The Brits

The BritsThe Brit Awards started in 1977 and are the annual British music awards , primarily for pop music. There are a set number of categories of awards – some of which are voted for by listeners of Radio 1. This year, viewers of the show were asked to phone in and vote on the Best British Single.

Over the years, The Brits have had their fair amount of controversy – who can forget Jarvis Cocker’s protest of Michael Jackson acting as though he was the Messiah, the terrible pairing of Mick Fleetwood and Samantha Fox as presenters and Brandon Block trading insults with Ronnie Wood. Thus the Brits are greeted with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. The Osbournes hosted the award show, but it seemed to be mainly Sharon and Kelly doing the work with the various presenters. Meanwhile Ozzy sat back in his throne. Sharon wore a number of different outfits that were mainly variations on a long black dress theme (excepting a closing cream sparkly number).

Mika and Beth Ditto opened tonight’s show in what can only be described as a vocal extravaganza by the “odd couple”. Various artists performed together or with a different arrangement and this provided us with interesting results e.g. Rihanna and the Klaxons doing a rendition of Umbrella , Mark Ronson and a number of guests including Adele, Daniel Merriweather and an extremely nervous Amy Winehouse (who did a solo set). Kylie thrilled us and the Kaiser Chiefs did a version of “Ruby” whilst standing on a set made of skyscrapers where the group appeared like giants; Leona Lewis

Presenting the awards we had various celebrities such as Chris Moyles, Will Young, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Kelly Rowland of Destiny’s Child, Beth Ditto, David Tennant (better known as Dr. Who) and presenting and award to his co-star Kylie; Denise Van Outen and Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber; James Nesbitt; actress Michelle Ryan; Sir Ian Mckellan; Alan Carr; Vic Reeves.

As the night wore on, presenters and artists became more badly behaved, to the extent that Sharon swore many times at Vic Reeves! The evening was concluded with Paul McCartney accepting a lifetime achievement award and performing and Ozzy messing up his lines to introduce the award (his only job of the night!).

Best Live Act: Take That

Critics Breakthrough Act (new award): Adele

British Breakthrough Act: Mika

International Male Solo Artist: Kanye West

British Male Solo Artist: Mark Ronson (strange, given he does collaborations with other artists such as Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse).

International Female Solo Artist: Kylie

International Group : The Foo Fighters

British Female Solo Artist: Kate Nash

International Album: Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace by The Foo Fighters

British Group: The Arctic Monkeys (dressed like country gents as they accepted their award)

British Single: Shine by Take That

British Album: Favourite Worse Nightmare by The Arctic Monkeys

Lifetime Achievement Award: Sir Paul McCartney

Top of the Pops: The True Story

Top of the PopsTop of the Pops was a national institution for more than forty years. A simple format, live acts miming (most of the time) to songs that were in the charts. Any act that had gone up in the charts was eligible to be on the show, anybody that went down was not; not even the Beatles or the Rolling Stones.

Top of the Pops: The True Story tracks the story from its first programme in 1964, which was held in a church in Manchester. The first show included the Rolling Stones and within two episodes it was already a phenomenon. As pop music became enormous during the Sixties , so did Top of the Pops, eventually moving down to London and BBC Television Centre. A new theme tune, “Whole Lotta Love” performed by CCS, a new decade and new colour brought the seventies in and the classic period for the show.

With Britain in the throes of economic decline along came Glam Rock to make it all seem brighter. Each week the costumes on TOTP got more and more ridiculous with the friendly rivalry between Sweet and Slade bringing out the most outrageous outfits. The programme was must-see viewing for the whole family as these ‘modern’ bands were interspersed with whatever was in the charts at the time and that could have been Bing Crosby, who turned up once.
Apparently, for the dads, were the dancers. Starting with the Go Jos and followed by the classic dance group, Pans People, and eventually Legs and Co, they were there to sex up songs when acts could not appear. With a new routine every week, choreographer Flick Colby had a thankless task but delivered week-in week-out. The problems for her were caused by the rule that songs must not go down in the charts. As the charts came out at lunchtime on Tuesday and TOTP was recorded on Wednesday for broadcast on Thursday. This meant that a dance routine, that had been worked on for a week, could be scrapped and a new one required within a day. Literal dancing became the norm in these cases as the dancers acted out the lyrics.

Another source of controversy was the miming. The whole point of the show was the performance and having a perfect soundtrack was a good idea. However, some acts ridiculed it and the “Great Miming Disaster” of All About Eve made matters worse. Acts were forced to sing live and prove that they either could or could not sing, often the latter.
Changes of producer also meant changes of format, changes of theme tune and a loss of the original atmosphere.

Two latter-day producers, Ric Blaxhill and Chris Cowey, tried their best to redress the balance with Cowey reintroducing “Whole Lotta Love” as the theme tune. When he left there were further attempts to revive the show but rescheduling and dwindling audiences took its toll. The greatest pop show of all time was axed in 2006 much to the sadness of people that were brought up with it and the music industry that relied on the exposure to gave to its acts.

A legacy that Cowey left behind was giving TOTP to the world as he franchised it many different countries. One day it may come back to its homeland but for now it is no more.

Jools’s Annual Hootenanny

Jools HollandNow something of a tradition, Jools Holland’s Hootenanny started as and end of year special for his late-night music show ‘Later’. Broadcast over the bringing in of the New Year it features music acts that have made an impression over the previous year and has a lot of celebrity guests as the audience. It has run every year since 1992/1993, with the exception of 2000, when Holland and his Big Band were bringing the New Year in with the Queen at the Millennium Dome.

The illusion is that the show is broadcast live but is actually recorded two weeks before in the middle of December when the acts and guests are more likely to be available. Jools himself has said that anybody that reveals that the show is not live will be “tracked down, along with their families, and slain by archers”, thus revealing that the show is not live and is now looking over his shoulder for would-be Robin Hoods.

Regular guests include Dawn French and Lenny Henry, Sanjeev Bhaskar and Meera Syal, and his old friend Roland Rivron who is called upon to make predictions. This year the audience included Doctor Who, David Tennant, and the Master, John Simm, both of whom were thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Music guests this year included Sir Paul McCartney and Kylie Minogue, as well as the Kaiser Chiefs; Madness; last year’s new big thing, Kate Nash; this year’s new big thing, Duffy; Soul legend Eddie Floyd; small, Scottish woman with big voice, Lulu; Holland’s Big Band regular, Ruby Turner; curly-haired Freddie-a-like, Mika; and straggly Southern Bluesman, Seasick Steve.

All the music went down well but the surprise package on a real musician’s music show was pop princess, Kylie. Looking a little more curvy than in the recent past, she showed it off in a very tight long dress and did a ‘Pfeiffer’ on Jools’s piano, singing the jazz song ‘Come On Strong’. Holland has vowed never to clean the piano again and allowed her to come for a repeat performance whenever she likes. She also did a big-band version of ‘2Hearts’, a torch-song version of ‘I Should Be So Lucky’ and sang with McCartney on his 2007 hit ‘Dance Tonight’. Even Seasick Steve had trouble competing with that.

As always, Hootenanny didn’t disappoint, and the timing ‘issue’ of midnight is almost becoming a running joke. Next year, expect the chimes any time between 11:50 and 12:10, but enjoy it anyway.