Leon Jackson - HecklerSpray

The 10 Worst Ever Christmas Number Ones, Ever

December 21st, 2009 By Stuart Heritage

Remember when the Christmas number one used to be sacred? So do we.

It's not any more, obviously – until Facebook waded in to fix things, 2009 looked set to go down as the year that an annoying boy with too many teeth got the Christmas number one with a piss-weak Miley Cyrus cover version. He didn’t manage it, but it sure was close.

Now that Rage Against The Machine have secured the Christmas number one spot, we should probably take a look back at years when we didn’t have it so good.

Oh, and we know that we only did a thing about the greatest Christmas number ones last week, but this is hecklerspray, damnit. Being nice about things confuses us.

Leon Jackson Dropped For Being Utterly Gash

March 25th, 2009 By Matthew Laidlow

Leon Jackson, we all know him as the crying little Scottish boy who appeared on X Factor in 2007.

When it got down to the grand final between himself and freaky silver-haired Rhydian Roberts it was genuinely assumed that Rhydian would win. Probably because he was a better singer and didn't weep as much.

Somehow, Leon clinched victory and won a lucrative record contract. Rhydian lost, but still managed to get an album deal. Now it appears that Rhydian Roberts has had the last laugh as his rival has been dropped by Sony. we're trying not to cry either.

Looks Like Leon Jackson’s Got The Christmas Number One, Then

March 25th, 2009 By Stuart Heritage

Along with the giving and receiving of official Cliff Richard calenders and morbid gluttony, Christmas is all about Simon Cowell getting personality-free dullards to number one with awful pretend-aspirational songs.

And that's no different this year. Leon Jackson, winner of X Factor and a young man so crushingly inarticulate that his primary method of communication is weeping, has been all but guaranteed this year's Christmas number one with his song I Believe or Believe In Me or When You Believe or I Preconceive That My Sleeve Believes Its Weave's Called Steve. Not only that, but When You Believe by Leon Jackson looks set to become the fastest-selling single of the year, selling 300,000 copies in less than a week. That's not the only record When You Believe's broken, either – it's also the only Christmas number one with a tune that nobody can remember even when they've just finished listening to it.

Leon Jackson Somehow Wins X Factor

August 5th, 2012 By Stuart Heritage

Leon Jackson – the red-eyed Scottish boy who only managed to stop crying for about three seconds in the entire second half of 2007 – has won X Factor.

It was a surprise result for sure, since operatic weirdo Rhydian Roberts had been tipped to become the X Factor winner right from day one, but Leon Jackson proved that he had the winning mix of weird-haired good looks, strong regional support and the ability to burst into tears every time he said a word that even sounded like 'mum'. And now, thanks to his X Factor win, Leon Jackson has been almost guaranteed to get the Christmas number one with his single When You Believe – a song that was instantly available to download for anyone who wasn't completely sick of the twatting thing after it was played about 19,000 times in a row during the last 20 minutes of the X Factor final.

X Factor Betting Odds: Niki Evans Gone, Who’ll Win The Final?

September 16th, 2008 By Stuart Heritage

How wrong were we? Niki Evans – the singer who we were convinced would come second in this year’s X Factor – actually ended up coming fourth in this year’s X Factor; the same as The MacDonald Brothers did last year, the lucky cow.

In hindsight, though, it was no surprise that Niki Evans got voted off X Factor so early. No matter how proficient they are, older ladies never make it to the X Factor final – especially ones like Niki, who think that they can get away with opening shows by murmuring out dreary Eva Cassidy covers and then get all indignant because nobody seems to like it much. Still, at least now that Niki Evans has been eliminated from X Factor the show’s prop department can put away those horrible black candlesticks that appear to have been stolen from the set of a 1970s low-budget European movie about sexy vampires.

But without Niki Evans in it, who’ll win the X Factor final on Saturday? Here’s part one of this week’s X Factor betting odds – for Same Difference and Leon Jackson – with help from Paddy Power…

X Factor Betting Odds: Leon Jackson Second-Favourite?!

August 5th, 2012 By Stuart Heritage

Now that only four X Factor contestants remain, the show’s production team knows it has to raise the bar again and again to make sure that each episode reaches even headier heights than the last.

And that’s got a lot to do with what X Factor themes are chosen. For example, Saturday’s X Factor was all about the Best Of British, which allowed the remaining X Factor contestants to sing about a million Queen songs – technically making the Best Of British Night a Best Of British (And A Bit Zanzibarian) Night – and an American version of a Sting song. And this week, we have a feeling that the X Factor theme is ‘songs’. We’re especially looking forward to that one.

But who’s going to win X Factor? Here are the X Factor betting odds for Leon Jackson and Rhydian Roberts, with help from Paddy Power…

X Factor Betting Odds: Beverley Trottman Out, Who’ll Win?

August 5th, 2012 By Stuart Heritage

Beverley Trottman – the schoolteacher with the voice loud enough to knock the moon out of orbit – has become the latest victim of the X Factor axe, and for once it wasn’t the X Factor judges who binned her; it was the whole wide world.

Because of a judging deadlock, the X Factor elimination went to the public vote, and it turns out that hardly anyone voted for Beverley Trottman. Perhaps it’s for the best – Beverley never stood a fart’s chance of winning X Factor at the best of times, and her performance on Saturday did nothing to prove otherwise. Claiming that she was singing it for all the kids at her school, Beverley performed a new version of divorcee classic Without You that included up to 18 different key changes, the last four of which were only audible to bats and dolphins. Anyway it’s just as well that Beverley Trottman can’t live if living is without her pupils, because she’ll be back in the classroom any day now, surely.

So now that Beverley Trottman is out of X Factor, who’ll win? Here are the X Factor betting odds for Hope, Same Difference and Leon Jackson, with help from Paddy Power…

X Factor Betting Odds: Alisha Gone, Who’ll Win?

August 5th, 2012 By Stuart Heritage

There are a few rules that one should adhere to when reaching the X Factor live finals – one is to invent as many sob stories about yourself as possible, and the other is to avoid rollerskates, as Alisha Bennett found out on Saturday.

Although Alisha Bennett’s befuddling stage routine to her X Factor rendition of Young Hearts Run Free – plus her wonky vocals – contributed to her downfall, she still has plenty to be proud about. For starters, Alisha Bennett will go down in history as the only X Factor contestant who made Sharon Osbourne launch into a weird tear-flecked defence of people who have to rollerskate to make a living – and if that’s not enough, Alisha Bennett has never to our knowledge thrown a schoolgirl against a brick wall by her hair, which at least sets her apart from 50% of Sharon Osbourne’s other X Factor flock. We’ll miss Alisha Bennett, that’s for sure, or at least – ooh – a day or so.

It’d be longer but we’re still trying to work out who’ll win X Factor this year. So here are today’s X Factor betting odds for Hope, Same Difference and Leon Jackson, with help from Paddy Power…

X Factor Betting Odds: Will Same Difference Win?

August 5th, 2012 By Stuart Heritage

Now that Brian Friedman seems contractually obliged to appear in every single X Factor contestant training VT package, it looks like there’s no room for the X Factor celebrity mentoring we enjoyed so much last year.

But that’s OK, because in its place we get to see a string of massively generic X Factor theme nights like Love Song Night or Songs From The Movies Night, or Saturday’s 21st Century Night. Now, it might be a sign of our own age, but when we heard that X Factor was doing a 21st Century Night we envisioned silver tinfoil dresses, robot dog backing singers and cutting-edge, fiercely futuristic music. Is that what X Factor gave us? No. X Factor gave us James Blunt covers. Oh, the humanity.

Who’s going to win X Factor this year? Here are the X Factor betting odds for Same Difference, Leon Jackson and Hope. Betting odds, as ever, come from Paddy Power…

X Factor Betting Odds: Beverley Trottman To Win?

August 5th, 2012 By Stuart Heritage

Perhaps this says more about our state of mind than the show itself, but we’re only three weeks in and this season of X Factor is starting to seem like the most controversial one yet.

We’ve seen Sharon Osbourne get her knickers in a twist and leave X Factor only to squirm back again the following week, we’ve seen Emily Nakanda hurl a schoolgirl against a brick wall by her hair and get kicked off X Factor – the big question is what happens next. Will Louis Walsh be asked to leave X Factor for stabbing Simon Cowell in the neck with a biro while shouting “Don’t tell me what to do!”? Will Same Difference be removed from X Factor for having it off with each other? Will Rhydian stare directly into the camera and impart an ancient curse that will turn X Factor‘s audience into zombie soldiers who follow his every word? Probably the last one, we’d imagine.

But who’ll win X Factor? Here are the X Factor betting odds for Beverley Trottman, Leon Jackson and Hope, with betting odds from Paddy Power…