I managed to get my hands on 'the hottest ticket in town' (as a loser might say) last night. I went along to the studios in Wembley as a guest of Peter Dickson. Peter Dickson is of course the voice of The X Factor. It was a little odd sitting next to him as his voice boomed around the studio.

It is such a slick show - effortlessly brilliant - nothing goes wrong. Ever. It was very odd to be walking around backstage with Cheryl, Danni and all the others just wandering around. You feel like you know them all. Then Alicia Keys walked in:

Had a little tour of the backstage area and met all the remaining contestants. Danyl mentioned that he listened to the big show, even back in the days when it was on at 4am. Flattery will get you everywhere - including a mention on the blog.

Here is a photo of me with Joe (another awful bit of phone photography)

Had a brief chat with Louis who is very friendly, met Simon Cowell's brother who sounds scarily like him and also Gordon Smart from the Sun. He offered to buy me a drink, then realised he didn't have any money on him - so I paid.

A few little bits that you wouldn't have seen on the TV:

- During the advert after the opening number, about 50 people ran on stage with pins and popped all the balloons and swept them off stage.

- Also during the breaks, members of the audience are invited on stage to sing in front of the crowd. The judges leave.

- As Cheryl was leaving, a photographer nearly got run over trying to get a shot of her in the car.

- All the contestants hang around the corridors chatting like they're waiting at school for the next lesson to start.

- Dermot smells really good. He walked past doing a link and a caught a whiff. Is that weird?

- Olly's dad is a lovely bloke.