The Lyrics Band: A Roundtable Discussion

The participants:

Jess Bailey: Musical director and keyboard player
Troy: Drums
Marcus: Bass
Hannah: Keyboards
Kim: Singer/Percussionist
Adam: Guitar
Matt: Guitar
Graham Perkins: Musical director

Q. Would you ever want to be a contestant on the show?

Matt: No I wouldn't want to be a contestant.

Troy: No I wouldn't, I'd be useless!

Marcus: [The contestants] have all been really good. A lot of them have gone out really soon which is a shame cos they've been so convinced that they're right.

Troy: They've been over confident.

Marcus: They're incredibly - I hate to use the word pedantic - about the lyrics. So somebody can say dream instead of dreams and they go: "I was sure it was that". You could go on there and not be able to sing a note, but provided you can remember the lyrics then you'd do well.

Adam: I think the guy that sang "Wuthering Heights" was a high point. That was a bit of a shock, we were looking through the folder [thinking] he'll never pick that, and he did. Aw.

Matt: Actually all the contestants have been really nice. What's been really surprising to me is seeing the extent to which the people behind the scenes, the production company, are rooting for the contestants. They're all back there afterwards when people have gone out, there have been tears shed, because they are like "oh I thought he was going to get to the next level, you know I really thought he was going to get through". So there's a very pleasant lack of cynicism. I sort of expected people would be more cynical.

Hannah: We had one girl, Joanne, who was really sweet - 24 years old, cute, who was almost to her 5 grand mark and Shane asked what are you going to do with the money and she said "I'm not going to say or I'll cry."

Kim: Out come the tears.

Hannah: She said "if I do get the money I'll give it to my parents 'cos they've helped me so much with moving to London," so I started blubbing.

Kim: It was so obviously real, it wasn't crocodile tears, it wasn't an onion in my hanky fake TV moment, it was obviously the real thing.

Hannah: She was our favourite.

Kim: We all really felt for her.

Hannah: Quite a tearjerker.

Adam: I think they're fairly normal. There's been a quite high number of singing teachers.

Marcus: Interestingly enough some of them have good voices but tend to crumble when they get to the studio. And then there's some people who don't seem like they have great deal of experience and they spring into life and sound quite good.

Adam: It's a hard thing to do if you've never done that kind of thing.

Hannah: I'd be rubbish. I don't care about the lyrics, I only listen to the music so I'd go out first round.

Kim: I'm a session singer which is , I work in the studio a lot and I'm always given the lyrics and I find I learn the music a lot faster than I learn lyrics, just because of the nature of my job. Even on this show, I've got the lyrics, don't tell anybody but me and the MD have the lyrics most of the time, so I can't think of anything I routinely get wrong when I'm going on memory.

Troy: We're struggling to remember our part when there's music in front of us so. (laughs)

Q. Tell us about the breadth of musical categories in the show.

Kim: The show is really hard. Because the nine categories that they get are so broad, that it would take one hell of a person to know lyrics from a sample that wide.

Marcus & Troy: musicals, the 80s, the 60s, the 70s pop, the 90s, rock ballads, Take That ..erm and many, many more.

Q. What have been your favourite songs or genres to perform?

Hannah: Ooh that's tricky. It's like food, there are so many and all so different.

Troy: I'd probably pick a Police song, because none of the contestants seem to pick Police songs. And we love the Police.

Marcus: We love playing the Police and no-one picks it.

Kim: I found as a result of this gig actually, because I played a lot of stuff on this gig that I normally wouldn't have done, its actually changed the way I listen to stuff and things that I've come in contact with in the tiny amount of time we've had off, which is not a lot to be honest, but I found that my tastes have actually changed, they've actually broadened as a result of doing such a vast array of stuff.

Q. Who have you played with in the past?

Troy: Well recently I've been working with Amy Winehouse,

Marcus: I was a dustman in Streatham. going back to the bins tomorrow.

Hannah: I'm a session keyboard player too, so loads of different people all over the place. ..in the past, Natalie Cole, Michael Bolton, Bjork, erm. who else? Uriah Heep, old British rockers.

Adam: I've been playing for Just Jack and Charlotte Church in a previous life.

Matt: I've worked with various people. Some of them famous, others not so famous; all talented. In fact our musical director Jess and I were founder members of Chalet. We worked on Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge, that's how long we've been working together.

Jess: Well, I started out as the keyboard player with Spandau Ballet in the 80's, and then worked with people like Alison Moyet and Prefab Sprout, Paul McCartney and the last few years I've been concentrating more on composition so I've been sort of climbing that ladder.

Q. What has it been like to learn so many songs in such a short period of time?

Jess: Extraordinary. Absolutely extraordinary. When we first took this on the moment of elation when we were told we'd got the job was followed by how on earth are we going to do this?

Matt: We've had to learn 301 songs in a 16-day period. I can't say what my reaction was as you'd have to bleep it out. But yeah, it was daunting and that's partly why we're gelling now.

Graham: It's been I think the confidence of ignorance. If we'd known at the start just how much was involved I wonder whether I'd have done it, but I'm really pleased I did.

Marcus: Actually when you pull them out there's a great percentage that are really good. And there are a few groaners as I call them.

Hannah: We started just with the arrangements and everything in December. So I mean I was arranging on Christmas Day after my turkey.

Kim: Aw. That's bad man.

Graham: I haven't had a day off since Boxing Day and it's been 14-15 hour days, but it' been great being here every day hearing these guys play all my favourite songs. I have really enjoyed it and the shows are going very well. It's kind of nice to be doing something like this and it's really enjoyed at the other end.

Kim: We've bonded really well but.

Hannah: People at home aren't too pleased.

Kim: My husband's like ha, ha, she's gone again. He tries to catch me as I whiz in and out.

Hannah: It's been the biggest challenge I've done in my professional career so far, just the amount of tunes and the amount of programming but its just great to know you can do it you know. So, after this any gig, like any pop gig is going to be like, 'what 20 tunes? Easy!'

Jess: I was saying to the guys that previous to this I hadn't been doing any live playing for a few years and I've rediscovered the joy of sitting down and playing with musicians - great musicians - and it's the most wonderful thing. It really is.