Photo: Splash
Hating the BRIT Awards is easy. People do it for all sorts of reasons.
They feel it doesn’t represent the music industry or that it doesn’t represent their own musical taste. They’re annoyed that they didn’t get a ticket to go (and are furious that other people had the audacity to attend). Some even consider it a poor investment of two hours spent watching ITV/Youtube on a Wednesday night in February.
But the fact is that it remains the best we’ve got: a British award ceremony where really anything can happen. Sure it has the endemic problems of any award show - including the need to please both a live and a TV audience, as well as the difficulty of sustaining interest over two hours - but the BRITs has huge potential.
This is a show intended to celebrate the British music industry - currently going through the sort of resurgence that would have Colin Welland exhorting from the stage - and we should be proud of it. It certainly has the edge over its US counterparts. It’s a) not as long as the Grammys and b) the audience is drunker, both in the room and at home, so it should potentially be more fun.
This is an opportunity to be genuine TV moment - forget the baby faced assassin Bobby Beale, this is a real chance to be the most talked about event nationwide. This is what we felt went right or wrong on the night.
A world exclusive is only good if you can hear it.
To get an the first play of a track from Kanye West is borderline miraculous. West’s intense performance 'All Day' was genuinely thrilling, particularly as it featured a huge range of UK talent on stage including Novelist, Stomzy, Krept & Konan and Jammer. Someone used a flamethrower, someone (sadly) appeared to be using a cameraphone. It had a truly subversive feel on a night that at times felt all too corporate. The only problem? That ITV felt that West couldn't go out live without editing. The *Audio Muted* version most people heard was simply nonsensical. The viewing public dererve to see the performance below.
If a 56 year old musical icon suffers an injury, let's not revel in it
Watching someone fall down a flight of stairs is rarely fun. Hate Madonna's new material or Instagram rants all your like, but the palpable delight Twitter took in her accident was quite disgusting (to say nothing of Jimmy Carr's gags). It would also have been good if ITV's After Party coverage had perhaps been less focused on the fall of one of their major acts and more on her ability to complete the show. It fell to Nick Jonas (!) to point out that occasionally accidents do occur on stage - something one of his clumsier brothers learned from no less an authority than Beyonce.
Royal Blood are mastering the art of award shows.
It was a pleasant surprise to see Ben Thatcher and Mike Kerr not play it cool on stage when collecting their award. Having had the best festival season of anyone in 2014, the pair hugely deserve the accolade: and the barnstorming, lazer-focused take on 'Figure It Out' was a real highlight. Let's hope they don't keep us waiting for a second album.
Rita Ora does not get a party started.
Despite producing a number of passable pop records over her short career, Rita Ora gets a much harder time than her music deserves. That being said, she made presenting the first award on the night seem glacial (and wasn't helped by being accompanied on stage by Legolas). What we needed was something short and snappy - like her 50 Shades of Grey cameo but entirely in English. The frustrating thing is that there were so many other personalities in the room to chose from. Given that you have an arena's worth of fascinating people - including the likes of St Vincent, Adam Lambert, Marina Diamandis and FKA Twigs - it was utterly inexplicable why the cameras kept on coming back to Ora's side.
Genuine is the way forward
Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith have both had truly remarkable years and both performances - of 'Bloodstream' and 'Lay Me Down' respectively - had their moments. Sheeran's final remarks after winning Best Album were perhaps not the rallying cry that some expected, but his message - support British music, buy albums or tickets - needed to be said. Both performers certainly fared far better than Paloma Faith who, having won the audience over with a likeable speech about flyposting in Hackney and a performance that resembled the third act of King Lear, then ruined it all by shouting out her management company.
Taylor Swift is a force for good - but needs stronger staging
Whether her performance reminded you of Magritte or a vintage Chris Brown dance routine, 'Blank Space' was a truly great song delivered in perfectly servicable way. It didn’t perhaps have the dynamite of the dubstep inspired ‘Trouble’ but was certainly visually striking. It would have been fun to have a gasp inducing moment - but frankly Swift has played everything right so far that perhaps she's saving herself for the summer tour.
Dave Grohl: please come back in 2015.
Video messages are a necessary evil at award shows: if everyone who wins an award happens to be in the room that night, audiences begin to be skeptical. However we did miss the genuine energy the Foo Fighters would bring to a room. As for Pharrell, all we will say is given that 'Happy' was uploaded to Youtube in November 2013, we're not surprised he gave the BRITs a wide berth.
Ant and Dec need a better scriptwriter
This writer had particularly high hopes for the hosts this year, simply because of the huge amount of care they put into presenting Saturday Night Takeaway. However their hosting duties at the BRITs felt lazy and slipshod - as uncomfortable as watching 'Let's Get Ready To Rumble' 21 years on. The opening culinary theme was charm free and any intereaction with the celebrity guests was cringeworthy in the extreme. Also no-one will ever thank you for pointing out that Take That have ripped off Coldplay, the BRITs once had Andrew Lloyd Webber present an award and that Charli XCX is wearing a low-cut dress. They can do better.
#TOOMANYHASHTAGS
Obviously any modern ceremony needs a social media element. But if One Direction aren't even going to show, do we really need such excessive Twitter-baiting? And if we can be permitted one final request: if James Corden and Prince fiasco in 2014 has taught us anything, please next year can there be a ban on anyone attempting to take a selfie on stage?
See the full list of winners below.
British Breakthrough Act
CHVRCHES
FKA Twigs
George Ezra
Royal Blood
Sam Smith - WINNER
British Video
Calvin Harris - 'Summer'
Ed Sheeran - 'Thinking Out Loud'
Mark Ronson Ft Bruno Mars - 'Uptown Funk'
One Direction - 'You And I' - WINNER
Sam Smith - 'Stay With Me'
International Male Solo Artist
Beck
Hozier
Jack White
John Legend
Pharrell Williams - WINNER
International Female Solo Artist
Beyonce
Taylor Swift - WINNER
Lana Del Rey
Sia
St. Vincent
International Group
The War On Drugs
5 Seconds Of Summer
The Black Keys
First Aid Kit
Foo Fighters - WINNERS
Critics' Choice Award
James Bay - WINNER
British Female Solo Artist
Ella Henderson
FKA Twigs
Jessie Ware
Lily Allen
Paloma Faith - WINNER
British Male Solo Artist
Damon Albarn
Ed Sheeran - WINNER
George Ezra
Paolo Nutini
Sam Smith
British Single
Calvin Harris - 'Summer'
Clean Bandit Ft Jess Glynne - 'Rather Be'
Duke Dumont Ft Jax Jones - 'I Got U'
Ed Sheeran - 'Thinking Out Loud'
Ella Henderson - 'Ghost'
George Ezra - 'Budapest'
Mark Ronson Ft Bruno Mars - 'Uptown Funk' - WINNER
Route 94 Ft Jess Glynne - 'My Love'
Sam Smith - 'Stay With Me'
Sigma - 'Nobody To Love'
British Group
Alt-J
Clean Bandit
Royal Blood - WINNERS
One Direction
BRITS Global Success Award
Sam Smith - WINNER
Album Of The Year
Alt-J - This Is All Yours
George Ezra - Wanted On Voyage
Royal Blood - Royal Blood
Ed Sheeran - X - WINNER
Sam Smith - In The Lonely Hour
British Producer Of The Year
Paul Epworth (presented previously at Producers Guild)
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