Joe's name goes up in lights

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The people of Jarrow have decided to celebrate Joe McElderry's success in the X-Factor in a special way.

The 18-year-old's face will be projected on to South Shields Town Hall, along with messages encouraging South Tynesiders to pick up the phone and vote for him.

Joe said: "I'd heard they were going to put my face on the town hall. That's amazing."

The series of images and messages will go up on the Westoe Road landmark between 5pm and 8pm on Saturday, after the Christmas lights are switched on by The Cheeky Girls.

Joe's mum Eileen Joyce, a youth worker, said: "It's totally bizarre, but it's great they have taken up the cause.

"Joe thinks it's fantastic how much the borough's getting behind him.

"When he came home on Tuesday he got to see it for himself, posters in people's windows, and I was showing him all the recent Gazette cuttings.

"He was quite shocked. It's massive."

Come Dine With Me X-Factor Style with Cheryl, Joe and Lloyd

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It seems the Judges rivalry isn't just limited to the singing competition as it seems Cheryl Cole and Dannii Minogue are indulging a little of "Come Dine With Me" type competition.

Come Dine With Me has been a cult hit, the show involves people cooking for strangers in a competitive atmosphere and that seems what Cheryl and Dannii are doing just that, although the amount of cooking they will do themselves is will vary.

Cheryl Cole has reportedly invited Joe McElderry and Lloyd Daniels to her house for dinner and promised the boys to cook her legendary Spag Bol if they survived the vote off this week.

“Cheryl offers incentives to make sure they do their best each week,” a Newspaper source said. “This week it’s an invite to her house. She said she’d cook anything they wanted – as long as it’s spag bol. It’s her speciality.”

Dannii on the other hand has said she will take Lucie Jones, Stacey Solomon and former contestant Rachel Adedeji out for dinner this week.

Nothing from Louis or Simon yet...
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Favourite Joe was angelic child

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Joe is the kind of guy who no one ever has a bad word to say about him, and pictures from his family album suggest it has been this way for quite a while.


An early photo reveals Joe, as a toddler, as the happy-go-lucky lad he has become.



The 18-year-old shows his gentle spirit as he poses with him mum, Eileen Joyce on a beach in the North East.

"X-Factor is freak show to promote Cheryl Cole"

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So says Pete Waterman the 80's mega producer and judge on Pop Idol, the predecessor to the X-Factor.

In an interview with the Independent newspaper he was scathing about the programme and how it's focus is on the Judges not the contestants.

He was particularly unhappy about how people like Cheryl Cole mentor to Joe McElderry have benefited from the show

"The problem for me is that kids believe that this is a talent show. It's not. It's a freak and geek show. It's about ratings," he said.

"That Cheryl Cole has sold more downloads as the judge than the winner of The X Factor proves that it's a bigger promotion for the judges than it is the contestants on the show."

"I never watch The X Factor. I don't watch it because I was on the original Pop Idol show and I walked off the second series on principle.

"The first Pop Idol was about music, but the shows have got worse. It is not about talent, it's about television and spectacle. I'd rather make a programme about railways."

"The credit in the first Pop Idol goes to the people who trawled through and edited the performances, picking a balance between fun and talent. But that all went out of the window on Pop Idol 2. You had to have someone who cried, someone who died, someone with one leg.

"I get so many people writing to me saying, 'I've been on The X Factor, will you listen to my songs?' No! The show has produced people that others want to talk about but if they're as great as everyone says, they'd be selling 20 million albums."

Waterman was a judge on Pop Idol, forerunner of The X Factor, and on Popstars: The Rivals, the show which created Girls Aloud and catapulted Cole to fame.
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Joe McElderry rumoured to be in the bottom 3 last week,

Another week another set of result leaks

It seems either some people are enjoying taking the mickey out of X-Factor views or the show has more leaks than a Welsh allotment. According to the latest leaks Joe McElderry was in the bottom three of the public vote last weekend, only narrowly ahead of Lloyd Daniel and Rachel Adedeji.

And if that was not enough of a surprise apparently Danyl Johnson topped the voting. The report also claims that twins John and Edward Grimes were placed second as a result of the public vote, while Olly Murs came third and Lucie Jones came fourth.

Jamie Archer and Stacey Solomon were in fifth and sixth place respectively, according to the same article.

Before Danyl's fans head off to celebrate or Joe's wallow in despair It is worth remembering that there were wildly different press reports about the vote for the twins and Rachel over the last couple of weeks.

Really it isn't over, till its over.
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