Meet the judges of Talent 2007.
RICKY CLARKE
Band promoter Ricky Clarke has a wealth of experience organising large scale concerts and spotting new talent. He has been a concert promoter since 1986 staging gigs in the Maidstone area of Kent. His first major concert was staging Doctor & The Medics booking them six months prior to their number one single "Spirit In The Sky" which hit the top of the charts - the gig took place the corresponding week and was a complete sell-out! Ricky has promoted other large events including many major Folk/Acoustic music concerts with artistes including The Waterboys, Kate Rusby, David Gray and Waterson:Carthy. He also ran the hugely successful Abbey Gael Celtic Music Festival at Whitby Pavilion in the summer of 2005 with an audience of 1000 people. Ricky has a broad background in all aspects of the music business including formerly running an agency for new acts in the Kent and London area where he undertook the A&R - artistes and repertoire role. Ricky is always looking for new, exciting talent in the field of acoustic music, particularly singer/songwriters.
IVAN MARAZZI
Ivan Marazzi has a host of showbusiness experience - he helped his son Paul achieve fame in charttopping boy band A1 selling 4 million records and achieving two Number 1 hit singles. Ivan has started in showbusiness at a young age and as a child appeared at the Royal Opera House in London's Convent Garden starring the legendary Maria Calas, Tito Gobi and Joan Sutherland. He acted in school plays and operas and after leaving school joined a band supporting Status Quo and Ben E King. He has promoted concerts and dances with bands including the Sex Pistols, Roy Wood's band Wizzard, Desmond Decker and Bruce Ruffin. Ivan's son, hearthrob Paul was in the successful pop band A1 who went on to tour worldwide and sold eight top 10 hits in the British charts. The group had sales of four million records and Ivan helped and supported his son in the band. He has attended many dancing, singing and recording sessions and was present for the recording of A1's version of Take on Me. Ivan is in contact with songwriters and producers including Chesney Hawkes and singer songwriter Ray Ruffin, son of Motown legend Jimmy Ruffin. He is currently involved with a company that is promoting events that require a variety of acts and has just arranged a gig with punk group - Bad Manners.
ALEX FREDMAN
Alex Fredman is an award winning journalist achieving the title of Yorkshire Young Journalist of the Year at the Yorkshire Press Awards. She was also announced twice runner-up Trainee Journalist of the Year in Yorkshire Regional Newspapers Awards for the two years she has worked at the paper. Alex has worked as a reporter at the Whitby Gazette since March 2005 and one of her many roles is covering events and gigs and interviewing bands for the paper's What's On section. She was part of a team of judges including Scarborough's Tony Peers who picked a winner at Whitby Pavilion's Search for a Star contest. A big music-lover, Alex is a fan of talent shows - X Factor, Pop Idol and Fame Academy and has been witnessed shouting at the TV screen - but now she can have her say in person. She is in touch with a host of contacts in the media industry including Sarahphotogirl - a Scarborough-based reknowned rock star photographer who has snapped Paul Weller, the Kaiser Chiefs, Blur, the Darkness, Charlotte Church, Lemar and David Gray.