Artist of the Week: Mickey P Kerr

I was watching X Factor this weekend. I hate X Factor. I really do. Articles about people hating the X Factor aren't exactly breaking news, but the one thing that annoys me the most is that the people taking part clearly don't have 'the X factor'. By that I mean that they are so polished and formulaic, that whatever spark of originality they have is quickly snuffed out. Hell, is it any surprise that the most popular act is a pair of twins! I mean they're so bland, they couldn't be anymore unoriginal. And so I decided that this week's Artist Of The Week would be the complete polar opposite of anything that has ever been on the show. His name is Mickey P Kerr.

Look at him there in all his resplendent non-prime-time glory. Could that man have an endorsement sideline? Could he be the face on children's stationary, leading up to the lucrative Christmas market? Could he command a sea of screaming females aged 14 to 84 waiting outside the Granada TV studios? Could he fuck.

He does, however, have a gift. A gift of making the poetic out of the everyday, heartbroken kitchen sink romance twisted with a keen humour. Hailing from Leeds, he has played packed out gigs and collected a legion of fans falling in love with his sometimes witty, sometimes heartbreaking songs and poems that detail life with a poet’s keen eye.

So this Artist Of The Week is the anti-X factor. He has what made Bob Dylan, Ian Drury and Leonard Cohen pick up a guitar and strum a tune (that wasn't a comparison, I should point out). Not because someone with a high opinion of themselves thought he was "amazing/the best I've ever seen/spellbinding", more that he's got some great songs, and a voice to sing them with. In these times of identikit pop stars, we should celebrate the odd ones.

This just in, Mickey P Kerr originally appeared in the first ever series of X Factor under the name of Darius Danesh......oh dear.*

Check out Mickey P Kerr at www.myspace.com/mrkerr

Check out the video for his latest single The Joke below.

*Just kidding