Brit Awards 2013: Predictions, Preferences and General Ramblings of a Layman

Well I see that the Brit Awards are upon us again, which provides a handy reason for me to return to this blog. That telltale sign that we are all getting older as not only does it seem with each passing year as though we have bought/downloaded barely anything from any of the nominees, but increasingly it seems as though there are a few nominees that I haven't even heard of! With some admittedly patchy knowledge of some categories, here's what I reckon this year:


British Breakthrough Act Nominees:
Top 5 selected by Voting Academy. Winner identified by public vote promoted by brits.co.uk and BBC Radio 1
• Alt-J (Infectious Music)
• Ben Howard (Island / Universal Music)
• Jake Bugg (Mercury / Universal Music)
• Jessie Ware (Island / PMR / Universal Music)
• Rita Ora (Columbia / Roc Nation / Sony Music)

Some great names in this category. Jessie Ware, I know her sister called Della. Come to think of it, I think I've come across Rita Ora's sister Kia. Or are they a car manufacturer? I digress. Going by what I have seen and heard this year, Rita Ora has been quite big in the airplay on the radio and done decently in the charts while Jake Bugg has had good write-ups in the music press and toured with Noel Gallagher and the Stone Roses. That suggests to me that it is between these 2 but the lovely Rita's greater commercial will probably just sway the vote in her direction.

My prediction: Rita Ora My selection: Jake Bugg



British Female Solo Artist Nominees:
• Amy Winehouse (Island / Universal Music)
• Bat for Lashes (Parlophone / EMI Music)
• Emeli Sandé (Virgin / EMI Music)
• Jessie Ware (Island / PMR / Universal Music)
• Paloma Faith (RCA / Sony Music)

I look forward to the acceptance speech if the first name is the one that is read out of the envelope. Has anyone ever won a Brit Award posthumously before I wonder? I know it's been done in the Oscars on a couple of occasions, most recently by Heath Ledger if I recall correctly. As much as the Amy Winehouse album that was released after her death had a couple of gems on it, I can't really see her coming out on top of the pile here. Paloma Faith and her array of crazy headgear has gathered quite a gathering over the past year and I liked her cover of the old INXS song that was used in an advert (John Lewis?). She has a chance but Emeli Sande had the best selling album of last year and was everywhere last year, even tinkling the ivories at Sports Personality of the Year. A big-up to Brightonian Bat For Lashes, but Emeli's winning this one I think.

My prediction: Emeli Sande My selection: Paloma Faith



British Group Nominees:
• Alt-J (Infectious Music)
• Mumford & Sons (Gentlemen of The Road / Island / Universal Music)
• Muse (Helium 3 / Warner Bros / Warner Music)
• One Direction (Syco / Sony Music)
• The xx (Young Turks / XL / Beggars)


This one's a bit of a mixed bag with boybands mixed in with guitar bands as well as electronica and a spot of folk too. Can't really see Alt-J or The xx prevailing here and I think Muse's glory days were a few years ago when they brought out their 'Black Holes and Revelations' album. So it really boils down to whether the One Direction juggernaut is bigger than Mumford & Sons' surprising popularity as a live band. I think that 10-15 years ago this award would always have been the preserve of the latest indie wonder, but Take That have won this award in recent years off the back of shifting lots of records and gaining mass appeal and One Direction seem to have conquered America which is no easy feat. Sorry banjo lovers, but I think Harry Styles et al have this one in the bag.

My prediction: One Direction My selection: Mumford & Sons



British Live Act Nominees:
• Coldplay (Parlophone / EMI Music)
• Mumford & Sons (Gentlemen of The Road / Island / Universal Music)
• Muse (Helium 3 / Warner Bros / Warner Music)
• The Rolling Stones (Polydor / Universal Music)
• The Vaccines (Columbia / Sony Music)

Not sure what it says about the strength in depth of live music acts over the past year when the Rolling Stones receive a nomination now that they enter their geriatric period. Coldplay, M&S and Muse are always regulars in this category and probably not much to choose between the 3 of them. Coldplay were touring with their previous year's material whereas Muse and Mumford & Sons had some fresh stuff out and so this might just steer things in their favour. I think this might be where M&S get their gong.

My prediction: Mumford & Sons My selection: Mumford & Sons



British Male Solo Artist Nominees:
• Ben Howard (Island / Universal Music)
• Calvin Harris (Columbia / Sony Music)
• Olly Murs (Epic / Sony Music)
• Richard Hawley (Parlophone / EMI Music)
• Plan B (679 / Atlantic / Warner Music)


Not really an expert on these things, but did Olly Murs release very much last year? If he did then he probably stands a good chance of winning. I'd say it is going to be between him and Calvin Harris. Good to see Richard Hawley has been nominated though as he's been releasing some good material for the past few years and he has a very distinctive, old-school voice. We won't get to hear him use his voice this time though as the acceptance speech will most likely be Calvin's.

My prediction: Calvin Harris My selection: Richard Hawley

BRITs Global Success Award
The winner of this Award will be announced at the Show on Wednesday 20th February.

Presumably an extra award added to the bill to give to Adele?

British Producer of the Year Nominees:
In association with The MPG Awards Identified by a panel overseen by MPG.
• Damon Albarn
• Jake Gosling
• Paul Epworth
Damon Albarn's a new face in the Producer category. By comparison, Paul Epworth is an old hand. Expect experience to win the day here.

Special Recognition Award Winner:
War Child UK


Presumably a Special Recognition Award this year rather than a Lifetime Achievement? Either way, a justified award.


Critics’ Choice Award :
In association with War Child Identified by a panel made up of media music critics
• Tom Odell (Columbia / Sony Music) - Winner
• AlunaGeorge (Island / Universal Music)
• Laura Mvula (RCA / Sony Music)


Don't have a lot to add on this one, other than whoever wins it is going to have a good chance of winning best breakthrough act next year. I'll go for Mr Odell.



International Group Nominees:
• Alabama Shakes (Rough Trade / XL / Beggars)
• The Black Keys (Nonesuch / Warner Music)
• Fun (Atlantic / Fuelled By Ramen / Warner Music)
• The Killers (Vertigo / Universal Music)
• The Script (Epic / Phonogenic / Sony Music)

I'd usually say that The Killers are a cert for this award whenever they are nominated, but their last album was a bit underwhelming and they are also up against some stiff competition. Alabama Shakes and Fun have both attracted good write-ups and The Script always do well commercially. But the best album I bought last year was El Camino by The Black Keys and they also just did well in the Grammy Awards. 2 of their songs - Lonely Boy and Gold On The Ceiling have been used quite regularly on adverts and trails over the past year which is a sure sign of appreciation. I think they will be further endorsed here.

My prediction: The Black Keys My selection: The Black Keys

International Female Solo Artist Nominees:
• Alicia Keys (RCA / Sony Music)
• Cat Power (Matador / XL / Beggars)
• Lana Del Rey (Polydor / Universal Music)
• Rihanna (Def Jam / Universal Music)
• Taylor Swift (Mercury / Universal Music)

Alicia Keys is something of a veteran in this category these days, but probably stands little chance of winning this year. Rihanna and Taylor Swift have shifted lots of records/downloads as per usual and both stand a chance but Lana Del Rey was one of the big sellers in the UK last year and did well in the charts making a major breakthrough in 2012 and on that basis I think she gets to win this award.

My prediction: Lana Del Rey My selection: Lana Del Rey


International Male Solo Artist Nominees:
• Bruce Springsteen (Columbia / Sony Music)
• Frank Ocean (Def Jam / Universal Music)
• Gotye (Island / Universal Music)
• Jack White (XL Recordings / XL / Beggars)
• Michael Buble (Reprise / Warner Music)

You know the apocalypse will be upon us if Michael Buble wins this award. Fortunately I think we will be reprieved for a while longer. Springsteen must be catching Neil Young up for the prolific number of studio albums he's recorded as he seems to get nominated nearly every year. Haven't heard anything Jack White has released as a solo artist but Gotye had one of the most played songs of last year which gained him notoriety which should see him win this one.

My prediction: Gotye My selection: Errr....Jack White I suppose

British Single:
Top fifteen British singles based on the biggest sales success in 2012 - With Capital FM and iTunes
• Adele ‘Skyfall’ (XL Recordings / XL / Beggars)
• Alex Clare ‘Too Close’ (Island / Universal Music)
• Coldplay & Rihanna ‘Princess of China’ (Parlophone / EMI Music)
• DJ Fresh Ft Rita Ora ‘Hot Right Now’ (Ministry of Sound / Ministry of Sound Group)
• Emeli Sandé ‘Next To Me’ (Virgin / EMI Music)
• Florence & The Machine ‘Spectrum’ (Island / Universal Music)
• James Arthur ‘Impossible’ (Syco Music / Sony Music)
• Jessie J ‘Domino’ (Island / Lava / Universal Music)
• Labrinth Ft Emeli Sandé ‘Beneath Your Beautiful’ (Syco Music / Sony Music)
• Olly Murs Ft Flo Rida ‘Troublemaker’ (Epic / Sony Music)
• Rita Ora Ft Tinie Tempah ‘R.I.P.’ (Columbia / Roc Nation / Sony Music)
• Rizzle Kicks ‘Mama Do The Hump’ (Island / Universal Music)
• Robbie Williams ‘Candy’ (Island / Universal Music)
• Rudimental Ft John Newman ‘Feel The Love’ (Asylum / Black Butter / Warner Music)
• Stooshe ‘Black Heart’ (Future Cut / Qworks / Warner Bros / Warner Music


The usual mixture of stuff in this category. There is about 2/3s of the nominees that can be readily eliminated as having a chance of winning. In fact, I think the destiny of this award is really between 4 female vocalists - Adele, Rita Ora, Emeli Sande and Florence. 'Spectrum' was one of my favourite songs last year and Flo and her Machine might stand a chance here, but I think the success of 'Skyfall' as a movie and Adele's subsequent success in the Grammys suggests this award is heading for her mantelpiece. Even as someone that doesn't like Bond themes or Adele particularly, I'd have to admit this was a good song.

My prediction: Adele My selection: Florence & The Machine

MasterCard British Album of the Year Nominees:

Supported by The Sun Bizarre Column
• Alt-J ‘An Awesome Wave’ (Infectious Music)
• Emeli Sandé ‘Our Version Of Events’ (Virgin / EMI Music)
• Mumford & Sons ‘Babel’ (Gentlemen of The Road / Island / Universal Music)
• Paloma Faith ‘Fall To Grace’ (RCA / Sony Music)
• Plan B ‘Ill Manors’ (679 / Atlantic / Warner Music)

I bought only one of these albums, which was Mumford & Sons' album 'Babel'. It's not a bad album at all as it goes and they triumphed when they released their previous album so they could well be successful again. The only reason to bet against them is that Emeli Sande had the best selling album of last year and given that the award is endorsed by The Sun, you would imagine that the populist vote will win the day. Expect some grateful record execs that have been kept in a job to applaud when she scoops this award.


My prediction: Emeli Sande My selection: Mumford & Sons

Brit Awards witterings, ramblings and predictions 2012

So, once again the award season is upon us with this weekend the BAFTA film awards following hot on the heels of the British Comedy Awards, the National Television Awards and the National Envelope Openers Awards. But it is on 22 February that the blue riband event so far as the British music industry concerned takes place, the night when record execs come together to slap their counterparts wholesale on the back.

Yes, it is the Brit Awards, the night that has provided many moments of controversy and comedy, ranging from Mick Fleetwood and Sam Fox's inability to read an autocue right through to Jarvis Cocker baring his derriere whilst Michael Jackson performed, and the amusingly named anarchist Danbert Nobacon of Chumbawamba fame pouring a bucket of ice over John Prescott and escaping a retaliatory jab from Hull's finest croquet playing Jaguar driver.

And so what moments of controversy, debauchery and amusement will be thrown up (hopefully not literally) this year? Well, judging by the nominees, seemingly not very much. Perhaps more than anything it is a sign of the ageing process taking hold, but it is hard to think of a year where I have been less aware of so many of the acts that have made the shortlist. I think this is in part due to me having bought so little music in 2011, either in physical copy or via download. However, I think it is also due to the nature of the charts now. Several of the acts nominated have had very little exposure in the media or via radio playlists over the past year and so consequently, much of their work has crept under the radar.

Maybe I will have to live with the reality that middle age is starting to take hold on me and it won't be long before I start finding myself snubbing music radio altogether and find that Radio 4 or Test Match Special on long wave will be my preferred wireless listening of choice. But it does seem to me that the days of the Brits having an impact and being compulsive television viewing are long gone. Sure, Lady Gaga will turn up wearing something reported missing from an abattoir and some rapper will turn the air blue with a few ill advised F-bombs in their acceptance speech, but these moments will be few and far between in an otherwise anodyne itinerary. James Corden has been booked to compere the show for the second year running, much to universal delight at least in the Corden household. But even a few lame putdowns from Patrick Stewart's old sparring partner are unlikely to give the Brits that much edge.

But, let's not get too bogged down with how the awards stack up with renewals from yesteryear. Comparisons are indeed odious and there are at least some interesting battles that could arise in some of this year's marquee categories. Ed Sheeran and Adele seem to be in pole position to clean up at this year's ceremony and given the commercial success that both have enjoyed in 2011, it would very surprising if either were to walk away empty handed. The Brits panel are an unpredictable bunch, but then so too are the British public, and they have a hand in deciding the destiny of the best single and album categories.

So, I thought it would be a good idea if a musical Nostradamus was to cast his eye over this year's shortlist and provide their expert analysis as to who will win each award, as well as advising the world as to what gems should be scooping the prizes, so far as their musical ear is concerned. Sadly, our correspondent was out to lunch and so the duty falls upon yours truly to predict the night's winners and losers for your delectation. Here goes:


British Male Solo Artist: Ed Sheeran, James Blake, James Morrison, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Professor Green
The days of this category being dominated by Robbie Williams are mercifully long gone. In his place we have some new kids on the scene, along with an old stager appearing as a solo artist for the first time. I have not followed Ed Sheeran a great deal but his songs appear to have received a lot of radio play in the last year and he was also lauded on Top of the Pops at Christmas, which makes him a livewire contender here. Nelly Furtado's former collaborative partner who mended her broken strings should win the battle of the 2 James' here, although Mr Blake continues to make that difficult transition from black US hard court tennis specialist to white, folksy British singer-songwriter. I thought Professor Green generally committed violent crime in the library with a candlestick, but I am not certain of whether his music is equally criminal. That leaves us with one half of Madchester's finest indie sibling combo in his new project and whilst his debut solo album is a very fine listen and reminiscent of Oasis's more mellow offerings, Noel Gallagher sized eyebrows would be raised were he to land this award at a time when old school indie-Britpop music is not particularly in vogue. Disappointing not to see Devonian folk singer Ben Howard make the shortlist (kind of Paignton's answer to Jack Johnson), but of those that have made it, expect flavour of the month Ed Sheeran to edge out James Morrison for the mantelpiece decoration.

My prediction: Ed Sheeran My choice: Noel Gallagher

British Female Solo Artist: Adele, Florence & The Machine, Jessie J, Kate Bush, Laura Marling
Not the most inspiring list of nominees that have ever adorned this category, albeit there are a couple of previous winners amongst the quintet. Jessie J has certainly had a productive year and her song 'Price Tag' has been one of the most played songs of the past year, perhaps because it is appropriate in identifying society's current materialistic obsessions. For all that, however, I found the song somewhat irritating. Florence and her imaginary machine have come back and recorded that difficult second album to general acclaim, although it generally passed me by. Kate Bush seems to be this year's version of Annie Lennox and is nominated just to remind people that she has made her once in a decade trip to a recording studio, while Laura Marling seems to be gaining a reputation as the critics' favourite. She won this category a year ago against the odds, but lightning is unlikely to strike twice as last year was Adele's year. And I say that as someone who does not like her music, or indeed her. When you are the biggest selling recording artist in the States as well as in the UK, you know that you have cracked it and seeing as how sales of CDs and downloads keep record execs away from a Jobseekers' Allowance, expect them to show their gratitude here.

My prediction: Adele My choice: Despite not liking her, it has to be Adele


British Breakthrough Act: Anna Calvi, Ed Sheeran, Emeli Sande, Jessie J, The Vaccines
It has been a strange sort of year because whereas in previous years, I would look at this category and would be championing the merits of at least one of the nominees' work, I look at the list this year and know little of their respective merits. Of course, I have heard of Jessie J, Ed Sheeran and Anna Calvi but have only heard the odd song here and there. I did hear one of Emeli Sande's songs on Radio 2 the other week and quite liked it, while I have heard some of The Vaccines' work and just thought they were the type of indie guitar band that has given that genre a bad name these days because their sound was very derivative. On the surface, this looks like a straight fight between Ed Sheeran and Jessie J, and I anticipate that Mr Sheeran will win his second award of the evening.

My prediction: Ed Sheeran My choice: Emeli Sande

British Group: Arctic Monkeys, Chase & Status, Coldplay, Elbow, Kasabian

A lot of the usual suspects feature in this category, although spot the odd one out. Go on, be honest, have you heard of Chase and Status? They sound like a web design company. A little bit surprising that Beady Eye didn't get a look in for this category after the release of their first album in 2011. Of the established acts, Coldplay returned with their first new album in 3 years in 2011 and as staunch a fan of Coldplay as I am, I have to say that I was underwhelmed by their latest offering. Not a bad album by any means, but it lacked as many standout tracks as most of its predecessors. By the same token, Elbow's last album did not quite hit the same heights as 'Seldom Seen Kid' but it would have been unrealistic to expect it to. Arctic Monkeys seem to have faded off the radar a bit these days, no longer going for the populist audience and in doing so, losing some of their fanbase whilst getting further approval from the rest. If Coldplay are to be beaten here, then it is likely to be Kasabian who topple them given their popular appeal to those that attend live music. They also seem to be a band that are remaining fresh despite now being on their fourth album. I have a gut feeling for the band from Leicester to cause a minor upset in this category and for them to defeat Coldplay.

My prediction: Kasabian My choice: Elbow

British Single: Adele - Someone Like You, Ed Sheeran - The A Team, Example - Changed The Way You Kissed Me, Jessie J Ft B.o.B. - Price Tag, JLS Ft Dev - She Makes Me Wanna, Military Wives/Gareth Malone - Wherever You Are, Olly Murs Ft Rizzle Kicks - Heart Skips A Beat, One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful, Pixie Lott - All About Tonight, The Wanted - Glad You Came
As ever the nominees for this category reads like a playlist for Heart FM's daytime schedule. The Wanted will betray their song title and be wishing they stayed at home because they will not be winning. Nor for that matter will the Military Wives, Ed Sheeran or One Direction, much to Caroline Flack's disappointment. If the queue for their concert at The Dome last year was anything to go by, Example will be getting the teenage girl vote. As much as it would be pleasing to see a Brightonian victory, Rizzle Kicks' collaboration with Olly Murs will not be claiming the prize either. I must confess to a weakness where Pixie Lott is concerned, a perfect mixture of long legs and saccharin sweet electro-pop does the trick. Incidentally where was she on the best female shortlist? Her nominated song was one of the better number 1s of recent times, but even so, I think she will fall short here as I am expecting the winner to come from either Adele or Jessie J, as theirs were 2 of the most played singles of last year. Given that Adele released 3 or 4 singles of note last year while Jessie J's nominated effort remains the one by which she is most readily identified, I think the latter could scoop the prize on this occasion.

My prediction: Jessie J My choice: Pixie Lott

British Album of the Year: Adele - 21, Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto, Ed Sheeran - +, Florence & The Machine - Ceremonials, PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
Well, I only own one out of the shortlist this year and that is Coldplay's latest album. I must say that although I am very much a fan of Coldplay's, as I mentioned above, I did feel somewhat underwhelmed by their latest album and do not feel that it has the strength in depth of most of their previous efforts. The problem is, however, that I have not heard enough of the other albums to suitably advise if any of the other nominees' entries are better. I have heard the singles from Adele's album and also a couple of songs from Florence and the Machine and so I would expect them to be at the front of the queue when this award is given out. It is surprising that Noel Gallagher's debut album is missing as that was the best album I bought last year, followed by White Lies' second album 'Ritual'. Ed Sheeran I suppose is also a candidate, while I think PJ Harvey got in because she won the Mercury Prize last year, but that generally does not offer much of a form guide, save for the year that Elbow made their breakthrough. I think it is a close call between Adele and Florence, but although Karl Lagerfield is unlikely to approve, expect another win for Adele.

My prediction: Adele My choice: Somewhat by default in the absence of Noel Gallagher or White Lies, Coldplay


International Male Solo Artist: Aloe Blacc, Bon Iver, Bruno Mars, David Guetta, Ryan Adams
It is to my great shame and possibly a sign of the ageing process kicking in that I was completely ignorant to Ryan Adams releasing any material last year, an artist who I quite like and whose material I have previously bought. Elsewhere, we have Aloe Blacc who I doubt is in need of a dollar these days following the commercial success of his hit single last year. You do sense he could end up being one of those one hit wonders being picked out of the Buzzcocks ID parade in five years time, by which time one suspects Phill Jupitus will be fossilised and Noel Fielding will have become a woman. I was so oblivious to David Guetta last year when he was nominated that I wondered whether he was in fact a Spanish goalkeeper, but he appears to have had another year of recording and producing club records played on the Balearics' party island so comes here as a livewire contender. I'm not particularly familiiar with Bon Iver, but gather he is of a similar musical ilk to Jack Johnson and Ben Howard, so he may be worth checking out. It is Bruno Mars, however, who seems to have had the most commercial success out of this quintet this past year though and on that basis, I would be surprised if anyone else picked up this award.

My prediction: Bruno Mars My choice: Ryan Adams

International Female Solo Artist: Beyonce, Bjork, Feist, Lady Gaga, Rihanna
Again, due to me not following music extensively in 2011, I was not aware that Iceland's greatest singing pugilist had released any material last year, or indeed this side of the Millennium. I'm sure that she is as grateful as a grapefruit for her nomination competing against such stellar names. Nice to see Feist nominated who had a fairish hit with that radio friendly '1234' song three or four years ago, although I was blissfully unaware that she had released anything since. She surely comes in as rank outsider in this category. As for the A-listers, well I think Lady Gaga's seminal year came a couple of years ago when she swept the board while wearing the delicatessen as her outfit. That then leaves Rihanna and Beyonce and while Beyonce starts to enjoy her new role of motherhood, I expect Rihanna to cap a year in which she hit number one for the fifth year in a row with a Brit award to boot.
My prediction: Rihanna My choice: Feist

International Group: Fleet Foxes, Foo Fighters, Jay Z / Kanye West, Lady Antebellum, Maroon 5
First of all, how do Jay Z and Kanye West count as an 'international group'? They are two solo artists that happen to collaborate with many other artists on their material. This is surely a form of cheating and it would be wrong for cheats to prosper. Secondly, who on earth are Lady Antebellum? Thirdly, Maroon 5, why? That much overused and annoying word 'meh' springs to mind when looking at this category this year. The door seems to be left open for the Foo Fighters to be winning this category. I don't profess to be the greatest fan of the Foos and find a lot of their music repetitive, but at a time when rock music seems to have become commercially unfashionable, you have to respect their ability to keep churning out top 20 hit singles, even if their sound, at least to my ear, is formulaic and derivative. The Fleet Foxes are the band I have most of a liking for out of these nominees and although they have never quite topped their single 'Mykonos' from 3 or 4 years back, I think they the best of a mediocre bunch here. That said, expect the Foos to pick up the award.
My prediction: Foo Fighters My choice: Fleet Foxes

International Breakthrough Act: Aloe Blacc Bon Iver Foster The People Lana Del Rey Nicki Minaj
Have not got a great deal to say on this category due to how little of their material I have heard. Aloe Blacc and Foster The People both seem to be one hit wonders, while Nicki Minaj is another one to file under 'acts I've not previously heard of before a Brits nomination'. I am hoping if I haven't heard of them then members of Brits Committee would not be able to identify them either. Although Bon Iver could be a dark horse, Lana Del Rey has been attracting a lot of column inches recently off the back of that 'Video Games' hit single. On that basis, I expect the King of Spain to collect a crown, or an award anyway.
My prediction: Lana Del Rey My choice: No idea

British Producer: Paul Epworth, Flood, Ethan Johns

When I first saw these nominees, I thought the last person was Elton John, which led me to wonder how long he had been a producer on other people's music. I have only heard of Paul Epworth and purely for that very scientific reason, I predict he will win this award.

Outstanding Contribution To Music: Blur

They didn't bother with an outstanding contribution last year for some reason, but it has been restored this year in order to provide recognition for Blur. I would have to say that is a fair enough accolade to dish out. I don't profess to be the biggest fan of theirs, but they have been around now for over 20 years and have released a vast back catalogue of hit singles to the point where even if you are not an out-and-out fan of their music, the chances are you are going to like at least some of their songs. That is the case with me, albeit most of the songs of theirs that I like have tended not to be the major hits. For the record, I reckon that as an overall music composition, you are hard pressed to find a better song they have recorded than 'The Universal', while 'Tender', 'Out Of Time' and 'There's No Other Way' are also amongst their finest works.

Not so fond of the likes of 'Parklife', 'Country House' or 'Girls and Boys', but there are plenty of people who disagree with me and so it is likely, therefore, that these will be the songs they perform on the night, provided they can tear Phil Daniels away from advertising football betting and cutting down on his Porklife in order to lead the vocals.

Critics' Choice Emeli Sande
Emeli Sande is a Scottish soul singer and I think I've heard one of her tracks on Radio 2, which means it must be the kind of music that won't frighten the horses, or Ken Bruce for that matter. She has collaborated before on a number one hit with Professor Green and as has been shown in the past, collaborating as a vocalist on other people's work is not a bad career move in order to get yourself airplay and awareness in the charts. Her Wikipedia entry also informs the world that she is Simon Cowell's 'favourite songwriter at the moment', although given Cowell's track record at promoting sub-standard mime artists on various talent shows, this is not necessarily a glowing reference. She beat Maverick Sabre to win this award, which I previously believed was the name of an Olympic fencing sword.

Playlists 74 to 88 - O, P, Q & R

Well, the last time I posted my alphabet inspired playlists from my various travels, I'd got as far as the end of 'N'. So, we move on now to O, P, Q and R. As usual, this experiment means that there's a real mixture of old and new stuff, and also a journey across different genres. This may be the last playlist for a while as I have over 400 tracks on my iPod beginning with 'S' to wade through, by far the highest represented letter of the alphabet song wise on my MP3 of choice! By contrast, as you will see, I only listened to the grand sum of 2 songs beginning with Q!

Incidentally, for anyone wondering when my next proper blog piece will be written, fear not. All I can say is, watch this space...

PLAYLIST #74
Aztec Camera - Oblivious
Echo & The Bunnymen - Ocean Rain
Dolores O'Riordan - October
Amy Winehouse - October Song
Sheryl Crow - Oh Marie
Ladyhawke - Oh My
Kaiser Chiefs - Oh My God
Ash - Oh Yeah
David Bowie - Oh You Pretty Things
The Thrills - Old Friends, New Lovers
Fleet Foxes - Oliver James
Richard Ashcroft - On A Beach

PLAYLIST #75
Ash - On A Wave
Red Hot Chili Peppers - On Mercury
Brandon Flowers - On The Floor
Tiffany Page - On Your Head
Badly Drawn Boy - Once Around The Block
Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime
U2 - One
Texas - One Choice
Elbow - One Day Like This
The Thrills - One Horse Town
REM - The One I Love
The Stone Roses - One Love
Regina Spektor - One More Time With Feeling
Travis - One Night

PLAYLIST #76
Moby - One Of These Mornings
The Eagles - One Of These Nights
Madness - One Step Beyond
The Charlatans - One To Another
U2 - One Tree Hill
Queen - One Vision
Blondie - One Way Or Another
Lene Marlin - One Year Ago
Garbage - Only Happy When It Rains
The Charlatans - The Only One I Know
The Last Shadow Puppets - Only The Truth
Brandon Flowers - Only The Young
Kooks - Ooh La
Richard Hawley - Open Up Your Door

PLAYLIST #77
Snow Patrol - Open Your Eyes
Madonna - Open Your Heart
Reverend & The Makers - Open Your Window
The Courteeners - The Opener
REM - Orange Crush
Dolores O'Riordan - Ordinary Day
Sheryl Crow - Ordinary Morning
John Legend - Ordinary People
Duran Duran - Ordinary World
U2 - Original Of The Species
Ash - Orpheus
KT Tunstall - Other Side Of The World
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Otherside

PLAYLIST #78
Madness - Our House
Fun Boy Three - Our Lips Are Sealed
Travis - Out In Space
The Rifles - Out In The Past
Embrace - Out Of Nothing
Paul Weller - Out Of The Sinking
Blur - Out Of Time
James - Out To Get You
Doves - The Outsiders
Echo & The Bunnymen - Over The Wall
Stevie Wonder - Overjoyed

PLAYLIST #79
The Rolling Stones - Paint It Black
Tears For Fears - Pale Shelter
The Smiths - Panic
James Brown - Papa's Got A Brand New Bag
Madonna - Papa Don't Preach
The Beatles - Paperback Writer
Travis - Paperclips
Coldplay - Parachutes
Garbage - Parade
Massive Attack - Paradise Circus
Guns N' Roses - Paradise City
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Parallel Universe
Ladyhawke - Paris Is Burning
Corinne Bailey Rae - Paris Nights/New York Mornings
Stevie Wonder - Part Time Lover
The Coral - Pass It On
Iggy Pop - The Passenger

PLAYLIST #80
Oasis - Part Of The Queue
Guns N' Roses - Patience
White Lies - Peace & Quiet
Bat For Lashes - Peace Of Mind
U2 - Peace On Earth
Travis - Peace The Fuck Out
Kings Of Convenience - Peacetime Resistance
The Stranglers - Peaches
Paul Weller - Peacock Suit
Bat For Lashes - Pearl's Dream
The Beatles - Penny Lane
Echo & The Bunnymen - People Are Strange
White Rabbits - Percussion Gun
Alanis Morissette - Perfect
New Order - A Perfect Kiss

PLAYLIST #81
Mercury Rev - The Petrified Florist
Blondie - Picture This
Echo & The Bunnymen - Pictures On My Wall
The Who - Pinball Wizard
Crowded House - Pineapple Head
Travis - Pipe Dreams
Lene Marlin - A Place Nearby
White Lies - A Place To Hide
Snow Patrol - The Planets Bend Between Us
The Kinks - Plastic Man
Queen - Play The Game
Brandon Flowers - Playing With Fire
Glasvegas - Please Come Back Home
James Brown - Please Please Please
Sade - Please Send Me Someone To Love
Muse - Plug-In Baby
Coldplay - Politik

PLAYLIST #82
Glasvegas - Polmont On My Mind
Texas - Polo Mint City
Razorlight - Pop Song 2006
Moby - Porcelain
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Porcelain
Manic Street Preachers - Postcards From A Young Man
Coldplay - Postcards From Far Away
Doves - Pounding
White Lies - The Power & The Glory
Madonna - The Power Of Goodbye
Frankie Goes To Holly - The Power Of Love
Kings Of Convenience - The Power Of Not Knowing
John Lennon - Power To The People
Massive Attack - Prayer For England
Texas - Prayer For You
Foo Fighters - The Pretender
The Psychedelic Furs - Pretty In Pink

PLAYLIST #83
White Lies - The Price Of Love
U2 - Pride (In The Name Of Love)
Madness - The Prince
Crowded House - Private Universe
Oasis - Probably All In The Mind
Ladyhawke - Professional Suicide
Simple Minds - Promised You A Miracle
Massive Attack - Protection
Echo & The Bunnymen - Proxy
Talking Heads - Psycho Killer
Squeeze - Pulling Mussels
Supergrass - Pumping On Your Stereo
The Lightning Seeds - Pure
Prince - Purple Rain
Garbage - Push It
Texas - Put Your Arms Around Me
Corinne Bailey Rae - Put Your Records On

PLAYLIST #84
Travis - Quicksand
Fleet Foxes - Quiet Houses
Florence & The Machine - Rabbit Heart
Queen - Radio Ga Ga
Kings Of Leon - Radioactive
Moby - Raining Again
Coldplay - Rainy Day
Blondie - Rapture
Prince - Raspberry Beret
The Boomtown Rats - Rat Trap
Madonna - Ray Of Light
The Killers - Read My Mind


PLAYLIST #85
Travis - Re-Offender
Republica - Ready To Go
Arcade Fire - Ready To Start
Deacon Blue - Real Gone Kid
Nerina Pallot - Real Late Starter
Colbie Caillat - Realize
David Bowie - Rebel Rebel
Billy Idol - Rebel Yell
Basement Jaxx - Red Alert
U2 - Red Hill Mining Town
Delphic - Red Lights
Texas - Redbook
Sheryl Crow - Redemption Day
New Order - Regret
Kings Of Convenience - Renegade
Ash - Renegade Cavalcade

PLAYLIST #86
Delphic - Remain
Basement Jaxx - Rendez-Vu
The Strokes - Reptilia
Echo & The Bunnymen - Rescue
The Courteeners - The Rest Of The World Has Gone Home
Kings Of Leon - Revelry
The Beatles - Revolution
Supergrass - Richard III
Garbage - Right Between The Eyes
Simply Red - The Right Thing
Alanis Morissette - Right Through You
Joss Stone - Right To Be Wrong
Duran Duran - Rio
Kings Of Convenience - Riot On An Empty Street
Razorlight - Rip It Up

PLAYLIST #87
Gabrielle - Rise
Bruce Springsteen - The River
Elbow - The River
Ocean Colour Scene - The Riverboat Song
Talking Heads - Road To Nowhere
The Libertines - Road To Ruin
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Road Trippin'
The B-52s - Roam
Oasis - Rock N' Roll Star
AC/DC - Rock N' Roll Ain't Noise Pollution
Ryan Adams - Rock N Roll
Razorlight - Rock N Roll Lies
Simple Minds - Rockets
Neil Young - Rockin' In The Free World
Mumford & Sons - Roll Away Your Stone

PLAYLIST #88
Oasis - Roll With It
Arcade Fire - Rebellion
Catatonia - Road Rage
The Verve - The Rolling People
Beady Eye - The Roller
Basement Jaxx - Romeo
The Rifles - Romeo & Julie
Port O'Brien - The Rooftop Song
Stevie Nicks - Rooms On Fire
Dirty Vegas - Roses
RPA/UN Of Sound - Royal Highness
The Rolling Stones - Ruby Tuesday
Kings Of Convenience - Rule My World
Muse - Ruled By Secrecy
Midlake - Rulers, Ruling All Things
Snow Patrol - Run
Garbage - Run Baby Run
Moby - Run On
Elbow - Running To Stand Still
Soul Asylum - Runaway Train
Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
U2 - Running To Stand Still

Playlists 52 to 73 - J to N

Found below are my latest batch of playlists listened to when I have been on my travels. This latest collection of 22 alphabetically sequenced playlists covers approximately a 2 month period and 5 different letters of the alphabet. As ever, there is an eclectic mix of mainstream and less well known artists to be found amongst the lists.

A few points of note. Playlists 68 to 70 were listened to during extended journeys during the course of trips to and from Manchester. Also, Playlist #62 which consists exclusively of songs prefixed with the word 'Love' in the title was rather appropriately listened to on a train journey on 14 February. This was not deliberate, it just so happened that these were next set of songs I came to in the alphabetical index of songs on my iPod.

Playlist #72 makes reference to the track 'Not In Love' by the Canadian electronica act Crystal Castles. Please note that the track I listened to was the album version without Robert Smith of The Cure's vocal contribution. This was not a reflection on Robert Smith's dulcet tones (as you will see from The Cure's other appearances in playlists here), but a reflection on my ineptitude in downloading the correct track! The single version which does feature The Cure frontman has now been downloaded and is a much better version than the track that appears on the 'Crystal Castles II' album.

Lastly, I should say that future updates of these playlists may be less frequent as I will commuting less in my work capacity, which is the main time when I have listened to these alphabetically sequenced playlists. Enjoy!


PLAYLIST #52
Travis - J.Smith
Green Day - JAR
AC/DC - The Jack
Kooks - Jackie Big Tits
The Coral - Jacqueline
Moby - Jam For The Ladies
John Lennon - Jealous Guy
David Bowie - The Jean Genie
The Killers - Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine
Supergrass - Jesus Came From Outta Space
Doves - Jetstream

PLAYLIST #53
Green Day - Jesus Of Suburbia
Joss Stone - Jet Lag
Sade - Jezebel
Brandon Flowers - Jilted Lovers & Broken Hearts
The Undertones - Jimmy Jimmy
David Bowie - John, I'm Only Dancing
The Killers - Joy Ride
Van Halen - Jump
Basement Jaxx - Jump N' Shout
The Rolling Stones - Jumpin' Jack Flash
Alistair Griffin - Just Drive
Pink - Just Like A Pill
The Cure - Just Like Heaven

PLAYLIST #54
John Lennon - Just Like Starting Over
Texas - Just Hold On
The Thrills - Just Travelling Through
The Cars - Just What I Needed
Massive Attack - Karmacoma
Marillion - Kayleigh
Edwyn Collins - Keep On Burning
Soul II Soul - Keep On Movin'
Arcade Fire - Keep The Car Running
Oasis - Keep The Dream Alive
Embrace - Keeping
Manic Street Preachers - Kevin Carter
Richard Ashcroft - Keys To The World
The Pretenders - Kid
MGMT - Kids

PLAYLIST #55
Queen - Killer Queen
Echo & The Bunnymen - The Killing Moon
Joss Stone - Killing Time
Queen - A Kind Of Magic
Prefab Sprout - The King Of Rock & Roll
Coldplay - Kingdom Come
Doves - Kingdom Of Rust
The Courteeners - Kings Of The New Road
Razorlight - Kirby's House
Prince - Kiss
Seal - Kiss From A Rose
U2 - Kite
Muse - Knights Of Cydonia
Kings Of Convenience - Know-How

PLAYLIST #56
Kasabian - LSF
Madonna - La Isla Bonita
Squeeze - Labelled With Love
Twin Sister - Lady Daydream
The Beatles - Lady Madonna
White Rabbits - The Lady Vanishes
James - Laid
Matchbox Twenty - Last Beautiful Girl
Doves - Last Broadcast
Embrace - The Last Gas
The Dandy Warhols - The Last High
Travis - The Last Laugh Of The Laughter
The Courteeners - Last Of The Ladies
The Libertines - Last Post On The Bugle
Regina Spektor - Laughing With
Foo Fighters - Learn To Fly
Nerina Pallot - Learning To Breathe
Razorlight - Leave Me Alone
Joss Stone - Less Is More

PLAYLIST #57
John Legend - Let's Get Lifted
Prince - Let's Go Crazy
The Cure - Let's Go To Bed
The Rolling Stones - Let's Spend The Night Together
Fyfe Dangerfield - Let's Start Again
The Beatles - Let It Be
Queen - Let Me Live
Oasis - Let There Be Love
Simple Minds - Let There Be Love
David Bowie - Let's Dance
The Coral - Liezah
Talk Talk - Life's What You Make It

PLAYLIST #58
RPA & Utd Nat Of Sound - Life Can Be So Beautiful
Coldplay - Life In Technicolor II
The Eagles - Life In The Fast Lane
Echo & The Bunnymen - Life Of A Thousand Crimes
Lightning Seeds - The Life Of Riley
David Bowie - Life On Mars
Snow Patrol - Lifeboats
Moby - Lift Me Up
Madonna - Like A Prayer
Corinne Bailey Rae - Like A Star
Manic Street Preachers - Little Baby Nothing
Oasis - Little By Little
Fleetwood Mac - Little Lies
Mumford & Sons - Little Lion Man
Prince - Little Red Corvette

PLAYLIST #59
RPA & Utd Nat Of Sound - Let My Soul Rest
U2 - Like A Song
Pulp - A Little Soul
Madonna - Little Star
Colbie Caillat - The Little Things
Mohair - Little Voice
Oasis - Live Forever
Kings Of Convenience - Live Long
Madonna - Live To Tell
AC/DC - Live Wire
Fyfe Dangerfield - Livewire
Hard-Fi - Living For The Weekend
James Brown - Living In America

PLAYLIST #60
Primal Scream - Loaded
Crowded House - Locked Out
Supertramp - The Logical Song
The Kinks - Lola
The Clash - London Calling
Elbow - The Loneliness Of A Tower Crane Driver
Rebecca Helmer - Lonely
The Beatles - The Long And Winding Road
Counting Crows - A Long December
Sheryl Crow - Long Road Home
The Eagles - The Long Run
Eagle Eye & N.Cherry - Long Way Around
Big Country - Look Away

PLAYLIST #61
Moby - Look Back In
ABC - The Look Of Love
Jet - Look What You've Done
Embrace - Looking As You Are
Madness - Los Palmas 7
James - Lose Control
Dolores O'Riordan - Loser
The Killers - Losing Touch
Echo & The Bunnymen - Lost And Found
Coldplay - Lost!
Corinne Bailey Rae - Love's On Its Way
U2 - Love And Peace Or Else
Athlete - Love Come Rescue
Ladyhawke - Love Don't Live Here
Jamiroquai - Love Foolosophy
Sheryl Crow - Love Is A Good Thing
Kings Of Convenience - Love Is No Big Truth

PLAYLIST #62
Oasis - Love Like A Bomb
The Beatles - Love Me Do
The B-52s - Love Shack
Moby - Love Should
Sara Bareilles - Love Song
Simple Minds - Love Song
The Stone Roses - Love Spreads
Travis - Love Will Come Through
The Eagles - Love Will Keep Us Alive
Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
The Cure - The Lovecats
The Cardigans - Lovefool
Bill Withers - Lovely Day
Coldplay - Lovers In Japan
The Cure - Lovesong
Madness - Lovestruck

PLAYLIST #63
Coldplay - Low
Dan Clews - Lucid And Sincere
The Verve - Lucky Man
Lightning Seeds - Lucky You
The Beatles - Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Suzanne Vega - Luka
The Courteeners - Lullaby
The Cure - Lullaby
Shawn Mullins - Lullaby
Oasis - Lyla
The Eagles - Lyin' Eyes

PLAYLIST #64
Doves - M62 Song
Moby - Machete
Regina Spektor - Machine
Matchbox Twenty - Mad Season
Tears For Fears - Mad World
The Stone Roses - Made Of Stone
Brandon Flowers - Magdalena
Ladyhawke - Magic
The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour
U2 - Magnificent
Steve Harley - Make Me Smile
Supergrass - Mama & Papa
Alanis Morissette - A Man
Massive Attack - Man Next Door
Regina Spektor - Man Of A Thousand Faces
David Bowie - The Man Who Sold The World
The Libertines - The Man Who Would Be King

PLAYLIST #65
U2 - A Man And A Woman
Simple Minds - Mandela Day
Ladyhawke - Manipulating Woman
Muse - Map Of The Problematique
Crosby, Stills & Nash - Marrakesh Express
Oasis - Married With Children
Scissor Sisters - Mary
Supergrass - Mary
Alanis Morissette - Mary Jane
Manic Street Preachers - The Masses Against The Classes
Stevie Wonder - Master Blaster
Texas - Masterthief
Kooks - Match Box
Oasis - The Masterplan

PLAYLIST #66
Madonna - Material Girl
Sheryl Crow - Maybe That's Something
Kings Of Convenience - Me In You
Fleet Foxes - Meadowlarks
Crowded House - Mean To Me
Oasis - The Meaning Of Soul
Garbage - Medication
The Last Shadow Puppets - Meeting Place
Sharleen Spiteri - Melody
Ash - Meltdown
The Stone Roses - Mersey Paradise
Coldplay - A Message
The Police - Message In A Bottle
The Pretenders - Message Of Love

PLAYLIST #67
Sheryl Crow - Members Only
Garbage - Metal Heart
Madness - Michael Caine
Travis - Mid-Life Krysis
The Pretenders - Middle Of The Road
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Midnight
Garbage - Milk
The Coral - Milkwood Blues
Dirty Vegas - A Million Ways
John Lennon - Mind Games
KT Tunstall - Miniature Disasters
The Cure - Mint Car
Queen - The Miracle

PLAYLIST #68
U2 - Miracle Drug
Elbow - Mirrorball
Pulp - Misshapes
Kings Of Convenience - Misread
Passengers - Miss Sarajevo
The Rolling Stones - Miss You
Everything But The Girl - Missing
Sheryl Crow - Mississippi
Ryan Adams - Mockingbird
David Bowie - Modern Love
Kaiser Chiefs - Modern Way
The Dandy Warhols - Mohammed
U2 - Moment Of Surrender
Prince - Money Don't Matter Tonight
Richard Ashcroft - Money To Burn
Foo Fighters - Monkey Wrench
Razorlight - Monster Boots
Bat For Lashes - Moon And Moon
I Am Kloot - The Moon Is A Blind Eye
Van Morrison - Moondance
Boston - More Than A Feeling
The Coral - More Than A Lover
Ladyhawke - Morning Dreams
Oasis - Morning Glory
John Lennon - Mother
Tears For Fears - Mothers Talk
Manic Street Preachers - Motorcycle Emptiness

PLAYLIST #69
Dan Clews - Move Too Fast
Primal Scream - Movin' On Up
Supergrass - Moving
Nerina Pallot - Mr King
Amy MacDonald - Mr Rock & Roll
The Killers - Mr Brightside
Guns N' Roses - Mr Brownstone
Dan Clews - Mr K
Kings Of Convenience - Mrs Cold
Simon & Garfunkel - Mrs Robinson
Catatonia - Mulder And Scully
Morrissey - Munich Air Disaster 1958
Madonna - Music
The Commitments - Mustang Sally
The Charlatans - My Beautiful Friend
The Cars - My Best Friend's Girl
Ladyhawke - My Delirium
Rebecca Helmer - My Everything
Travis - My Eyes
Sheryl Crow - My Favorite Mistake
Madness - My Girl
Echo & The Bunnymen - My Kingdom
The Killers - My List
The Last Shadow Puppets - My Mistakes Were Made For You
The Knack - My Sharona
Moby - My Weakness
Embrace - My Weakness Is None Of Your Business
Fleet Foxes - Mykonos
U2 - Mysterious Ways
INXS - Mystify

PLAYLIST #70
Kaiser Chiefs - Na Na Na Na Naa
Kooks - Naive
Moby - Natural Blues
Oasis - The Nature Of Reality
Lissie - Needle Starts To Fall
The Killers - Neon Tiger
The Verve - Neon Wilderness
Muse - Neutron Star Collision
Sade - Never As Good As The First Time
The Noisettes - Never Forget You
Fleetwood Mac - Never Going Back Again
Jack Johnson - Never Know
Kaiser Chiefs - Never Miss A Beat
Texas - Nevermind
Kirsty MacColl - A New England
Simply Red - A New Flame
Simple Minds - New Gold Dream
The Eagles - New Kid In Town
U2 - New Year's Day
The Futureheads - News And Tributes

PLAYLIST #71
The Jam - News Of The World
Sleeper - Nice Guy Eddie
Nerina Pallot - Nickindia
Ash - Nicole
Madness - Night Boat To Cairo
The Pretenders - Night In My Veins
James Brown - Night Train
Mercury Rev - Nite And Fog
U2 - No Line On The Horizon
The Stranglers - No More Heroes
Jack Johnson - No Other Way
TLC - No Scrubs
The Courteeners - No You Didn't, No You Don't

PLAYLIST #72
Garbage - Nobody Loves You
John Lennon - Nobody Told Me
Razorlight - North London Trash
I Am Kloot - Northern Skies
The Beatles - Norwegian Wood
The Rolling Stones - Not Fade Away
Crystal Castles - Not In Love
The Courteeners - Not Nineteen Forever
Alanis Morissette - Not The Doctor
Crowded House - Not The Girl You Think You Are
Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U
Echo & The Bunnymen - Nothing Lasts Forever

PLAYLIST #73
Metallica - Nothing Else Matters
Madonna - Nothing Really Matters
White Lies - Nothing To Hide
Guns N' Roses - November Rain
Lyrebirds - Now I Know Why
Coldplay - Now My Feet Won't Touch The Ground
Embrace - Now You're Nobody
The Beatles - Nowhere Man
Pink - Numb
John Legend - Number One

The Brit Awards 2011 - predictions and general ramblings

Friends, Romans, countrymen and fans of Chris Moyles.

Once again the Brit Awards are upon us, being televised later this week, hosted by the ubiquitous yet strangely unfunny James Corden, who is apparently donating his entire fee for hosting the event to Comic Relief. Well, he'd have only spent it on pies otherwise. Here's my predictions for this year's categories, along with who my personal selections would be.

BEST MALE (Mark Ronson, Paul Weller, Plan B, Robert Plant, Tinie Tempah)
Well, Tinie Tempah holds the distinction this year of being nominated for 4 awards, which past history tells us probably means he will end up winning none of the awards for which he has been shortlisted. Personally, I'd disqualify him on the grounds that his name alone has a negative impact on the standard of literacy in schools. Plan B has had what would be termed a major breakthrough year. So much so that you wonder just how successful he could have been had he stuck to Plan A. Mark Ronson as usual released some kind of experimental album where he probably mixed the Uzbekistani national anthem with an early 90s dance classic, while I was blissfully unaware of Paul Weller releasing anything last year. Strange but refreshing to see this category Robbie Williams free, but somewhat disappointing that Fyfe Dangerfield who contributed the cover version of 'She's Always A Woman To Me' to the John Lewis advert, taken from a pretty impressive debut solo album, was overlooked in this category. You'd have to say that Plan B and the rapper with the glasses and the misspelt short fuse are the 2 likely winners here, but I'm sticking to the formbook and giving this to Plan B.
MY PREDICTION: Plan B MY SELECTION: In the absence of Fyfe Dangerfield, probably Plan B

BEST BRITISH FEMALE (Cheryl Cole, Ellie Goulding, Laura Marling, Paloma Faith, Rumer)
Hmm, this is a tricky one to call because all of these acts have their supporters and their individual merits. In fact, it is some indictment of the strength around at the moment amongst the female of the species that Adele who has just returned with a new album was not nominated, and neither were Corinne Bailey Rae, Amy MacDonald or KT Tunstall, who each had prolific years in 2010. Cheryl Cole seems to be something of a national treasure these days, although I think that is more for her aesthetic qualities rather than her musical ones. Ellie Goulding is certainly becoming popular in the mainstream, although I personally thought her rendition of 'Your Song' butchered Elton John's original. Laura Marling is quite well known in the folk music scene which is flourishing at the moment, but I would be surprised to see her win the popular vote here. Paloma Faith being nominated will get people excited as she is bound to wear a big hat for the occasion. Musically, Rumer is the best nominee out of all of these as she has an excellent, soulful voice, but for all that, she has had limited commercial success which you tend to need in order to win one of these awards. Cheryl Cole's status as the Queen of Hearts gives her a big chance, but I have an inkling Ellie Goulding's status as the 'in thing' at the moment gives her the edge in this category.
MY PREDICTION: Ellie Goulding MY SELECTION: Rumer

BEST BRITISH BREAKTHROUGH ACT (Ellie Goulding, Mumford & Sons, Rumer, Tinie Tempah, The XX)
This was an award that I believe Florence & The Machine bagged last year and it was significant that the year before, Florence had won the Critics' Choice award, an award that in 2010 was won by....Ellie Goulding. I would say that award is a good barometer for who wins this award the following year because the critics do play a part in making the music buying public aware of new acts. That said, Ms Goulding is up against some very stiff competition in this category. There is a school of thought that Tinie Tempah has to win at least one of the awards he is up for, especially given his consistent chart success last year which helps to pay some of the judging panel's wages. Then there is The XX, an electronic meets indie band that won last year's Mercury Music Prize. That tends not to be a good barometer for the Brits, however. As much as it is good to see Rumer recognised again in this category, I think the biggest challenge to Ellie Goulding here comes from Mumford & Sons, a folk rock band who went down a storm at all of the festivals last summer and who released their excellent debut album 'Sigh No More' at the beginning of last year. You may well claim to not know any of their tracks, but you will do at least on a subconscious level, as the instrumental sections of their tracks have regularly been used for TV trails and on programmes like 'Countryfile'. They should scoop one award on the night, but I think it might come elsewhere.
MY PREDICTION: Ellie Goulding MY SELECTION: Mumford & Sons

BEST BRITISH GROUP (Gorillaz, Biffy Clyro, Mumford & Sons, Take That, The XX)
It is a sign of the times when Take That being nominated for this category is the least controversial selection. There have been some strange choices in this category. How do Gorillaz get nominated when they are still, in the most part, a cartoon band? Biffy Clyro are a poor man's AC/DC yet they have got nominated purely because the X-Factor winner released a lame cover version of one of their already lame songs. Yet, the Manic Street Preachers release some of their best material in over a decade, and they are strangely overlooked. This looks like a straight fight between Take That and Mumford & Sons and given Take That's mainstream appeal these days where it is does not damage your credibility to admit to liking a couple of their songs even if you are a male, balding, approaching middle age office worker, then it would be surprising to see the odds-on favourite fall at the final fence here in a weak renewal of this category.
MY PREDICTION: Take That MY SELECTION: Mumford & Sons

BEST BRITISH SINGLE (Alexandra Burke & Pitbull - All Night Long, Cheryl Cole - Parachute, Florence & The Machine - You've Got The Love, Matt Cardle - When We Collide, Olly Murs - Please Don't Let Me Go, Plan B - She Said, Scouting For Girls - This Ain't A Love Song, Taio Cruz - Dynamite, Tinie Tempah - Pass Out, The Wanted - All Time Low)
The Wanted inadvertently provide an apt description of this category in their nominated song title, although this category will always reflect buyer behaviour in the charts and as such, the nominees are largely dominated by commercial pop records. The songs that have been nominated are generally what would make the A-playlist on Heart or Juice FM. Looking at this objectively, I would put a line through Alexandra Burke, Matt Cardle, Scouting For Girls and Taio Cruz's chances of winning. Also, Florence & The Machine's nominated song was released over a year ago, which places her at a disadvantage, plus it was also one of her weaker songs. Scouting For Girls will be disqualified on the grounds that the judging panel would not have been able to differentiate their song from anything else they have released. So that leaves the angry, bespectacled rapper who showed how hardcore he was by name-checking Scunthorpe in one of his songs, Her Royal Highness Dame Cheryl Cole, Olly Murs, Plan B and The Wanted. It really is needle in a haystack time here, but I'm sure there must be some law stating that Cheryl Cole must win at least one award on the night, so it will probably be this one, although Olly Murs might be her biggest threat.
MY PREDICTION: Cheryl Cole MY SELECTION: Plan B

BEST BRITISH ALBUM (Plan B, Mumford & Sons, Take That, Tinie Tempah, The XX)
Well, last year when this category's nominees were announced, I identified that I had listened to none of the nominated albums during the course of the year. This year, I have listened to one album in full (Mumford & Sons) and downloaded half of another album (The XX), so as Take That say in the title of their nomination, that's Progress. Nonetheless, there are some notable absentees from this category. The Manics, The Courteeners, Fyfe Dangerfield, Klaxons and Rumer all released albums last year that were worthy of inclusion. Of those that have been nominated, it would be surprising if Take That were to claim this award as they are not really renowned as a group that release life affirming albums, but are more of a singles group. Tinie Tempah and Plan B's albums were among the most successful commercially last year, while the XX had a critically acclaimed one. Crucially though, Mumford & Sons appear to have the album that bridged the gap between commercial sales and critical acclaim, and they have led a trend that has seen folk rock become popular on the radio again. For that reason, I mark them down as favourites in this category, although Plan B looks likely to be the other main contender.
MY PREDICTION: Mumford & Sons MY SELECTION: Mumford & Sons

INTERNATIONAL MALE SOLO ARTIST (Cee-Lo Green, Bruce Springsteen, David Guetta, Eminem, Kanye West)
I am going to hold my hands up and admit to my complete ignorance in not knowing who one of these nominees is, David Guetta. He sounds like he was the third choice, unused goalkeeper in Spain's World Cup winning squad. Due to his anonymity, I am anticipating that the Brits Panel aren't that familiar with him either, so I'm putting a line through him. Bruce Springsteen, music legend though he has been, is surely only nominated to remind the general public that his pulse remained intact into 2011. Although I don't profess to be an aficianado where the rap scene is concerned, I don't recall 2010 being a vintage year for Eminem and while I dare say Kanye West was kept busy on the collaboration front, I don't think it was his defining year either. In contrast, Cee-Lo Green seemed to be everywhere last year with his first major solo project and he enjoyed quite a lot of chart success too. Therefore, I think the man who may be a distant relative of Shrek's will be far from a donkey on Brits Night.
MY PREDICTION: Cee-Lo Green MY SELECTION: Cee-Lo Green

INTERNATIONAL FEMALE SOLO ARTIST (Kylie Minogue, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Robyn)
If this category was won purely on the basis of airplay and TV appearances, the presence of New York's favourite warbling ivory tinkler, Alicia Keys, would surely determine the result in her favour. She is not without a chance but she is up against some big hitters. At the risk of sounding like the Pub Landlord, everyone likes a bit of Kylie, don't they? Even so, I think Kylie's best days as a recording artist are probably behind her now and so it is hard to see her winning this award in this year. This looks like a straight fight between Mrs Russell Brand and R&B's favourite promoter of rain protection gear. Katy Perry is a bit of Marmite figure, but whereas I find her to be at least mildly irritating, she certainly has her supporters and she had plenty more chart success last year. The same applies to Rihanna though and I think I am right in saying she has now had a number 1 hit in each of the last 5 years. Expect there to be some fireworks if Ms Perry loses, but I'm calling this one for Rihanna.
MY PREDICTION: Rihanna MY SELECTION: Alicia on the music front, Kylie on the 'all-round package'

INTERNATIONAL BREAKTHROUGH ACT (Bruno Mars, The Glee Cast, The Temper Trap, Justin Bieber, The National)
What an uninspiring collection of misfits we have here! The uncontrolled laughter you could hear was me rolling around in hysterics upon reading that the Glee cast had been nominated. One presumes that the Brit judging panel is largely made up of women. The Temper Trap's nomination is curious given that their big radio friendly hit 'Sweet Disposition' was released the year before last and I don't recall them releasing anything since. The National are a good, up-and-coming indie band who might attract more of a following in the next couple of years, but they are largely unknown by most people in this country at the moment, so it is hard to see them winning. That leaves Bruno Mars and Justin Bieber, and given that he seems to be the latest teen sensation, I'd be surprised if the Bieber juggernaut did not crush everything in its path.
MY PREDICTION: Justin Bieber MY SELECTION: The National

INTERNATIONAL GROUP (Arcade Fire, Black Eyed Peas, Kings Of Leon, The Script, Vampire Weekend)
Looks like a bit of a wide open category here given that none of these acts had what you would term a spectacular 2010. Black Eyed Peas are one of those acts that I've never quite understood how they attract the level of popularity that they have, and I gather that their performance at the Superbowl left a lot to be desired. Kings Of Leon could have made 2010 the year they became the biggest band in the world following on from their previous album, but from what I have heard of their latest material, they are quite some way short of the level they found when 'Use Somebody' and 'Sex On Fire' made it big. The Script are another one in the Scouting For Girls category where most of their songs sound about the same, but they have enjoyed a lot of chart success through churning out lots of dull, radio friendly material. Arcade Fire and Vampire Weekend seem to represent the Q/NME readers with their presence in this category and in what is a close contest, I expect Vampire Weekend's reputation as a good live band to give them the edge over the Canadian rock band, although I personally would give Arcade Fire the nod.
MY PREDICTION: Vampire Weekend MY SELECTION: Arcade Fire

INTERNATIONAL ALBUM (Arcade Fire, Cee Lo Green, Eminem, Katy Perry, Kings Of Leon)
I don't have a lot of personal insight to offer in this category as I have only downloaded tracks from 2 of the nominated albums (Arcade Fire and Kings Of Leon). However, I would anticipate there being a lot of excess filler on a Katy Perry album judging by some of the dirge that her record company persuaded her to release as single cuts. While I am not best placed to appraise the finer workings of Kings Of Leon's latest long play, I have not heard anything particularly inspiring that was released from it. While I'm guessing that lesser known Eminem album tracks probably consisted of a disproprortionately high percentage of cursory invective. That then leaves Arcade Fire and Cee Lo Green, and while Arcade Fire had more critical acclaim, the Reverend Green (I'm not sure he is actually a man of the cloth) has had more mainstream exposure and chart success, so I can see him winning his second award here.
MY PREDICTION: Cee Lo Green MY SELECTION: Arcade Fire

CRITICS' CHOICE (Jessie J, James Blake, The Vaccines)
This award has already been decided with the singer-songwriter Jessie J guaranteed to collect the award on the night. That immediately marks her down as someone to look out for in some of the more senior categories in 12 months time. I am not familiar with her work, or that of the 2 nominees. James Blake seems to have had a career change from the days when he was a bandana wearing, American tennis player that won the pre-Wimbledon Queens Club tournament one year, although judging by his photo, he may also have had a head change since then too. The Vaccines doesn't exactly seem like a very rock and roll name, does it?


In addition to these awards, there is also an award for Best Producer, but your guess on that one is as good as mine. A couple of awards are conspicuous by their absence this year though. There's no 'Best Live Act', which is surprising given the number of festivals there are now. Nor is there a 'Lifetime Achievement' category this year, presumably because they have run out of credible people to give that award to. Surely a band like Texas, back in the recording studio after 20 years in the business, would be a worthy future candidate for that award if it is brought back.

Playlists 47 to 51 - I

These are the latest sets of alphabet influenced playlists that I have listened to on my travels in the past couple of weeks. These last 5 playlists have completed the letter I, which resulted in 123 songs beginning with that letter being played, the most of any letter so far. As ever, each playlist has conjured up a diverse mixture of old and new songs and tracks from mainstream and less household names. Playlist number 48 must ranks among the best to date and was appropriately played on 8 December, the thirtieth anniversary of John Lennon's murder, given that this playlist includes arguably his finest (and certainly most iconic) solo track, as well as one of The Beatles' best ever compositions. Some great tracks by The Cure, Oasis, The Manics, Amy Winehouse and even REM (who I don't usually like) make this one of my personal favourite playlists to date. Refer below to see which of these latest playlists tickles your fancy.


PLAYLIST #47 (Brighton to Croydon train journey)
Garbage - I Think I'm Paranoid
Johnny Cash - I Walk The Line
The Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored
Prince - I Wanna Be Your Lover
Queen - I Want It All
Embrace - I Want The World
The White Stripes - I Want To Be The Boy
Queen - I Want To Break Free
Kooks - I Want You Back
Stevie Wonder - I Was Made To Love Her
Sandi Thom - I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker
Port O'Brien - I Woke Up Today
Sharleen Spiteri - I Wonder
Corinne Bailey Rae - I Would Like To Call It Beauty
Echo & The Bunnymen - The Idolness Of The Gods

PLAYLIST #48 (Croydon to Brighton train journey)
Sharleen Spiteri - If I Can't Have You
Jack Johnson - If I Could
Sheryl Crow - If It Makes You Happy
Kooks - If Only
Snow Patrol - If There's A Rocket Tie Me To It
Matchbox Twenty - If You're Gone
Simply Red - If You Don't Know Me By Now
Manic Street Preachers - If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
REM - Imitation Of Life
Oasis - The Importance Of Being Idle
The Cure - In Between Days
Texas - In Demand
U2 - In God's Country
Amy Winehouse - In My Bed
The Beatles - In My Life
Moby - In My Heart
John Lennon - Imagine

PLAYLIST #49 (London Victoria to Faversham train journey)
Dodgy - In A Room
Coldplay - In My Place
The Last Shadow Puppets - In My Room
Texas - In Our Lifetime
Alanis Morissette - In Praise Of The Vulnerable Man
The Eagles - In The City
The Coral - In The Forest
Dolores O'Riordan - In The Garden
Razorlight - In The Morning
The Rasmus - In The Shadows
Dirty Vegas - In This Life
Moby - In This World
Sleeper - Inbetweener
Massive Attack - Inertia Creeps
Neill MacColl & Kathryn Williams - Innocent When You Dream
Queen - Innuendo
Texas - Inner Smile

PLAYLIST #50 (Faversham to London Victoria train journey)
Texas - Insane
Moby - Inside
Stiltskin - Inside
John Lennon - Instant Karma
Crowded House - Instinct
Crystal Castles - Intimate
Madonna - Into The Groove
Rebecca Helmer - Intrigued
Feist - Intuition
Muse - Invincible
Morrissey - Irish Blood English Heart
The Thrills - The Irish Keep Gatecrashing
Bob Marley - Iron Lion Zion
Alanis Morissette - Ironic
Sade - Is It A Crime?
Joe Jackson - Is She Really Going Out With Him?
Squeeze - Is That Love?
Weezer - Island In The Sun
The xx - Islands
Stevie Wonder - Isn't She Lovely

PLAYLIST #51 (London Victoria to Brighton train journey)
Queen - It's A Hard Life
AC/DC - It's A Long Way To The Top
James Brown - It's A Man's Man's Man's World
Garbage - It's All Over But The Crying
The Rolling Stones - It's All Over Now
Oasis - It's Gettin' Better (Man!)
Talk Talk - It's My Life
Glasvegas - It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry
Klaxons - It's Not Over Yet
Manic Street Preachers - (It's Not War) Just The End Of Love
Simply Red - It's Only Love
Crowded House - It's Only Natural
The Rolling Stones - It's Only Rock N' Roll
James Brown - It's Too Funky In Here
The White Stripes - It's True That We Love One Another
John Legend - It Don't Have To Change
Madness - It Must Be Love
Sharleen Spiteri - It Was You

A winter warmer

Hello everyone.

I trust you have been enjoying the snow and ice of the past couple of weeks, either indulging in some well earned duvet days or guiding the most reliable method of transport during the cold snap, namely the sledge. Unfortunately some of us live close enough to our employer that we were not excused work on the grounds of inclemency. And I hope that none you experienced the kind of cold hearted, wicked crime that was reported by one Kent woman, who called emergency services to report the theft of her snowman, crafted by her own fair hands. As if this act of cruel opportunism was not enough, the woman suffered the further indignity of having her telephone call passed on to the media to highlight the waste on emergency resources. Give the woman a carrot. And maybe some coal.

Anyway, time to digest some of the other news stories of recent times.

Twenty-two unwise men
So, Thursday 2 December saw the result that the country had long been waiting for. Or, at least it did if the country concerned was Qatar. Football's world governing body FIFA announced the results of the Cypriot jury, sorry the results from its Executive Committee and the results spelt bad news for the English delegates and media corps. Predictably, the English reaction to a defeat was measured and philosophical, with every tabloid paper exhibiting the kind of imperialist, xenophobic stereotypes one hoped had been wiped out a generation ago.

As the wreckage of England's latest humiliating defeat was surveyed, several post-mortems were carried out as to how exactly England achieved just 2 votes from FIFA's assembled motley crew of 22 men, with one of those votes being cast by England's own representative. Many pointed to the Panorama documentary that the BBC screened just three days before the vote, while others suggested that it was because England's bid presentation was so polished, that FIFA decided to look to a land of Eastern promise, oil and gold reserves to stage the tournament instead.

First things first here. England actually reached the last four in the bidding rights for staging the 2018 competition. On recent form, that is actually progress for England, given that the last time they reached the semis in the World Cup, Nessun Dorma was all the rage and Paul Gascoigne had got too closely acquainted with Onion Bhajis. Maybe if future World Cup bids are decided by an in-house paper, scissors, stone competition, then football coming home will be a shoo-in.

Wisecracking aside, there is no point in applying logic to FIFA's decision making powers. Just as you are advised not to reason with terrorists, there is no point in arriving at a meaningful or logical conclusion in how FIFA makes its decisions, other than to say that the country's approval rating with FIFA appears to be even lower than its approval rating with Eurovision. What we can at least be certain of is that FIFA's decision to award the World Cup to Russia was not made for pure footballing reasons. FIFA made clear that the English delegation made the best technical bid and the strongest presentation, and also identified that the two countries that posed the greatest risk in hosting the tournaments in 2018 and 2022 were Russia and Qatar, the two countries that ended up winning the day. Just like the girl that is always drawn to the bad boys, FIFA clearly like a challenge.

From what I have read and seen of the bidding process, I certainly felt that England presented the strongest business case for hosting the 2018 World Cup. The beautiful game has a rich heritage and tradition within England, with the world's oldest professional club found within these shores and the oldest cup competition being played here too. But in the here and now, England also has the infrastructure and the transport links in place to host such a grand scale sporting event, as well as having most of its stadia already built and spread throughout a wide area of the country. Sure, the cynics will scoff at the transport point and say that the trains will struggle at the first sign of snow or rain, but the point is that in usual circumstances, you can usually travel from one major city at one end of the country to a major city at the other end within a matter of two or three hours. The sport's place within the DNA of English society, factored in with the transport links and purpose-built stadia all appeared to add up to the most robust package in the field.

The English party's attitude to presenting on match day to FIFA's suited and booted seasoned internationals also seemed to tick all the boxes of how to win friends and influence people. The English entourage was strong with more household names than Proctor & Gamble in the room. Their posse was headed up by three wise men comprising the man in charge of the country, a future king of the country, plus two toffs who support Aston Villa. Or I may have got part of that wrong.

Whatever one felt about 'Just Call Me Dave' Cameron devoting three days of his time to supporting the bid by being present in Zurich at a time when there are other pressing concerns closer to home like a faltering economy, student mutiny and Ann Widdecombe's continued presence in Strictly Come Dancing to deal with, it certainly makes a strong statement of intent about the country's seriousness in wanting to stage the tournament. But maybe where messrs Cameron, Beckham and Wales could only detect the sweet smell of success, the FIFA delegates present detected the not so pleasant smell of desperation.

It is worth reiterating what I said at the top that I do not think FIFA's decisions in awarding the tournament in either 2018 or 2022 were made on football related grounds. If they were, then England and Australia appeared to be the strongest candidates for each of those tournaments, with both countries being passionate sporting hotbeds and having purpose-built stadia already in place. However, England secured just 2 votes for 2018, while Australia managed only 1 for 2022.

England's shortage of support in FIFA's corridors of power goes much further back beyond the recent Panorama expose and there is a long historical context, one which sees the same levels of mutual contempt in place as is seen between the United Kingdom and the European Union. Although founded in 1903, FIFA was not graced by English presence until 1950, presumably on the grounds that the old school tie brigade that were in charge of the English FA did not think FIFA had anything to teach them. By this stage, England's absence from FIFA meant they missed out in participating in any of the first 3 World Cup tournaments, participating for the Jules Rimet Trophy.

Relations between England and the world's governing body have always been a little strained, but this has been particularly apparent during the reign of current FIFA President, Sepp Blatter, a man whose innovative ideas for his favourite sport have been unsurpassed given that he once suggested that women footballers should be encouraged to remove their shirts when scoring a goal, while he is continually opposed to introducing any sensible form of goal-line technology. Blatter, however, has a vice like grip on FIFA and it was his words that allegedly saw FIFA's other delegates withdrawing their support for England.

There are those that would argue that England's lack of love in FIFA corridors is due to their perceived arrogance and conceit and that banging on about having invented the game irritates FIFA. There is some truth in this and we have to accept that just because football has a strong heritage in this country, our country does not have the monopoly on heritage, and therefore has no divine right to host the World Cup. As an island nation, we are sometimes insular when it comes to appreciating what other countries bring to the table. However, England’s lack of friends in Geneva’s marbled halls is also due to their lack of dexterity in the dark arts of schmoozing and brown nosing.

The dynamics in FIFA appear to share a number of similarities to those that are in place in a Masonic lodge. Much like the Masons, FIFA’s Executive Committee consists exclusively of middle aged men who appreciate a fine dine and a good wine (and maybe a Bryan Adams summer), especially if they are not picking up the tab. The other parallel that is shared with the Masons is that FIFA tend to operate a closed shop. To be influential in decision making, you need to sit within the inner circle. England currently appear to be situated nearer to the Arctic Circle than the inner circle. In Masonic parlance, England’s World Cup bid was black-balled.

The timing of the Panorama documentary that made allegations of vote rigging and other corrupt practices within FIFA was far from ideal from a bidding point of view. There were even some accusations of the BBC being ‘unpatriotic’ in some quarters. But, surely it is the media’s responsibility to uncover any supposed wrongdoing and corruption in order to name and shame the culprits concerned, rather than to sweep it under the carpet. If the BBC did not report this, they would not be fulfilling their journalistic integrity. And it made more sense for them to air the programme three days before the bid rather than six months before or after because the items it uncovered would have a more powerful impact on its audience, with the programme still fresh in the minds of the viewers when Sepp Blatter was on envelope opening duties in Zurich.

The double edged sword to this, of course, is that certain FIFA delegates may have spent their Monday night watching the documentary and choking on their olives, and even those that found alternative recreation will have been aware of the allegations raised. Against this backdrop, you would have hoped that the evidence that the BBC was fresh, relevant and damning, meaning that the FIFA bigwigs were caught red handed, banged to rights. Sadly, however, the Panorama documentary just covered old ground and the total sum of their investigation was to refer to incidents that occurred ten years earlier and which had been reported before. The journalist reporting his findings, a Scotsman by the name of Andrew Jennings so happened to be someone that had been banned from FIFA's premises because of previous accusations he had made. In terms of hard hitting journalism, this was a long way removed from The Cook Report. So much for not sacrificing journalistic integrity, this was as lame an effort as England's showing in South Africa in the summer from a point-scoring journalist with a grudge. The irony of a Scotsman possibly being responsible for England's World Cup bid failing is richer than Roman Abramovich, Bill Gates and Sir Fred Goodwin all being covered in Black Forest Gateau.

This is not to say that Jennings' fundamental point was wrong, of course. This point being that FIFA are corruptible and accountable only to themselves. If anything, the results of the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments demonstrates this, as does the bidding process itself. First of all, it does not take a quantum physicist or a brain surgeon to understand that by putting two tournaments up for tender in one foul swoop that this increases the potential for corruptibility because it allows for the kind of back-scratching and horsetrading between delegates where deals are done to suit both parties. So for example, Qatari delegate says to Russian delegate 'I will vote for Russia to host the tournament so long as you vote for us to host it in 2022'. The banker on Deal Or No Deal never drives such an easy bargain as that. FIFA's banqueting halls in the days leading up to the big decision will have bore an uncanny similarity to the Deal Or No Deal studio, except for the absence of a self-important, bearded middle aged man wearing a Hawaiian shirt. Or maybe not. Even the man who gave the world Mr Blobby could not surely be as unpopular with the English public as Sepp Blatter.

But just as bad as the blatant opportunity for deal-making that putting two tournaments up for tender in one block presented was the actual configuring of the FIFA Executive Committee that voted on the destination of the World Cups in 2018 and 2022. The 22 men responsible for determining the England bid's fate were made up of gentlemen who came from countries with a vested interest, namely countries that were bidding for the World Cup in either 2018 and 2022. Now, in most professional circles, this is what would generally be regarded as a conflict of interest. How can you have a Committee adjudicating on a decision where they have their own interests being represented? This is akin to a company carrying out a job interview where the head of the interview panel is the drinking companion of one of the interviewees. The interviewer would be obliged to declare an interest in this situation and would have to withdraw from the panel. Why does the same principle not apply to FIFA's management of its Executive Committee? Oh, silly me, I forgot what a self-serving, unaccountable organisation FIFA are.

But it should not be this way. How difficult can it be to appoint the Executive Committee for a term in office once it becomes apparent who the bidding parties will be for the next World Cup that is up for tender? So, for example, let's imagine that the 2026 World Cup attracts bids from England, France, Japan, the United States, plus a joint bid from Bolivia and Venezuela. Once these bids have been confirmed, FIFA can determine that its Executive Committee that decides on the destination of the World Cup hosting sixteen years thus must not be made up of representatives from any of these six countries. As my right honourable friend Alexander the Meerkat would say, 'Simples!'. There are still over 190 other nations that have a FIFA membership from whom the delegation can be drawn and the representatives from these countries can then be free to focus their energies on championing their country's bid. The simplicity of this concept is there for all to see, but the odds of FIFA ever implementing it are about the same as the ones you would get on Frankie Boyle becoming a UN diplomat, or Russell Brand becoming a monk.

So the die has been cast and the decisions made for 2018 and 2022 and where does that leave everybody? Well, Russia is one of the world's great footballing nations and one of the notable absentees from the list of top nations that have hitherto hosted international football's showpiece event. There is no reason why a country that gave the footballing world Lev Yashin, Andrei Arshavin, and some of the great Spartak Moscow sides should not have the World Cup experience in their neighbourhood. There are undoubtedly going to be challenges though, and Russia's ability to cope with these challenges will determine whether it is the right time for it to be staging a major sporting event. Several of Russia's World Cup venues have yet to be built and one hopes that lessons will be learnt from the debacle of this year's Commonwealth Games in Delhi, where parts of the stadium were still being completed days before the competition started. Fortunately for Russia, Poland is a neighbouring country and so obtaining builders should not be problem in an emergency, with Russia's oil oligarchs well equipped to pay above the minimum wage.

There are two greater issues for Russia to address, however. Firstly is its transport infrastructure. Russia is a vast country and whereas if the World Cup had been held in England then this would enable anyone to travel to one part of the country to another within a couple of hours, then the greater expanse of the largest country in the world by land area means a greater reliance on internal flights in order for players, officials and journalists to get from one venue to another. The concern that this need raises is the recent safety record among Russian air carriers, and most notably, its national carrier Aeroflot. Traditionally, Aeroflot used to be the butt of bar-room jokes in the same way that Skoda used to attract one liners about the quality of its cars. But whereas the input of German engineering has meant that Skoda jokes no longer ring true, concerns persist about Aeroflot and there have been several air crashes in Russia within the past five years which have resulted in fatality. The pressures of hosting a major event will only test Russia's aviation resources further and so clearly things will need to improve within the next seven and a half years, otherwise the potential for a tragedy is prominent, unless people decide that the Trans-Siberian Express is their preferred method of transport.

The social attitudes of some backward thinking natives is also a problem that cannot be swept under the carpet. The West Bromwich Albion forward Peter Odemwingie is testament to this. Odemwingie is a Nigerian international of Uzbek birth and prior to carrying out his day job in the West Midlands, he previously turned out for Lokomotiv Moscow, one of several notable club sides that play in the Russian capital. Despite a respectable return of 21 goals in 75 appearances, it appears that a section of Lokomotiv supporters were not disappointed by Odemwingie's departure to the land of Balti Pie and Lenny Henry, given that in Lokomotiv's next match following his move, a number of supporters unfurled a banner saying 'Thanks West Brom', accompanied by the image of a banana. Such attitudes are fortunately few and far between in the United Kingdom these days outside of the BNP's garden party, but this is sadly far from an isolated example of racial intolerance in Russia, although they are far from the only country where social understanding is backward. In the past few months there have been examples of racist chanting and behaviour at football matches in Italy, Serbia and Poland. This is particularly concerning in the latter's case given that they will be co-hosting the European Championships in less than 2 years from now.

The cynical side of me thinks, however, that Russia's social attitudes and one-dimensional thinking will not have a major bearing on the 2018 tournament for one very simple reason. Not many Russians will be in a position where they can afford to attend World Cup matches. A significant percentage of the tickets for World Cups end up in the hands of the corporates. Attending World Cup matches is a beany for the employees of the sponsors, the Coca-Colas, Fuji Films and Philips of this world, a modern day team building alternative to an afternoon on the golf course or orienteering in the nearest forest. Whether the corporates find attending Russia an enticing prospect is another matter. What is more likely than racist chanting blighting the World Cup in eight years time is that mouth-watering international contests will get played out in front of rows of empty seats, particularly in the more remote venues staging matches.

The potential for empty seats is only going to be increased four years later when the World Cup bandwagon moves on to Qatar. As a country situated in the middle of the Arabian desert, it will come as no surprise that the consumption of alcohol in Qatar is illegal and any contravention of the local laws will result in a permanent and painful forfeit for the consumer. While this might appear like a good strategy for keeping football hooligans away from the tournament, it will also deter a lot of genuine football supporters as well as the corporately entitled from travelling, given that having ready and available access to suitable liquids before and after the match is an essential part of the matchday experience, particularly for supporters travelling from the lager belt countries in central Europe.

There is then the interesting dilemma of whether to stage the tournament in the Qatari summer or the Qatari winter. What a quandary to weigh up! If the World Cup is staged during the summer months, as is tradition, then the temperature outside the stadia will be unbearably hot, possibly in excess of 40 degrees Celsius, even if the stadia themselves happen to be specially air conditioned. Alternatively, FIFA's masterplan to combat this meterological inconvenience would be to stage the tournament in the middle of winter, probably in January. A curious idea given that this would mean playing the tournament midway through most Western European countries' domestic season. One imagines that the Arsenal and Manchester United managers of 2022 will be somewhat overcome by apoplectic rage at the prospect of their players being taken away for a month halfway through a season to accommodate a World Cup. Already club managers are unhappy when they lose African players for a month every two years when the African Cup of Nations is held at a time when the local weather is not oppressive.

Then there is the issue of legacy. It is widely believed that FIFA like to make their decisions on World Cup hosts based upon where staging the tournament can leave lasting social benefits to the hosts and allow the country develop as a footballing nation. This is a somewhat flawed notion, however, in the case of Qatar given that most of the purpose-built stadia that are being constructed specifically to stage the World Cup are going to be demolished soon after the 2022 tournament's end. Far from leaving a legacy, this smacks of desperate short-termism. Would it not make sense to retain the stadia in order to stage further international sporting events? The World Club Championship perhaps, or even staging other sports such as the World Athletics Championships. Building a stadium to be used for just one month only to then bulldoze it straight afterwards seems like a criminal waste, especially at a time when much of the world is experiencing austerity.

As with the Olympics, it is only right that the World Cup is taken around the world so that all figurative corners of the globe are able to have opportunity to sample a sport that provides a common link and language across borders, races and religions. Football's ability to transcend these multinational boundaries is real and can unite otherwise disparate groups of people. But this does not mean that the tournament hosts should be exempt from meeting the practicalities of hosting a major event, and ultimately the decision on where to stage an event should be reached purely on the basis of which country presents the strongest business case and has the most robust package in place. Given that England and Australia already have the majority of their stadia built and have comparatively advanced transport, amenities and communications already in place, their cases appeared to be the strongest. So their shortage of friends when the votes were cast tells you that FIFA's decisions are concluded through political bargaining far more than they are through meritocracy.

This is frustrating and disappointing, but there is little that can be done. England are paying for years of being the white sheep amongst the brown-nosers and back-slappers at the top table, but they cannot just quit FIFA and keep their own counsel. Sure, there are countries that do not have FIFA membership, but playing regular matches against Greenland, Vatican City and Western Sahara is not going to be enough of a sufficiently lucrative prospect to keep the public interested in international football. England supporters want to see their team play against France, Germany, Brazil and Argentina, and these countries are never going to resign from FIFA. Whatever way you look at it, FIFA hold all the cards because however much they treat England like some chewing gum on the sole of the Governor's shoe, England still need FIFA far more than FIFA need England.


Chris fits the bill as Apprentice
This blog is usually suitably under-whelmed by the excess column inches and media output devoted to televisual reality shows. Not least because, in whose universe do they deem that such shows are reality? There is, however, one glorious exception in this genre, namely the BBC's self-proclaimed 'job interview from hell', The Apprentice. This weekend sees the climax of the sixth series of the unofficial idiot's-guide-of-how-not-to-conduct-business and has seen something of a return to form for the programme, after a couple of years where the format was becoming increasingly stale and the candidates were becoming less credible.

This series, however, has been one of the more memorable ones. I would say that the alumni of series 2 or series 3 probably remain the best and most entertaining to date, but this year's crop are certainly an improvement on many of the candidates that participated in series 4 and 5. That is not to say that the series has been devoid of the deluded and the dim-witted types that make the series an entertainment programme rather than a business educational supplement. But there has been a fine balance between the moments of stupidity and hilarity and also the moments of genuine inspiration. The clever editing can, of course, paint a caricature highlighting the moments of weakness demonstrated by the candidates and ignoring some of the hard graft which may be commendable, but which does not make for entertaining television. But on reflection, it certainly seems as though the calibre of candidates in this latest series has gone up a notch from some of the previous terms.

As with every series of the programme, there was a pantomime villain and this year it was the turn of Isle of Man telecoms entrepreneur, Stuart Baggs. Baggs set a record this year by being the youngest ever candidate to enter the senior version of the show, participating at the age of just 21. Baggs demonstrated throughout the process that he was an alpha male of questionable principles, but setting up a business at the age of 18 showed that he was no entrepreneurial lightweight and this will no doubt have made Lord Sugar identify certain parallels with his own formative years, given that he started his business from scratch at the age of 16. The problem for Lord Sugar you sense is that because his own rags to riches story is so well documented, this results in a lot of candidates trying to pass themselves as his second coming, whereas they are only pale imitators.

Nonetheless, the fruits of Baggs' labours which he claimed was without any financial assistance from his parents certainly seemed to strike a chord with the bearded peer and it resulted in a rare misjudgement from the chief firer. In week 10, an empassioned board room speech from Baggs in which he informed Sugar of how he came to set up his business at an early age saw Baggs defy the odds and retain his place in the competition for the interview stage, resulting in the firing of Liz Locke, the attractive Brummie who had been the favourite to gain employment within the AMS empire until that point. Sugar thought that Baggs' maverick nature and technical expertise would provide him with something that none of the candidates had, but it would only take a week for him to realise the error of his ways.

In week 11, the traditional interview roasting took place from Lord Sugar's quartet of troubleshooting Rottweilers, including the welcome return of former aide Margaret Mountford. As well as Margaret's return, the ankle-biter in chief amongst Sugar's cross examiners was his one-time global troubleshooter Claude Littner, a man seemingly with such limited personality that its totality could be stored in a tin of fish paste. And on the subject of fish, Littner provided the memorable line of 'You're not a big fish, you're not even a fish' in response to messr Baggs' assertion that he was a major player in the telecoms business. Further revelations about the questionable status of Baggs' telecoms licence that he had advertised on his CV culminated in a boardroom explosion from Sugar amid the realisation that he had fired the wrong candidate the previous week, resulting in Baggs' sudden but overdue expulsion from the competition.

Baggs' extended stay and Miss Locke's premature departure aside, it has to be said that Lord Sugar's finger has been on the pulse throughout this series with pretty much all of his other firings being spot on and the other four candidates rightly making the interview stage. His decision on the two candidates to put through to the final was also a close call, but on reflection, it would seem like he made the correct decisions again. Property developer Jamie Lester marked himself down as an early favourite to win the candidacy, but his performance seemed to regress as the series wore on while some of his competitors saw their trajectory head in the other direction. Lester is certainly a strong negotiator and salesman, as one would expect from someone who honed their skills in the real estate business, but he seemed to lose his focus at times.

Then there was Joanne Riley, a 25 year old proprietor of a cleaning business from Leicester. Riley, by her own admission, was no scholar and her lack of business acumen became evident during the interview process when she struggled to identify Lord Sugar's main business interests. Riley, however, did show how The Apprentice can be a force for good for its participating candidates by improving significantly throughout the duration of the process. She started out as mouthy and over-opinionated and rather defensive due to her insecurities about her own background. But she also demonstrated that she was nobody's fool and seemed to work hard to take on board any feedback she received from the board. Riley was not a strong enough candidate to win the apprenticeship, but she left with a different perspective on her career, with Lord Sugar advising her to persist with growing her own business.

So to the final two. As quite often seems to be the case with The Apprentice, the two finalists are polar opposites. One male, one female. One born with a silver spoon in their mouth, the other born with a plastic spoon in theirs. One a twenty-something with only nine months work experience since graduating from university. The other a thirty-something with ten years experience of climbing the corporate ladder having left school with no qualifications. In a lot of ways this final particularly reminds me of the series 3 final that was contested between posh graduate Simon Ambrose and the Irish Account Manager with a difficult upbringing, Kristina Grimes. On that occasion it was Ambrose that prevailed.

Assuming the Ambrose role this time is posh graduate Chris Bates, while up against him assuming the Kristina Grimes role is Stella English, who to an untrained eye bears a slight resemblance to a young Amanda Redman, the star of geriatric detective series, New Tricks. Bates' place in the final looked like a long shot in the early stages of the process given that he was on the losing team in five out of the first seven tasks, being brought back into the boardroom and into the line of fire on more than one occasion. This point was not lost on Lord Sugar, who advised the Politics graduate to buck his ideas up. Bates certainly seemed to do this and he will have particularly impressed Sugar on the week 10 tourism task where he took a calculated risk in his negotiation with the London Tourist Centre, given them a 20 per cent cut of all revenue his team made, much to his colleagues' disgust. That this was a gamble was unquestionable and had it gone wrong, Bates could well have ended up getting fired, but Sugar himself will know that entrepreneurship is about taking risks to be successful and this risk was gloriously successful. It was a smart move on his part and he has demonstrated in previous tasks that he has a good business brain and does not shirk his responsibility when it comes to the hard sell either.

Bates' obvious weakness is his monotonous presentational style which has been highlighted more than once during the process, but this in itself is not going to hold him back. The winner two years ago, Lee McQueen, was an even worse presenter but that did not prevent him from being hired. The clue is in the title of the programme, it is to be expected that there are some items that will need to be ironed out in the event of employment being taken up.

His opponent in the final task, Stella English, has consistently performed well throughout the course of the series, despite having to fend off accusations of being wooden, cold and corporate. Some of these accusations are natural and have a grain of truth about them. The Londoner's background as an employee of a Japanese investment bank for some ten years means that she is used to an institutionalised, corporate culture. But it is also worth highlighting that her employers have effectively created roles for her, thereby recognising her importance and abilities. She has also shown a certain steeliness about her during the process and it would appear that she has kept a certain amount of distance between herself and her competitors. But, as she acknowledged herself, she is not there to win friends, she is there because she is ambitious and wants to gain employment in the Sugar empire.

It is worth remembering how well Stella did when managing a team of disorganised, in-fighting men during the second week of the process and her task-focused approach produced the desired result with her team winning the task. But she has also been equally adept at working hard when she has not been Team Leader, coming out of her natural comfort zone when being a tour guide in week 10 and also acting as a beachwear model in one of the other tasks. 'Taking one for the team' as one of the other candidates put it does not appear to be a problem for her if it is a means to an end. Apart from being typecast as robotic, she does not appear to have many points of weakness other than not being the most natural salesperson or negotiator. This was demonstrated in the purchasing task where she bought items for a higher price because she did not barter effectively, which led to her team losing the task.

The final task sees both candidates having to pitch an idea for a new brand of alcoholic drink, targetting adults aged over 25. Given that one of the candidates is called Stella, this seems like an unfair advantage! On the surface, it seems like there is little to choose between the two candidates and the performance on the final task could end up having a bearing on who wins the whole shooting match. However, I can see Chris being a better fit for Sugar's organisation, which is why I make him favourite to win. He is that much younger than Stella and has a comparatively short business career behind him, whereas Stella has worked under one organisational culture for ten years and will require more of an adjustment to then acclimatise to Sugar's enterprises, which will be far removed from the corporate setup that Stella will have experienced working in a bank.

Chris will be prone to mistakes and will sometimes need to be reined in from his instincts, but he has shown that he is able to produce results when working independently. The only question mark that Sugar may have is whether he would be using this as a career stepping stone, seeing him move on within a year to something more lucrative. But I would not think this would deter Sugar from hiring him, and for much the same reason as Simon Ambrose won the third series, I expect this vintage sixth series to close with Chris Bates taking the honours.


Music on television striking a low note
Flicking the channels one Sunday night recently, I stumbled across the Strictly Come Dancing results show, featuring the television presenter I like to call the bookcase, Claudia Winkleman. This epithet I have provided is not because I imagine Eve Pollard's doe-eyed daughter to be an avid user of a bibliotheque, but more that her presentational style is decidedly, well, wooden. But I digress. What was more disturbing than Claudia's apparent difficulty at even uttering her own name without referring to the autocue was the choice of musical guest as the antipasta to the succulent main course of Anne Widdecombe finally being asked to leave the dancefloor. Given that such light entertainment, family oriented shows usually see musical interludes from such accomplished music legends as James Blunt, Michael Buble and Jamie Cullum, I had to do a double take when I realised who was performing. Surely not it couldn't be. I must be hallucinating. This must be my imagination. But no, no it really is them. There in the flesh, on Sunday primetime television on a dancing programme performing their new single was.....THE MANIC STREET PREACHERS!!!

This was no wind-up, this was for real. The Welsh dragons on the drumkit was the telltale sign that here on a family light entertainment show designed for the mainstream was a band who once wanted to start revolutions and rebellions and tear down the walls held up by the mainstream and their MOR preferences. How can it be that this band of musical revolutionaries, who have done more to put the voice of protest into musical form than arguably any other British band of the past two decades, found themselves resorting to plugging their new single in the company of Eastenders cast-offs and professional dancers, and to a watching television audience consisting in no small number of people from the blue rinse brigade?

On one level, this development was just indicative of the ageing process. John Lydon was once uncouth simply for the sake of keeping down with the kids. These days his uncouthness is presented on demand for the purposes of product placement in exchange for a pile of paper with the head of the woman he once condemned in punk prose. Paul Weller was once an angry young man that challenged the elite with such anthemic attacks on the privileged classes as 'Eton Rifles' but in later years, his sound has become more soothing and mellow, much like the musical equivalent of Horlicks. The Manics have been in the business for 20 years as men and boys and messrs Bradfield and Wire are now at a stage where Saga holidays in the Brecon Beacons are looming on the horizon, while jolly boys' outings to Llandudno are becoming a hazy memory.

But there was a more practical reason for the Manics' purposeful selling out to the mainstream. Music television as a platform is a very limited and disjointed medium in the current climate. Back in the day, it was much more simple than this. Band would get airplay on Radio 1 and would get in the charts. Band would then put themselves out in the public consciousness further by performing on Top Of The Pops. These days, competition for places in the charts is fiercer than ever due to the vast amount of choice available through downloading media, be it iTunes, Spotify or whoever else you care to mention. It only takes an advertising campaign which uses a certain song to get that back into the public's consciousness and it can re-enter the charts. Failing that, some out-of-tune wannabe that attracts the support of Louis Walsh can commit falsetto homicide on the X-Factor and propel the original, previously long forgotten track back into the charts. And then at this time of year, there is always the seasonal effect that sees people getting merry on the sherry and coming under the influence while in control of iTunes, resulting in the wholesale purchase of Christmas novelty songs.

Nowadays, the range of choice in terms of radio stations mean that promoting a new single via that medium is that much harder simply because people's listening pleasures are much more diverse, whereas once upon a time music radio's audience would essentially be drawn from two national stations, plus one commercial radio station in the local area. Getting the requisite attention in an ever more competitive music chart has become much harder and this has meant that bands and musicians have had to make themselves available to appear in settings that they would never have dreamt as being an option even five years ago.

The lack of specialist music platforms available to recording artists on terrestrial television is a rather disturbing development at present and it means that children and teenagers in particular are being deprived the opportunity of seeing many of the genuine stars of recorded music, while being subjected to the artificial side of the music industry. Think back a decade and television had several music oriented programmes, most notably with Top of the Pops, but also including the ITV Chart Show, TFI Friday, Friday Night With Jonathan Ross and Later with Jools Holland. Jools remains to this day and his show is fantastic at managing bring together artists and transcending traditional music genres, but the problem is that his show is not on every week of the year. When the Crown Jools of music television is off air (you've got to appreciate what I did there!) there are few other music platforms available, other than T4 and the Album Chart Show on Channel 4. How, and more pertinently why has music television eaten itself up in this way?

The simple answer to this appears to be a case of short-term thinking by television executives. It was the men in grey suits that deemed that Top Of The Pops had come to the end of the road because of consumer buying habits and falling ratings. Yet, there was a much simpler explanation for Top Of The Pops' falling ratings, namely that it was being scheduled at the wrong time. The programme was habitually screened at 7:30 on a Friday night, in direct competition with Coronation Street on ITV1. Given that Corrie has generally been the first or second highest rated television programme for the vast majority of the past two decades, it stands to reason that the BBC's flagship programme was taking a kicking in the ratings. Had it not occurred to the schedulers that simply moving the programme to another night or another time might have made more sense? Wednesday night at 7:00 maybe, or even run the programme as a live show on a Sunday night an hour after the charts have aired on Radio 1 and that way the chart news would be hot off the press and would make the programme feel fresh. Top Of The Pops typically returns twice a year over Christmas and New Year, including its special Christmas Day episode that prefixes the Queen's Speech. It will not take Paddy Power to identify that this episode will poll high in the Christmas ratings list.

The absence of specialist music television shows dedicated to live performances means that established acts have to be more creative and accommodating about where they go to perform their new material and this is beginning to result in credible acts performing their latest numbers in the most curious of settings. For the Manics in the Strictly studio, read also KT Tunstall performing on the Andrew Marr Show and Daybreak. This is perhaps less of a concern for upcoming acts who are more technology savvy in using the likes of YouTube, Twitter and MySpace in order to publicise their material and live performances. But it would seem myopic to believe that just because social media platforms are available that more conventional media should become redundant for the purposes of performing live music.

There is a real possibility that a whole new generation of the British public will grow up and only see live music segments performed on the likes of the X-Factor and as a short interlude on gentle, breezy chat programmes where the material cannot be too edgy in case it frightens the horses, or wakens Alan Titchmarsh from his almost permanent comatosed state. This seems like a terrible waste because the likes of TFI Friday were once programmes where the audience could discover previously untapped gems. The equivalent programmes in 2010 are conspicuous by their absence and only serves to prove that the major media platforms are obsessively concerned with bending over to meet the demands of advertisers and grabbing the all-important ratings, regardless of whether they are removing the contents of their network's soul at one and the same time.