SIR – Nice one, Sting, for condemning the X Factor as “televised karaoke”.

Bands of the old-school genre do their homework by starting out on the front-line pub/club scene; performing nightly to drunk, rowdy and often unappreciative audiences. But these experiences often hold them in good stead, tighten their playing, performance and song-writing skills and can launch them towards continued success.

By contrast, the X Factor is a show that Mozart would have deemed highly-inspirational for the title of his composition, A Musical Joke.

These finalists with insufficient musical or entertainment experience – other than standing in front of a mirror and warbling into a hair brush – get to harbour blinkered aspirations of becoming a clone of what has already gone before.

Many have clearly never had the desire to learn a musical instrument or write their own material and even with bags of props and hype handed to them on a plate, their performances are nothing more than average.

Conclusively, is it any wonder why many of the winning acts cannot maintain the lifelong entertainment significance that’s credited to Sting and his like?

Jim Varey, Bradford Road, Oakenshaw