The Popmaster Candidate

At the time, I didn't really comment on socials about the "Popmaster Candidate" episode (not the Ten To The Top Hanson*/Roy Wood debacle, which I still haven't fully processed), but now, some two years later, and following, as those who know me will affirm, a period of soul searching and spiritual growth, the time has come.

The Popmaster Candidate episode, was, in my opinion, a trolling masterclass. Intended solely to get under my skin, to strike at the heart of something that I had attempted, and failed, to achieve for 15 plus years: 

Appearing on Ken Bruce's original BBC format Popmaster.

And, you know what? Credit where credit's due. 

It worked. All objectives - resolutely TICKED.

The planning, implementation, subject matter expertise, presenting style, deployment, and denoument were nothing short of exemplary. 

At that moment, briefly, she became the person I wanted to be.

That fateful day, listening to the episode live, having had no prior warning of what was to come, with freshly spat out coffee covering my keyboard and shirt; my phone blowing up with incredulous messages and calls to notify me of what was unfolding became, for me, an epoch-defining moment. 

Put simply: That day, I awoke as a boy, and retired to bed as a man.

The performance itself?

Magnificent.

In a results-driven world, the results were delivered, and how:

All but one question answered correctly, the rest assuredly, with something approaching gravitas; a stark contrast with my own performance a year later on

Vernon Kaye's lesser Ten To The Top, which somehow managed to be both stumbling and hubristic; the shame of which I relive, viscerally, every weekday at 1030am.

To paraphrase Uncle Monty, "It's the most devastating moment in a young man's life, when he quite reasonably says to himself, "I shall never appear on Ken Bruce's original format BBC Popmaster".

But, unlike Uncle Monty, my ambition has not ceased to exist. 

Quite the opposite: to this day, it occupies a space deep inside my psyche. 

If anything, my ambition burns even more intensely and deeper now. 

Oh! How it burns.

It burns with the heat of a thousand suns.

Full disclosure: I have met the contestant since then. Just once, in September 23, at the beginning of my journey of change and spiritual growth (read more about that on my other blog: myboozeheck.blogspot.com) .

We met to tie up a few loose ends, have lunch (I didn't pay), and to retrieve my 90's mix tapes back (Sasha at The Eclipse, Glenn Gunner at Better Way, etc), which by the way, haven't aged well, musically.

The "episode" was referenced that day, but I, still rightly incensed, refused to discuss it, opting to feign unawareness. Once that had been dismissed as untrue, I reverted to saying that I DID know about it, but "wasn't EVEN BOTHERED anyway". 

But we knew. We both did.

In conclusion: 

In second place, is me. 

You won. Enjoy the victory.

I hope it made you very happy. You ruined my day completely so you could win Ken Bruce's original BBC format Popmaster.

I am fully aware of the contestant's current travails, and, despite everything, harbour no ill will.

I hope her current period of poor health is overcome, and, in time, that she will compete again in a contemporary music-based radio quiz show. 

I'll be listening.

I'm sure this message, and the sentiments included will find their way to the parties concerned. They always do.

Hope that helps.

100 would not recommend.

*It was the Bee Gees who appeared on Celine Dion's 1998 hit - Immortality.