Have you ever heard about the power of the waistcoat? It’s a theory that’s worth thinking about after the third week of blind auditions on The Voice.
It began with 23-year-old Tom Milner whose version of Wait On Me, originally by boyband Rixton, got Ricky spinning in his chair. Dressed in a white shirt and black waistcoat, Tom looked like the little brother of waistcoat wearer/lover Ricky, who sported a similar look. When Tom, from Halifax, revealed he used to be in Waterloo Road when he was “chubby”, Ricky replied that there was nothing wrong with “losing a few pounds and putting on a waistcoat”, referring to his own weight loss. As the coaches gathered around Will’s chair for some banter before the next audition, Paloma remarked that Ricky must have a “waistcoat sixth sense”.
There could be something in that when you consider that the other act Ricky chose tonight also happened to be wearing a waistcoat. Ricky was the only coach to turn for Efe Udugba, a 31-year-old sales worker from Barking, Essex, who performed Jealous by Nick Jonas, again causing much laughter among the other coaches about Ricky having the ability to sniff out his much-loved garment.
It was only when 38-year-old Billy Black, from Sunderland, performed Bad Case Of Loving You, when holes in the waistcoat theory started to appear. Billy, who usually performs with his Guns ’n’ Roses-style band, turned up on stage wearing cowboy boots, jeans and just a waistcoat up top, but his rendition of the Robert Palmer song failed to get any turns from the coaches, including Ricky. “Maybe Ricky wasn’t feeling the waistcoat energy,” said Paloma, during the post-performance analysis.
It wasn’t all about waistcoats tonight though.
The first act of the night was Colet Selwyn, a bio medical engineering student from Scotland, who surprised everyone with his extraordinarily deep singing voice. It was clear from the 21-year-old’s version of This Ole House, the song sang by a number of artists, including Rosemary Clooney and our very own Shakin’ Stevens, that the 21 year old can sing and, more importantly, hold a tune, but we couldn’t help but wonder if his singing-style was a bit too unique for a show like The Voice.
Other stand-out acts of the night were self-confessed “ditzy” Dublin girl Lauren Laplan Brown, 18, who performed a fantastic version of Chaka Khan’s Ain’t Nobody and claimed Will as her coach; Deano, 27, a care worker from Worthing, whose “gravelly” version of Paul Weller’s You Do Something To Me got him into Paloma’s team; and Irene Alanu-Rhodes, 42, who became the latest addition to Will’s collection with her version of Bette Midler’s Wind Beneath My Wings.
And then there was 17-year-old Cody Lee from Essex who hoped to secure himself a place in Ricky’s team by performing a rock’n’roll version of The Kaiser Chiefs hit Ruby. As soon as Mr Wilson named that tune as one of his own, it was clear he wasn’t keen so, needless to say, he didn’t turn. Who knows, things may have been different if Cody had worn a waistcoat…
