So, Australian Idol has begun - they couldn't even wait until after the Olympics closing ceremony, such was the enthusiasm of another year of hopefuls - and was it everything the incredible, Jacksons-aping, James Spargo-highlighting promos made it out to be? Let's hold hands and go over the jump to discuss Idol's opening salvo.

 

It's pretty hard to get excited about these early days of auditions: Idol tradition means they are full of nuff-nuffs and without Mark Holden's matching them in the loony stakes, they just seem sort of... sad now. Add to that extended riffing on Kyle Sandilands looking for hot chicks and you have a very queasy product indeed. All the best singers (more or less) will be kept relatively hush hush so they can blow us all away in the Top 100 round - remember, 34 got through from Melbourne, but we only saw about seven actually sing. None were particularly memorable apart from the rock dude who crashed out in the Top 24 a few years back and now looks like he should be playing bass for AC/DC in 1978 (this is a good thing, by the way).

Did you get excited about any of the hopefuls that went through?

I'm just waiting for James Spargo to make an appearance.

Tags: au | auditions | australian idol 2008 | dicko | kyle sandilands | marcia hines