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A former X Factor contestant disillusioned with the music industry has spoken out about her “horrifying” experiences when she was a young artist.

Katie Waissel, who appeared on the ITV talent show in 2010, told Sky News that many women in the industry were “severely affected” by a string of issues including misogyny.

The former professional singer said she was sexually harassed during her career, and described the environment she found herself in as a “frightening place to be” at an age when she was “unsure of what [was] actually happening”.

Waissel said she feared losing her job if “zero-transparency” non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) were not signed – and that the contracts were presented to her without any independent legal advice.

“No one is forcing you to sign it, but you’re placed in a position where you’re signing a contract on unfair terms without protection or guidance,” she told The UK Tonight with Sarah-Jane Mee.

The 38-year-old described the music industry as male-dominated and said a “trickle-down effect” existed where bosses would behave in a certain manner, in turn setting a precedent for everyone else to copy their behaviour.

Her testimony comes after MPs warned that misogyny and discrimination were “endemic” in the industry.

The Women and Equalities Committee’s inquiry found that sexual harassment and abuse were common in the sector, which it noted was routinely described as a “boy’s club”.

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Praising the inquiry, Waissel said there was a hierarchy of the “same faces” from record labels, PR and marketing firms, chief editors and legal bodies who “all swim in the same pond”.

She said: “It’s a very small pond – with fish that believe they are large.”

‘Turning poison to medicine’

Waissel ditched the music industry in pursuit of a legal career that safeguards artists in creative industries. She founded the OWHL Foundation to help provide them with the guidance, support and relief she says she never had.

The mother-of-one added: “Music and creative industries are magical and if we can protect them for tomorrow that makes my heart happy. It’s turning poison to medicine.”

File photo dated 28/7/2016 of the X Factor singer Katie Waissel has said she "found the courage" to perform for the first time in 10 years after having therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The 36-year-old first appeared on screen in 2010 where she impressed TV judges Simon Cowell and Cheryl with her rendition of At Last by Etta James, after initially forgetting the words to Queen's We Are The Champions. Issue date: Monday December 26, 2022.
Image:
Waissel in 2016. Pic: PA

In early 2023 it was reported that Waissel was planning a legal battle against Simon Cowell‘s Syco Entertainment, one of the companies behind the X Factor.

She told The Sun newspaper that the programme had “ruined my life”.

“There are so many of us who have been so trapped and it’s not fair, there was a huge imbalance in power,” she added.

Sky News approached Syco and Fremantle Media, the other firm behind the X Factor, but they did not respond.

Previously, Fremantle Media said it had “robust measures in place on the X Factor to ensure contestants were supported with no time limit on aftercare once the show had aired.”

Waissel appeared on the seventh season of the show. She was eliminated in the quarter-finals after performing the Kings Of Leon hit Sex On Fire and R.E.M.’s Everybody Hurts.

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Ozzy Osbourne cortege to travel through Birmingham

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Ozzy Osbourne cortege to travel through Birmingham

Ozzy Osbourne fans will be able to say goodbye to the heavy metal pioneer at a procession for his cortege through his home city of Birmingham tomorrow.

The star’s hearse will make its way down Broad Street towards the Black Sabbath bridge and bench – where thousands of fans have left flowers, messages and other tributes since his death.

Osbourne, 76, died less than three weeks after performing his “final bow” in the city – the Back The Beginning reunion with his Sabbath bandmates at Villa Park, which raised about £140m for charity.

Osbourne is seen on a screen as he performs at the Black Sabbath's farewell show titled "Back to the Beginning", at Villa Park. Pic: Reuters
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Ozzy Osbourne on stage at Villa Park just a few weeks before his death. Pic: Reuters

Large crowds are expected to gather tomorrow as fans pay their respects to the performer who shaped heavy metal music and “proudly carried the spirit of Birmingham throughout his career”, the city council said.

Members of Osbourne’s family will also be in attendance and have funded the event, the council added.

“Ozzy was more than a music legend – he was a son of Birmingham,” said the city’s lord mayor, Councillor Zafar Iqbal. “We know how much this moment will mean to his fans. We’re proud to host it here with his loving family in the place where it all began.”

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The life of Ozzy Osbourne

Mr Iqbal said it was important to the city to give the star “a fitting, dignified tribute ahead of a private family funeral”.

Osbourne and his Black Sabbath bandmates Terence “Geezer” Butler, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward were awarded the Freedom of the City in June, before the Back To The Beginning show, honouring their “significance to the cultural and musical identity of Birmingham”.

The star’s cortege will travel down Broad Street from about 1pm tomorrow, accompanied by a live brass band, Bostin’ Brass. For those not able to make it, a live stream of the Black Sabbath bench, which has been running since Osbourne’s death, will continue.

There is also a book of condolence for public messages at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, alongside the Ozzy Osbourne Working Class Hero exhibition, highlighting his solo career achievements.

Metal, bats, and reality TV: The wild life of Ozzy Osbourne

Osbourne, the self-styled Prince of Darkness, pioneered heavy metal with Black Sabbath before going on to have huge success in his own right. He was famous for hits including Iron Man, Paranoid, War Pigs, Crazy Train and Changes, both with the band and as a solo star.

The singer also found a different kind of fame thanks to noughties MTV reality show The Osbournes, which followed his somewhat chaotic life with wife Sharon and two of their children, Kelly and Jack.

Following his death, his family released a statement saying he died alongside them, “surrounded by love”.

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The 1975 star Matty Healy warns of musical ‘silence’ without small stages as he backs new UK-wide festival

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The 1975 star Matty Healy warns of musical 'silence' without small stages as he backs new UK-wide festival

The 1975 frontman Matty Healy has warned of a musical “silence” that would come without the pubs and bars that give UK artists their first chance to perform.

Fresh from headlining Glastonbury in June, Healy is backing a new UK-wide festival which will see more than 2,000 gigs taking place across more than 1,000 “seed” venues in September.

The Seed Sounds Weekender aims to celebrate the hospitality sector hosting bands and singers just as they are starting out – and for some, before they go on to become global superstars.

Healy, who is an ambassador for the event, said in a statement to Sky News: “Local venues aren’t just where bands cut their teeth, they’re the foundation of any real culture.

“Without them, you don’t get The Smiths, Amy Winehouse, or The 1975. You get silence.”

Oasis, currently making headlines thanks to their sold-out reunion tour, first played at Manchester’s Boardwalk club, which closed in 1999, and famously went on to play stadiums and their huge Knebworth gigs within the space of a few years.

Liam and Noel Gallagher on stage for the first Wembley night of the Oasis reunion tour. Pic: Lewis Evans
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Oasis stars Liam and Noel Gallagher, pictured on stage at Wembley for their reunion tour, started out playing Manchester’s Boardwalk club. Pic: Lewis Evans

GigPig, the live music marketplace behind Seed Sounds, says the seed sector collectively hosts more than three million gigs annually, supports more than 43,000 active musicians, and contributes an estimated £2.4bn to the UK economy.

“The erosion of funding for seed and grassroots spaces is part of a wider liberal tendency to strip away the socially democratic infrastructure that actually makes art possible,” said Healy.

“What’s left is a cultural economy where only the privileged can afford to create, and where only immediately profitable art survives.”

He described the Seed Sounds Weekender as “a vital reminder that music doesn’t start in boardrooms or big arenas – it starts in back rooms, pubs, basements, and independent spaces run on love, grit, and belief in something bigger.”

Read more from Sky News:
Oasis photographers recall the early days
Heavy metal to reality TV: The wild life of Ozzy Osbourne

The importance of funding for grassroots venues has been highlighted in the past few years, with more than 200 closing or stopping live music in 2023 and 2024, according to the Music Venue Trust. Sheffield’s well-known Leadmill venue saw its last gig in its current form in June, after losing a long-running eviction battle.

In May, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy announced the £85m Creative Foundations Fund to support arts venues across England.

And last year, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee called for a levy on tickets to large concerts at stadiums and arenas to help fund grassroots venues, which artists including Coldplay and Katy Perry, and venues including the Royal Albert Hall, have backed.

But most seed venues – the smaller spaces in the hospitality sector that provide a platform before artists get to ticketed grassroots gigs or bigger stages – won’t qualify for the levy. GigPig is working to change this by formalising the seed music venue space as a recognised category.

“The UK’s seed venues are where music careers are born,” said GigPig co-founder Kit Muir-Rogers. “Collectively, this space promotes more music than any other in the live music business, yet it has gone overlooked and under-appreciated.”

The Seed Sounds Weekender takes place from 26-28 September and will partner with Uber to give attendees discounted rides to and from venues.

Tickets for most of the gigs will be free, with events taking place across 20 UK towns and cities including London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Leicester, Newcastle and Southampton

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Paul Gallagher, older brother of Oasis stars Noel and Liam, is charged with offences including rape

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Paul Gallagher, older brother of Oasis stars Noel and Liam, is charged with offences including rape

Paul Gallagher, the older brother of Oasis stars Noel and Liam, has been charged with multiple offences including rape.

The Metropolitan Police said Gallagher, 59, of East Finchley, north London, has been charged with rape, coercive and controlling behaviour, three counts of sexual assault, three counts of intentional strangulation, two counts of making a threat to kill and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The offences are reported to have taken place between 2022 and 2024. The charges follow an investigation which began last year, the force added in a statement.

A woman is being supported by specially-trained officers, the statement continued.

Paul Gallagher, who is about one year older than Noel and seven years older than Liam, has never been involved in Oasis.

He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 27 August.

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