Scott James

Posts Tagged ‘There You’ll Be’

Scott James yesterday spoke to the Evening Gazette, a local Teesside newspaper, about the panic attack that ended his X Factor journey.

However, Scott of Norton in Stockton-on-tees, has no regrets and says that the X Factor judges would have been “stupid” to put him through, after what happened with Susan Boyle.

Scott told the Gazette: “I didn’t go on the show expecting to get past the first stage so it was kind of a positive slap in the face when I did get through. I’m very happy I entered.”

However, Scott found the boot camp stage of the competition more daunting. Scott himself admits that he “doesn’t work well in groups” – this is related to the Asperger’s syndrome from which he suffers, which can make communication with others more challenging.

Scott, despite his misgivings about the song that was chosen for him in the first stage of bootcamp (a Katy Perry song) went through to the second stage – the final 24.

Scott said: “I honestly thought ‘that’s it I’m done’. But Simon felt they’d short changed me and put me and one of the other girls through.”

For the second stage of the competition, Scott chose the song “There You’ll Be” by Faith Hill.

He said: “I wanted to stand out a little bit and be the only guy singing that song.

“It went fantastically well in my rehearsal with Linzi, my vocal coach, but then when we were heading into Hammersmith Apollo, on the night, it was raining and they wanted to get us out of the rain so we didn’t look like drowned rats.

“They put us in a small room – an area packed full of screaming shouting, laughing, singing people and I couldn’t get out so I had a panic attack, which caused them to pull me out of the room and straight onto the stage.

“Going on stage with a panic attack caused me to completely fluff the audition.”

Scott has said that he is not disappointed at his exit from the show, and he has been chosen to sing a song that will raise the profile of The Autistic Society.

He is also still appears as a soloist in clubs around the North-east of England.

He said: “At the end of the day, the show has given me lots of confidence – and I feel like a celebrity!”

My comment:
There is a sense that whatever the X Factor production team decide – they are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. I think the solution is to understand the auditionee’s disability and make “reasonable adjustments”. Scott was up front about his Asperger’s syndrome. I am not an expert and do not pretend to be one – but presumably it could have been predicted that he would not be happy confined in a small room full of other noisy contestants. Would it not have been “reasonable” to put him in a room on his own where he would not have been unduly stressed? Then perhaps he would have been more relaxed in front of the judges and we would have seen him in the live shows. Just my 2p worth.