Listening to Kermode and Mayo laugh at 'format' (essentially, they've had a lame ongoing weekly feature imposed on them by BBC bosses, theirs being to ask interviewees 'what was the first film you saw') reminded me of salutary lessons learnt at my first editor role on PlayStation Power. That being, don't run ongoing features if they haven't got the legs to go beyond two editions.Or, two blogs.
The East Angles Music Prize was a decent idea but, ahem, it's going the way of a millstone round my neck. And I'm repeating myself with the nominations. So you'll excuse me if I curtail it somewhat and just tell you the rest of category winners. Now. And then we can all move on... After all, it's February, and 2009 is so last year.
Best British Group
(Brits: Doves, Friendly Fires, JLS, Kasabian, Muse)
Arctic Monkeys were a surprise omission from the Brits, although generally the darker Humbug didn't go down that well. But Cornerstone and Crying Lightning were great singles, lyrically if nothing else, and the album was really only let down by a couple of weak tracks. Still, they're not the Best British Group. Neither are The XX. It's Wild Beasts. I've banged on about them enough on this blog, but Two Dancers is a wonderful album and they're everything a great British band should be: mysterious, intelligent, anthemic without being crass, and bound up in a very distinct Britishness. Somehow they make 'girls from Shipley, girls from Hounslow, girls from Whitby' sound as mythic as any American band referencing classic backwoods USA.
Best British Album
(Brits: Dizzee Rascal, Florence & The Machine, Kasabian, Lily Allen, Paolo Nutini)
Wild Beasts, for the reasons stated above. And one more: it was recorded in Norfolk. Although all the press about them decamping to the wild isolation of my home county made me laugh: the studio is about two minutes from the A11...
Best British Single
I'm not a huge fan of Kasabian and their apparent desire to be the next Oasis. But stadium rock that fuses indie, disco and glam, and does it live with gospel singers deserves all the plaudits it can get. Thank God Tom Meighan has cut his hair since this...
And that's all chaps. Lesson learnt. Single topic blogs from now on!
