The X Factor 2008 - the groups: Bad Lashes, JLS and Girlband

Louis Walsh has probably the hardest job of all the mentors this year - the groups traditionally struggle on X Factor and with the competition being so strong in other categories, this year his task is even harder.

This year he's taken a chance on two girlbands, one called Girlband (originally!), from Bristol and the other a bunch of girls from the North-east of England, Cheryl Cole territory, Bad Lashes. At the moment Bad Lashes appear to have the edge but that could all change totally when we reach the live shows. Joining the girls will be London-based Motown-style band JLS, who impressed all the judges at their first audition and haven't really let them down since then. Louis wound them up to a certain extent, telling them, "Boys, it's not good news," and their faces dropped until he added, "It's great news, you're through to the live shows."

The groups who didn't make it and probably had a miserable flight home from Ireland were family group, 4Instinct, who had a mixed X Factor journey and fell apart totally at bootcamp. Manufactured band Priority who were put together at the audition stages, seemed unable to find the time to rehearse together since then, a fact which did not go down at all well with Louis, who told them he was very disappointed with them and sent them packing. The third group to fall at the final hurdle were Geordie girl band Desire who were obviously in direct competition with Bad Lashes but were easily out-performed in the final stages.

So good luck to Bad Lashes, JLS and Girlband who will be performing in the live shows next weekend. In the meantime you can discuss the show in The X Factor forum.