A version of this article appeared in the Daily Mail Weekend Magazine,

Saturday February 10th 2007

A warm January day in Cardiff. Something to celebrate, by anyone’s standards. But I am already celebrating something much greater. Sitting in a hospitality room at Jury’s Hotel, I am listening to 19 year old Jonny Field, who is playing a song of his own composition and singing like a professional of 10 years’ standing. He has been queuing for at least an hour since the doors opened at 12, to participate in Fame on the Net, an internet site promoting exactly what it says on the tin.

Fame on the Net launches at the beginning of March and aims to find the very best talent, in all genres, that this country (if not the world) has to offer. To this end we are inviting people to submit material (see details below), but also filming around the country with a professional crew.

Behind the closed doors in Cardiff, a queue is quickly forming. First, a handsome singing priest who wants to sing Maybe This Time from Cabaret – substituting the words “Maybe this time he’ll stay” with “she” (not if you remain celibate she won’t, mate; she’ll be off quicker than Liza Minelli’s latest husband). Running a hand through his long, rock star-like locks and complaining about his hoarse voice stands Andy Anderson, who has flown from Spain to sing a friend’s original composition. Twenty four year old Chris wants to sing a Stereophonics song, but is worried about his hangover. By 1.00 p.m., the foyer is full of men of all ages.

The stunning 18 year old Kara – bizarrely, the only woman among a few dozen men - decides not to sing and would prefer to wait until she is better prepared at a different venue. Reticence: it’s a rare virtue in a field where celebrity, rather than talent, is all.

Everyone, it seems, wants to be famous, and shows such as The X-Factor, together with any programme with the word “celebrity” in the title, have fuelled the idea that fame is not only desirable, but easily achievable. This culture, spawned by television and, owing to its accessibility, nurtured by the net, has bred a nation of largely talentless wannabees, for whom seeing their name in lights is the B-all and end-all of their aspirations and capabiltiies. For all the brilliance of The X-Factor as a piece of television, let’s be in no doubt that this is, first and foremost, an entertainment, not a talent show. Many wonderful singers never even make it to the judges’ table, having been eliminated by minions at the pre-TV stages of the competition; and the show would shed viewers in their millions were it not to feature the oddballs, hopeless and disillusioned characters who make up the best parts of the show. In reality it has created just one person who can truly be called an international star: Simon Cowell.

But what, then, of the thousands of people of all ages who could make it in the business but will never get to touch the hem of the great Cowell’s very expensive garment? How do they hope to make it in an industry where so many are trying to succeed? How do they get themselves noticed in the first place in this overcrowded market?

The net has undoubtedly provided an arena for hitherto unheard voices and, being open to all, is a place in which anyone can share their wares with the world; the success of MySpace and YouTube shows that there is no shortage of people – or talent – out there, hoping to cash in, both financially and professionally, on what is the largest entertainment stage in the world. Some, such as Lily Allen, with whom I became enchanted, if not obsessed, via the net, have made it big; and the path is undoubtedly there for many more to follow.

The problem with MySpace and You Tube, however, is that the bigger the haystacks grow, the harder it is to find the needles. No sooner does someone tell you to go to the sites to see the latest great act or clip, than it has disappeared amid the chaos. Where Fame on the Net differs fundamentally is in its guarantee of bringing the best material directly to the doors of people at the top of the entertainment profession including music, acting, the visual arts and writing.

An online talent competition, judged for by viewers of the site, will award cash prizes; juries made up of professionals in their respective fields will deliver the same. TV executives, theatre directors and music producers are just a few of the people who have already agreed to come on board; our job is not to poke fun at the dross, but to make stars of the talent currently slipping through the metaphorical net – and catch it in the very real one that is one of the great technological achievements of our time.

But Fame on the Net is about much more than individual performances, and we are also looking for people who would like their slice of fame without having to sing or dance. We will have galleries for the visual arts that will include photographs and paintings. Domestic Disasters is an invitation for the public to send us footage of bizarre events that have happened in their everyday lives. In Pets on Parade and Restin' Pets , we will be collating footage, photographs and stories about animals – those living, or those owners may wish to remember fondly. My own memories will be up there: Fred the goldfish, who died after accidentally swallowing too much Guinness when he fell from his polythene bag onto a pub floor; Sally the incontinent Chihuahua; Emma the poddle, whom we lost to carbon monoxide poisoning. And, if you fancy yourself as the next Grant Mitchell, later this year we will be launching Up West, a London-based soap opera we are starting from scratch, when any would-be writer, director or actor will have the chance to become part of the vast and exciting team necessary to this most popular of genres.

It is the scope for the expression of individuality that makes the net so extraordinary a hunting ground for new talent. What is has so far lacked is the harnessing of, and organisation of that talent; for most, the best chance of getting a foot in the door until now has been to lob one off and hide it in the boot of the BBC Director General’s car. The net is the most democratic broadcaster the world has ever seen.

That democracy used to be part of the television world - Hughie Green’s Opportunity Knocks, for example, was an incredibly popular talent-scouting TV vehicle in my youth; in the late Eighties, when I started out as a television critic, a London Weekend Television show called First Exposure brought Steve Coogan, Jack Dee and Jo Brand to our screens – all great talents who are still household names and at the top of their profession.

But as television increasingly sacrifices genuine talent on the altar of no-hopers or B-list celebrities trying to resurrect their one-time stardom, the net is there as a very real alternative to traditional broadcasting, offering a new route to stardom. Priest or pauper, fame awaits.