The following rant was submitted anonymously to OzProg.com.

Firstly, I'd like to say that I'm a fan of Australian Idol. I've never sent a text to vote for anyone, or gone to a concert of theirs, but I 've watched the show pretty much every episode since it began. Some of it is very 'Young Talent Time' smiles-and-waves cheesy, but for the most part it combines my love of seeing people fail spectacularly, with my affection for watching live music on TV. While there are certainly parts of it I feel are totally misguided (Monday Night 'all in' song covers, for one), it has a lot of redeeming features, and discovers some pretty damn talented singers in the process.

So there I was, happily settling down to dinner after a long day at work, when the TV was turned on and I heard the whiny voice of a girl chewing out Mark Holden. While I 'd usually relish any of this kind of action, the girl in question was an uppity young Diva, that the producers of Idol have seen fit to provoke into getting full of herself and tearing strips off everyone around her. While it might be great for the producers to get some great, shock-and-awe TV out of her, it 's us in the industry that will have to deal with her, if she can ever get a job after having a tanty broadcast to a national viewing audience.

This, however, was nothing compared to the spit-take inducing comment that came out of Ian Dickson's mouth, not two minutes later. After questioning a contestant, Matt Corby, about why he was sulking in a corner at the Aria awards, the response from Corby was along the lines of that he was feeling down because a lot of Idol contestants are told it's not a 'real way' into the industry. Dickson 's response, which I'll paraphrase here (for lack of a source of quotation), is the worst sentiment I've heard in four years in the industry:

Ian Dickson

'a lot of artists get 'teased in the playground' about coming through on Idol...people say that it 's not a real way to get into the industry. Well let me tell you, artists that come through Idol are every bit as legitimate as people that come through any other way. There's no hard slog anymore, and in fact the contestants on this show do it tougher than people that come through the pubs and clubs.'

That last sentence got my blood boiling. For those of you that don't know, I tour with bands regularly, in pubs and clubs around this nation. Recently, I've been graced to tour with several bands from the 80's, that became household names through touring to outback pubs and clubs, and are doing the same now in the twilight of their careers. Let me tell you, we did gigs every night, in locations up to 200km apart. We dealt with food poisoning, extreme heat, drunks and stingy publicans.

Those tours had a support act, who was quite young, and has a CD that he was promoting. He slogged it out to 30 dates, playing for people who, for the most part, didn't give a shit he was there. He didn't care, he knew this was his trial-by-fire, so he got down to business and did some great shows. He didn't cry to the camera when an audience member said his music sucked. He doesn't live in a mansion on the eastside of Sydney. He doesn't have the (practically) unlimited support of a TV network, the best touring firms in the industry or vocal/musical coaches at his beck and call. He had his guitar, voice, and a car.

Meanwhile, I'd like to see what has happened to Idol contestants from any of the series. Series one winner Guy Sebastian is in the 'where are they now' files, catering to religious tastes. Series two winner Casey Donovan is in the 'who cares where they are now' files. Series three winner, Kate DeAraugo, is singing in a pre-made group for quarters. The most successful Idol export is Shannon Noll, and guess what, he has become successful by touring pubs and clubs in regional towns. I've spoken to people who tour with him, and they say he is the most down-to-earth guy they know. He knows he's damn lucky to be there, and acts like it.

Australia has a long and proud history of exporting bands to the world that earned their chops by touring this wide country, living off the scraps. For the producers of Idol (let's be honest, it wasn't Ian Dickson's feeling, he was told to say that) to say that what they 're doing is harder than what thousands of real muso's do every day is appalling to me, and to be honest, bullshit. Shame on you.

I have to say I agree with this person. I've done a bit of touring myself and over the past few years have been working in the local music scene. There is an endless amount of artists out there who have an insane amount of talent...who ARE touring around playing pubs that could very easily be the arsehole of every country town in rural Australia. Why do they do it? Because they love it and they understand that the only way to make it in their industry without having to sell their souls or bend over to TV networks and their major record company backers.

The only thing that the Idol contestants have to deal with that I'd say is harder than what those who do the slog and play the dregs of venues is that they're thrust straight into the media firing line when they perhaps may not be ready for it.

There have been a number of Idol scandals and things come up in the media during the Idol competition over the past few years that would have been devastating for some of the contestants involved. There was one this year that involved a contestant that I know personally and a well known Australian music celebrity (who I also know). The person didn't last long in the competition, so it wasn't something that was dragged out in the public eye for very long (I maintain that if she wasn't on Idol it wouldn't have even come close to making news), but it would have been a massive thing for her to deal with at such an early point in the competition and an early point in what I'm sure she hopes is a long career. But did it affect her chances in the competition? Perhaps. Did it effect her personally? I'm sure it did. So while that would be a hard thing for these (mostly) young kids who are thrust into the limelight, they also get to live in an awesome mansion in Sydney, and perform once a week and be judged by the Australian public. A public made up of voters who lavish in the manufactured tripe that the major labels sell to the major radio stations and TV networks. It's hard to believe that all of these people are into the music they're being made to sing. This series there has been a performer who has consistently done reasonably poorly, and been hammered by the judges and said on a number of occasions that he doesn't like being made to sing covers. Why even do it then?

How would this be for a shake up of the program structure? Instead of one song a week, next year they should get down to eight finalists and then take the show on the road. Get them touring for 10 weeks doing four or five nights a week in outback central and north Queensland in summer. Stuff them all in 2 tiny hotel rooms with no air conditioning, eating the worst of bad food, staying up until 4am and then driving 700km the next day after three hours of sleep. Do the run from Cairns through Mt Isa and Longreach. Play in Biloela at the pub that finishes a live music show and then starts a nightclub that has everyone turning up once the live music is finished. Do the Middlemount Hotel and play to a whopping 12 people, then walk into the front bar that's packed with miners.

BUT...do all of this without a scrap of TV advertising or spending any sort of TV show worthy budget on spreading the word. Take cameras along and film it. At the end of the 10 weeks, have a look at who still really wants to do it and who was sick of it after the first week and a half. Then don't give the winner a recording deal, send them on another 10 week tour. Then if they still want to do it, chuck them in a studio and go for it.

Sure they face more direct and more intense public and critical scrutiny but don't try and tell us that these people do it harder than the artists who are truly slogging it out and working hard for the art that they love.

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