizzare - http://www.thesun.co.uk/section/0,,4,00.html

Rupert Murdoch's other paper - The Times - also have a "countdown to Christmas No1" http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,17249-1915815,00.htm

Get the best odds on the Internet, Click Here!

X-Factor Preview 10/12 - "Mentor" Louis Gets It Wrong Again;

Special Bets has reviewed, reviewed and reviewed again the Xtra Factor show from Wednesday evening and feel that there will be some major changes in the current odds of the remaining contestants.

Current market favourite Shayne appears to be being thwarted is his quest to win the show by the very people who are there to support him... more about that later.

Saturday's Song Choices;

Journey South - Neutral
Journey South will sing Rod Stewart's classic track "You're In My Heart" and popular Beatles song "Let it Be". Not much to say here; Special Bets thinks that these are mainstream and popular choices that will go down fairly well with the GBP. Simon Cowell has chosen safely but wisely.

Andy - Negative
In Special Bets' opinion Andy has a dodgy song choice in "Everything I Do" (Bryan Adams). As with "Easy Lover" last week we think this song won't suit his style. However, Lately (Stevie Wonder) is much more suited to Andy's style and we think he'll sing it well. For those of you with money on Andy for the outright, or laying him for eviction, let's hope he sings this one second.

Brenda - Positive
Without doubt these are the best song choices Brenda has made throughout the series. Fans of Bridget Jones (the most popular film/book in the last decade among females?) will have high recognition of the number "Without You" (Harry Nilsson). In rehearsal, Brenda showed off her amazing vocal abilities with this track, sustaining the "I can't live" lyric in jaw-dropping fashion
The upbeat Respect (Aretha Franklin) will strike a chord with almost everyone. Special Bets think that Brenda will shine once again, save herself from elimination and become a true contender.

Shayne - Negative
Shayne's (odd?) confirmed choices are; "Don't Stop me Now" (Queen) & "Unchained Melody" (Righteous Brothers). Suffering from a sore throat, Shayne's confidence seemed to be at an all time low during rehearsals and Special Bets wonder why Louis Walsh seems to have abandoned him at a crucial moment. His 'mentoring' seemed to involve saying over the phone "sing what you like, no pressure, but you could go out on Saturday". The team 'coaching' Shayne in rehearsal who knew his voice was faltering responded by suggesting various songs in a high register, then scoffing when the young lad from Manchester unsurprisingly wasn't up to scratch. All this just served to make Shayne even more nervous than he already was. Louis Walsh 'Pop Svengali'? MUST TRY HARDER Louis!
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X - Factor - Potential Song Choices For Saturday Leaked;

In this interview http://tinyurl.com/8eanu with Journey's south local paper the "Teeside Evening Gazette" Andy Pemberton's wife Michelle says the duo have been rehearsing The Beatles' classic Let It Be and You're In My Heart by Rod Stewart for this week's show. Special Bets thinks these are "safe" choices by Simon Cowell which is probably wise given Andy Journey South's high blood pressure...

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Xmas # 1 - JCB Song's domain reaches new traffic highs

www.jcbsong.co.uk - Traffic reaches a new high - momentum is back...
Background; http://specialbets.blogspot.com/2005/11/uk-christmas-number-1-single-nizlopi.html

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A Preview Of (Two) Very Special (Special Bets ) Previews;

Make sure you click onto Special Bets tomorrow night and Thursday morning. Special Bets will be meeting Nizlopi - the JCB Song Christmas #1 contenders tomorrow night and will also have our spies down at the X Factor soundcheck -so make sure you check in for the inside track.

Congratulations to our four Nizlopi JCB competition winners - Top tipsters ATC and DJ Sunset and young pretenders MD300 and Snowman.

Sources close to the band have allowed Special Bets 2 (two) further tickets so click on
http://specialbets.blogspot.com/2005/12/your-chance-to-ride-in-nizlopis-jcb.html and tell us why you would like to ride the JCB on the motorway....but don't delay...

All the best, Special Bets.

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Next Portsmouth Manager Backers - Stand By Your Beds;

News at 10 have an interview shortly entitled "why Harry might not be going to Portsmouth"

UPDATE - not a lot of new info. Harry explaining that Southhampton won't let him speak to anyone at the moment and News At Ten suggesting Portsmouth might be now looking elsewhere...

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I'm a Celeb - Final - In Running;

Eliminations
The insiders sorry, no, rather the MARKET have decided that the 1,2,3 tonight is Carol, Sheree, Sid. Special Bets is sorry to see that as Special Bets likes Sid a lot and don't think he deserves to come second to "I only say & do things because I want some work" Murphy.

C Thatch's trial;
A fantastic performance from C Thatch, clearly shaking as she removed stars from various containers with Spiders and snakes. Special Bets believes that shakes are hard to put on so a genuinely brave performance from CT.

Ant & Dec;
"A couple of hundred votes in it - the order has changed tonight". Special Bets think that this was Sheree overtaking Sid earlier. Although closer than we imagined from the odds earlier.

Sheree's Bushtucker
Special Bets feel this was a poor performance (on a relative basis) vs C Thatch and what we feel will be a brave performance in a truly horrible trial coming up from Sid. Potentially enough for Sheree to be first out? - we'll see.

Sid Owen's Rat/Toad/Coffin Experience;

Given Sid appears to be genuinely afraid of rats, Special Bets think that that brave performance may have put Sid ahead of Sheree tonight. Hopefully the phone lines do not close too soon. Bless yer cotton socks Sid!

Sid Eliminated :(
- We fear that the phone lines closed too early as Sid's votes came in. Shame on the producers.

"Oh My God"
Can Sheree say that any more? Special Bets is in a state of high annoyance with Sheree's repetition. Is saying "oh my god" going to get her any more votes? We're not sure it will.

Special Bet's Last Word
We've had a lot of fun tipping Thatch - but we're going to take our profits here at 1.1... just in case...Good Luck everyone!

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I'm A Celebrity - Latest "This Morning" Poll Results

Telephone poll results in reverse order. This is a controversial poll often accused of being manipulated but results are reasonably consistent.

With only 3 contestants left

Sid. 17%
Sheree. 21%
Carol. 62%

Comps versus last week's daily results;

Sheree 21% vs 14%, 20% 25%, 20%, 18%
Sid. 17% vs 13%, 7% 11%, 13%, 16%
Carol. 62% vs 36%, 53%, 36%, 37%, 35%

These Results are truly bleak for Sid and Sheree backers if reflective of the show's phone vote (which we think will be the case). Simply put. Sid and Sheree have not picked up in share of the vote since the begining of LAST WEEK despite there only now being 3 contestants to vote for. We believe Carol is too far ahead to catch, regardless of the edit tonight and should be trading at around 1.2 on Betfair or below.

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UK Christmas #1- It won't be “Chico Time” - Is Simon Cowell afraid of the JCB crew?

The Sun revealed today that the outside chance for the top spot at Christmas - evicted X Factor Chico Slimari - will be “banned” from releasing “Chico Time” in time to be able to reach #1 -which instead will have a January release.
Special Bets thinks that this is a tactical move that does not simply reflect concern that Chico 's single would take sales from the X factor winner's track “That's My Goal” but rather concern about the popularity of Nizlopi's “JCB Song”.
This is the last day to enter our Nizlopi competition to meet the group this Wednesday in London- don't miss out on your chance!
http://specialbets.blogspot.com/2005/12/your-chance-to-ride-in-nizlopis-jcb.html

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