X Factor Live

O2

As is the reality television show so is the gig – so on most levels this isn’t a typical pop music concert.

What it is, however, is a well-produced, top-of-the-line, stage-show facsimile (minus the judges) that features the top eight of the acts that, God love them, will either go on to become very successful or (as the show’s statistics have so efficiently proved) will end up either performing PA (public appearance) gigs across the UK and Ireland (Stacey, Olly and Daniel have been signed by Butlins for summer hi-di-hi performances) or back from whence they came: small town anonymity.

If this seems an unfair summation it’s only because the television show itself is predicated on the same notion of not so much the cream rising to the top but the shaping of raw commercial potential too quickly into something some of the participants patently are not and will never be: enduring, truly talented pop stars.

In other words, you can teach people how to hold a microphone properly, how to project their voices, how to successfully negotiate stage steps, how to ask “Are you havin’ a good time, Dublin?”, and give them the right songs to sing. But unless these people are dripping with personality the novelty will soon wear off.

Forget ambition and drive, forget ego and creativity, in pop music, if charisma isn't there then why bother? This all said, and taking the X Factortour at its unashamedly barefaced commercial value (and, boy, was the interval plug for X Factormerchandise unashamedly barefaced), this was probably the most fun pop concert I've seen in years. Part talent show/karaoke bar/amateur hour enveloped in top-quality production values, this was gimcrack pop music amid fireworks, bad timing, clichés, ballads, handbags, gladrags and high-fives – no concepts, no pretentiousness.

Should we be concerned that 12 months ago we had never heard of Olly, Jamie, Daniel, Lucie, Lloyd, Stacey, Jedward and Joe, and that in 12 months’ time another batch of people we had previously never heard of will be taking their places on the O2 stage?

We all know that pop music thrives on the commercial imperative of built-in obsolescence, so the harsh but truthful answer is no. Next!

X Factor Liveis at the Odyssey, Belfast on March 18th and the O2 Dublin, on March 30 and 31. All shows are sold out