Well this is a turn up for the books. Former X Factor contestant Austin Drage has thanked Simon Cowell, even though many would suggest that Cowell neglected him during his time on the show last year.
Drage told BBC Newsbeat that even though Cowell hadn’t been in touch since he left the show, he understood that he is a busy man.
Drage said: “Simon’s a busy guy. He’s a multi-millionaire, in a multi-million pound company. He’s very hard to get hold of because he’s got a lot of things to do, which we all understood.
Every X Factor reject has a busy day on the Monday after getting voted out – but none more than Austin Drage, who is at Number 1 in the singles chart with the Help For Heroes charity song. So this Monday is a little busier than usual, and we eventually catch up with Austin in the afternoon.
He’s getting a little tired out from all the questions, but we get what is possibly the most frank and honest X Factor interviews we’ve ever done.
Unreality TV: Harking back to Saturday night, one of Louis Walsh’s comments was that you were failing to connect with your audience.
To be honest with you, I thought that was a bit of a silly thing to say, because obviously I’ve connected with the audience every week since starting the competition. I’ve connected with the audience as much as anybody else, but I haven’t had the great songs that everybody else had, I haven’t been that lucky.
We had a chat with outgoing X Factor singer, Austin Drage today (keep your eye on Unreality’s homepage for the fully transcribed interview) and he revealed that not only would he be pursuing a career in music, but that he already had a band set up and ready to go.
Before auditioning for the X Factor Austin had actually been lead singer and guitarist for a band named ‘The Camerons’ and the group have recorded almost an album’s worth of material.
We asked Austin about his band and what they had planned for the future, he replied:
Outgoing X Factor singer, Austin Drage has revealed that he is kicking himself for not standing up to his mentor, Simon Cowell over his disco song choice.
Simon gave Austin Rose Royce’s ‘Wishing On A Star’ to sing, a song which the 22 year old wasn’t sure about from the word go
Austin told The Daily Star: “I felt it was a weak song, it wasn’t the one I would have chosen. But it’s my own fault. I trusted Simon and maybe I should have trusted myself more. Simon actually asked me if I was OK with the song.
We have been inundated with complaints from X Factor fans today, most of you objecting to Cheryl Cole and Louis Walsh’ decision to save Rachel Hylton on last night’s show.
At the start of this series a new twist to the show was revealed in which the bottom two acts each week were to sing a different song of their choice, and then the judges were to choose a singer based on their final performance.
However, on last night’s show, both Louis Walsh and Cheryl Cole saved Rachel Hylton on the basis of what she had yet to give and not on the song she just sang. In fact in the shows spinoff, Xtra Factor, Cheryl admitted that Austin Drage was a superior vocalist to Rachel, but that she wanted to keep the mohter of five in and give her the chance to show us the full range of her talent in the upcoming weeks.
When the first pictures were released of Austin Drage’s X Factor makeover, the lad was hardly recognisable from the trendy boy we saw auditioning for the show.
The new look wasn’t very popular with our readers and it seems that Austin didn’t think much of it either.
In an interview with ITV.com Austin stated:
“I think I’m going to leave the Duran Duran-type haircut behind now and go back to being me. People seemed to like me better when I was more myself up there!”
It was a shock result tonight as Austin Drage was voted off X Factor 2008.
Austin ended up in the bottom two with Rachel Hylton and in my opinion completely out sang her in every aspect.
Cheryl Cole, Louis Walsh and Dannii Minogue voted to keep Rachel in, for reasons unknown to me, and so Austin is a gonner.
Austin is Simon Cowell’s second act to be voted off the show, he also lost Scott Bruton last week. I bet he is starting to get nervous now, and Eoghan Quigg, Simon’s one remaining act can no doubt expect to get a LOT of attention from now until the final of the show.
An old pal of X factor star, Austin Drage has revealed that the singers vocal skills have always been an asset to him when it came to pulling the ladies.
Nick Desborough told The Daily Star:
Nick said: “Austin knew very well that when he sang it drove the girls mad. They would crowd round him and go weak at the knees.
X Factor singer, Austin Drage knew he took a big risk with his song last week and is still upset that Cheryl didn’t like the arrangement, but he’s realised he can’t please everyone and would rather take a risk than just be a ”karaoke” singer.
He’s got a big routine this week and has been working closely with Brian on his performance. For Austin being in the competition means he’s finally making his Mum and Dad proud/happy, after years of causing them grief whilst he was at school.
Austin has really grown up in the X Factor house, and is spending less time messing around with Scott and Eoghan and more time concentrating on his performance.
Austin Drage just can’t seem to help himself! After annoying all the X Factor housemates last week with his late night guitar playing, he has now switched to torturing them with a harmonica.
After being given the harmonica form a friend, Austin, who can only play one tune on it, has driven everyone mad in the house and now he’s threatening to play it on one of the live studio shows….. for the viewers sake lets hope Simon makes him see sense!
This week the contestants had a “date night” in the house. Ohhhhhh how romantic!
So eight girls and eight boys from the house, all dressed up in their best frocks and joined each other for a romantic meal, well a delivery of free Nando’s chicken, courtesy of JLS new free Nando’s card.
Rachel Hylton didn’t have a partner….I wonder if she was invited to Date Night?
The romantic meal had the contestants paired up as follows:
X Factor finalist, Austin Drage is no stranger to the TV camera, in fact Austin has already been on a number of popular TV shows before his stint on the ITV talent show.
Austin starred in E4 reality TV show ‘Boys Will Be Girls’ in 2005 when a group of men dressed up as women and tried to make it as girl band ‘The Honeytraps’. Watch the video above and tell me that Austin doesn’t look better as a girl!
X Factor vocal coach, Yvie Burnett, has revealed that she was at first worried about working with finalist, Rachel Hylton after hearing reports of her fiery temper, but in fact found her extremely easy to work with.
“Rachel is a handful and at first I didn’t know what she would be like with me, but she is great,” Yvie told the Daily Record. “She’s very respectful and does everything I ask, like an obedient schoolgirl.
“She is very honest and says what she thinks and I think that as long as she controls it, the public will love that. I’m really fond of her and she has a really unique voice and that’s not something you can manufacture.”
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