brits ahead?

The Brits awards for music are coming up in less than a month. A few artists seem to have been put into multiple nomination categories so the Arctic Monkeys, Take That Reunion and The Kaiser Chiefs should win something on the law of averages. I don't have a clue how they decide who gets into this; the old sponsorship from the direct mail company Britannia Music ended years ago but at leat would give a clue to some metrics for who gets what.

The show has a reputation for sometimes shambolic self seeking publicity by artists and hangers on, so we'll see what happens in the run up. Last year's hosting with Iraq friendly fire quips, rehab jokes and innuendo about the Queen seemed to illicit a share of "disgruntled of Cheam" letters to the editor.

There seems to be a 'throwing beverage at someone well-known' incident each year now and the attempts to provide a certain 'wow factor' slide in various directions from Cat Deeley riding in on a champagne bottle, drunks lurching on stage and one year stage guests unexpectedly firing a (blanked) machine gun into the crowd. Last year it was supposed to be broadcast live but the 30 second delay was enough time for the relatively tame real time swear word editing.

This year I'll support Adele, Bat for Lashes and Newton Faulkner for some kind of prize - which probably dooms all three of them as I never get TV votes right.

I realize I'm probably one of a small-ish number of people to have actually seen Adele perform. Its intriguing how an artist with no album and a hastily released download single gets into the show in the first year. There's obviously some great representation operating in the background. The car crash creepy video to accompany Chasing Pavements, has a slightly over-produced Adele track with lots of radio friendly strings. I prefer the simple acoustic version of Adele's songs and feisty though she is, I hope she doesn't get beaten into submission by a record company.

Bat for Lashes at least got as far as an album and have one which is generally good though I normally skip the same couple of tracks if I listen to it in the car. And Newton Faulkner is another surprisingly strong soloist.

I hope these kind of shows are more about new stuff than regurgitation. Which makes The Arcade Fire vs The Eagles an interesting TWO categories. And The Beatles may have been a brilliant band but is it still necessary to award Paul McCartney as 'top popster' on these kinds of shows? I suppose it will make a good finale.