Crieff karate group get through Britain’s Got Talent auditions

May 21 2010 by Katy Gordon, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

PERTH and Crieff martial artists got to show off their moves performing for top TV show, Britain’s Got Talent.

Around eight members of Kyokushin Karate Club auditioned for the show.

One of those involved, Martin Marlborough, explained yesterday: “We had the Taiko drumming which we mixed with karate.

“It took a while to put the routine together, the martial arts more than the drumming, for which we had many rhythms.

“All in all, we were rehearsing and practising for about three months.”

After the group sent in a video of their performance they were handed a live audition in front of an audience and celebrity judges Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden.

Group member Eamon Cramb admitted it was a nerve-wracking experience.

He said: “It was really, really scary. The atmosphere was huge, there were so many people you couldn’t see all the way to the back of the crowd.

“It was definitely the biggest crowd I’ve appeared in front of.”

And perhaps the most nerve-wracking part of all was the judging.

Eamon continued: “Simon said ‘no’, but the others said ‘yes’.”

The group were then invited down to London last month for the next round of the competition, where they were sadly given the final thumbs down by the judges.

Martin said: “I think we got to the last 80 which is great, and we’ve been invited to audition again next year.

“I think they are wanting more ‘show’ karate. They seemed to think our performance was a bit brutal.

“We’ve got some good ideas though, and the judges thought we had a good basis for a routine so we can work from that.

“But Simon did say he thought our choreography was terrible!”

Although snippets have been aired, Martin and the group are now waiting to see if the whole performance will end up on TV.