Warwick’s Got Talent a hit without SU support

Last week the first Warwick’s Got Talent was met by a sold out crowd and positive reviews. While the audience enjoyed the night they were not aware of the obstacles the organisers had to overcome to put on the night, mainly not being allowed to become a society.

The acts on the night ranged from singer-songwriters to a yo-yo master to magician. Simon Assad beatboxed, in a performance the audience and the judges praised. He said the night was “really good” and commented that “the standard was very high.” There was also a pianist, Tim Wood, who performed a medley of Michael Jackson songs on the piano.

“We wanted to showcase personal talents,” explained Mitra Samarasinghe, one of the organisers. They didn’t want it to be a normal night out and so had professional judges instead of students. Paul McGrath, Warwick’s Director of Music, Lucy Griffiths, Assistant Director of Music and Dave Barrett, World Music and Drumming tutor, were among the four judges.

Samarasinghe echoed what many audience members felt, saying that the judges were “professional yet entertaining.” He added that he appreciated that the judges had positive comments and none were “mean for the sake of being mean” but instead offered constructive criticism.

After the performances the judges picked the three top acts: Martin Antonov, the yo-yo freestyler; Sam and Matt, a guitar-singer duo; and Cathryn Ladd, known as Cat, who performed one of her own songs. After repeat performances the audience voted for their favourite and, after a close race, Sam and Matt took home the prize.

“[It] really wasn’t easy to pick a favourite,” said Bettina Reiterer, a final year student. She added, “it was nice that all of them were so different- lots of variety.”

“The audience were very supportive,” said Cat, singer-guitarist who won third place.

All proceeds went to Future Talent, a charity which works with children from deprived areas of the UK to nurture and develop their talents.

It was not without obstacles however. WGT, after discussions with the Union and a meeting with the Society Commission, were not allowed to become a society. The reason given was that they were too similar to another event, W Factor hosted by Chinese Soc, and that the Union does not allow potentially competing societies. However, WGT explained they had met with the W Factor exec and deemed that their two events have different focuses. While W Factor focuses on singing, WGT has a variety of acts; this mirrors the differences between the television shows they took their names from.

Becoming a society grants access to the Union’s resources and use of the Copper Rooms, for a fee. Another event, X Factor also tried to become a Union society but were told that not only could they not be fast-tracked as requested but they too were too similar to W Factor. Instead X Factor went through the existing Action Through Events Management Society to put on their event.

James Hall, Societies Officer in the Students’ Union, explained that the Society Committee heard the case for WGT and deemed it too similar to W Factor. They then spoke to W Factor who agreed that WGT was too similar and would compete with them.

WGT had to host their event in the ACCR as a result. The audience and performers alike enjoyed the show and the organisers plan to make it an annual event.