Recent Happenings..

THE NME TOUR AND THE BRITS

On the 11th Feburary I headed to Birmingham for The NME Tour, the line-up featured American band-The Drums, Art rockers- The Big Pink, heartfelt indie boys- Bombay Bicycle Club and the Brighton lads- The Maccabees headlined. There's no doubt about it, the line-up was brilliant, it had to be given last years epic line-up of Florence, White Lies, Friendly Fires and Glasvegas!

Just as I'd got into the venue and qued up for a pint of water (I'm not 18 for another month!), The Drums took to the stage. They were a band that I was looking forward to seeing as they will supporting Florence and the Machine on her tour in May, so I wanted to check them out before hand! With the crowd already familiar on the whole with their singles (thanks to radio1)- Let's go Surfing and I Feel Stupid, those 2 songs went down a storm with the young indie fans. The crowd seemed a bit unsure about The Drums at first but gradually warmed up to them. By the end of the set, the majority of the crowd loved them! Including me, there were definately moments where I felt like I was dancing at some sort of quite tame, yet, harmonious beach party. I'm very much looking forward to seeing them in May now!

Next up were The Big Pink. This band apparently did not go down too well on the other dates of the tour, which is probably due to the difference in genre, indie fans can be stubborn and rude when they want to be! I, however, love them and I loved their performance. The crowd did at least make the effort to pretend that they were enjoying their set but then after they'd finished, some people behind me were like "God, they were so shit." Perhaps it's not cool, for some reason, to like The Big Pink... I thought they performed really well and was enraptured in their insensity, their clearly a very passionate band.

Bombay Bicycle Club came on and the crowd went wild! Their a band that have visited Birmingham quite a few times and I think a lot of their fans that surrounded me had seen them a couple of times before. I, however, had not due to lack of money, it cost me £6 to get to B'ham from Stafford (which is still about 12 miles from my house). The boys gave a lovely performance, I love it how through all of the distorted guitars lies a beautiful and delicate lyrics.

Here's a video of Magnet, I apologise for the quality of the video!





And finally, The Maccabees headlined. They were clearly the band that most people were the most excited about seeing. It is impossible not to love the Maccabees, because not only is their music good but they are such a humble band. They're a very well loved band but they have never left this go to their heads, they came on smiling at their wonderful applause that they got. They laughed whilst carrying on with their set when nearly the entire crowd fell over because they got a bit over excited and they thanked everyone at the end. And above all, they came on and performed very well, they even did a wonderful encore with a brass section! Boys stared in admiration and girls swooned, everyone there loved the Maccabees, fact.


Wall of Arms:







The BRITS

Every year I get ridiculously excited for this ceremony and this year was no exception. I took the night off work, made sure that I was in front of a widescreen TV for 8pm and sat with a large bottle of posh, organic cider for The BRITS to start. Lily Allen's outfit and performance was first and recieved a slating on twitter, however, I loved it! I hope that it was her last performace before her 'break' though, I'm praying that she'll play some festivals this summer! I ahve never been lucky enough to see her in the flesh! Anyway, I'll talk more about the performances in a bit, here's the winners list:

WINNERS BELOW
British Female Solo Artist

Bat for Lashes

Florence & the Machine

Leona Lewis

WINNER: Lily Allen

Pixie Lott


I was so glad that Lily finally got a BRIT award, well deserved!



British Male Solo Artist

Calvin Harris

WINNER: Dizzee Rascal

Mika

Paolo Nutini

Robbie Williams

I'd have quite liked to see Paolo win this one because I really like 'Sunny Side Up' and her seems lovely, but oh well, Dizzie is a hit machine!


British Breakthrough Act

Florence & the Machine

Friendly Fires

WINNER: JLS

La Roux

Pixie Lott

I was not impressed, I'd have loved anyone to win this one apart from Pixie Lott of JLS, it would have been nice for Friendly fires to maybe win it as they've never won anything and they're a great band!


British Group

Doves

Friendly Fires

JLS

WINNER: Kasabian

Muse

I wasn't too fussed about this one as I knew that poor Friendly Fires did not stand a chance up against JLS, Muse and Kasabian!



MasterCard British Album

Dizzee Rascal - Tongue n’Cheek

WINNER: Florence & the Machine - Lungs

Kasabian - West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum

Lily Allen - It’s Not Me, It’s You

Paolo Nutini - Sunny Side Up


I was very, very happy about this one!! If Florence was only going to win 1, I wanted it to be for Lungs and it was!

British Single

Alesha Dixon - Breathe Slow

Alexandra Burke Ft Flo Rida - Bad Boys

Cheryl Cole - Fight For This Love

Joe McElderry - The Climb

WINNER: JLS - Beat Again

La Roux - In For The Kill

Lily Allen - The Fear

Pixie Lott - Mama Do

Taio Cruz - Break Your Heart

Tinchy Stryder Ft N-Dubz - Number 1

An absolute joke, The Fear Should have won!

Critics' Choice

Ellie Goulding WINNER

Delphic

Marina and the Diamonds

I'm very happy for Ellie becuase she's great and seems very, very sweet. However, I've been a Marina fan for over 2 years now, so I'd have loved to see her win it, I'm a little biased!


BRITs Album of 30 Years

Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head

Dido - No Angel

Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms

Duffy - Rockferry

Keane - Hopes & Fears

WINNER: Oasis - (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?

Phil Collins - No Jacket Required

Sade - Diamond Life

The Verve - Urban Hymns

Travis - The Man Who


I didn't really care who won this one really as I don't think any of them really deserved to win! I hate Liam Gallager though, cannot believe he threw his award into the crowd, twat!

The BRITs Hits 30

Bee Gees - Stayin’ Alive/How Deep is Your Love

Bros. - I Owe you Nothing

Coldplay - Clocks

Eurythmics & Stevie Wonder - Angel

Girls Aloud - The Promise

Kanye West - Gold Digger

Kylie Minogue - Can’t Get You Out of my Head

Michael Jackson - Earth Song

Paul McCartney - Live & Let Die

Pet Shop Boys - Go West

Robbie Williams & Tom Jones - The Full Monty Medley

Scissor Sisters - Take Your Mama

WINNER: Spice Girls - Wannabe/Who Do You Think You Are

Take That - Beatles Medley

The Who - Who Are You

I was a 90's child, so I don't really mind that The Spice girls won!


International Female Solo Artist

WINNER: Lady Gaga

Ladyhawke

Norah Jones

Rihanna

Shakira

Welll deserved, I love Gaga


International Male Solo Artist

Bruce Springsteen

Eminem

WNNER: Jay-Z

Michael Buble

Seasick Steve


I'm glad that Jay-Z won, he seems very lovely and he's good at what he does!

International Album

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

Black Eyed Peas - The End

Empire of the Sun - Walking on a Dream

Jay-Z - The Blueprint 3

WINNER: Lady Gaga - The Fame

The Fame is great, well deserved! It would have been great to see Empire of the Sun or Animal Collective win it though but that would never, ever happen!


International Breakthrough Act Supported By MTV Viewers

Animal Collective

Daniel Merriweather

Empire of the Sun

WINNER: Lady Gaga

Taylor Swift



Fair enough, I'm glad Swifty didn't win, her sickly sweetness is irritating!

Outstanding Contribution Award

Robbie Williams

What contribution? Pub singer, much? He's from Stoke too :/


Anyway, what did everyone think of You've Got the Dirtee Love? I thought that it was quite good, maybe could have been a little bit more amazing, but just a bit. I don't really know what to make of these television performance because I think I'm a bit of a tradionalist when it comes to Florence performances, I like it when she's drunk and crowd surfs and climbs up lighting riggs and jumps into swimming pools!
As for Gaga, I loved what she did with her songs telephone and Dance in the Dark, especially as it was in tribute to her friend, the brillaint designer Alexander Mcqueen, it was all very beautiful. She seemed very happy to win all of awards too because she says that she is one of those people that has in the past generally not very successful, I can relate to this entirely.

Here's Gaga's performance:



That's all for now, I might be interview The Drums sometime soon, I'll let you know if I do

Katie