Urgh! The Pet Shop Boys get a lifetime achievement award – why?!
A lifetime of boring pop songs, when there are so many more deserving bands out there.
I know a lot of people like the Pet Shop Boys, but I just don’t get it. I don’t see them as remotely important, and I was surprised to see Brandon Flowers from the infinitely better Killers gushing about them.
I was much, much happier to see Elbow win best band. Well deserved, Elbow have got better with age. There last two albums have been their best and they have been consistently excellent. They write quality songs, are all excellent musicians, and Guy Garvey has one of the best voices in British rock.
Personally, I think they would have been a good shout for best album and best live act too. After all, The Seldom Seen Kid won the Mercury. I’ve seen Elbow live a number of times and they are brilliant. Guy is a funny and engaging front man, and Elbow’s soaring riffs and melodies were meant to be played live. When I saw them at the V Festival in Weston Park, near Stafford, I was blown away. Songs off the first two albums, which I liked, but didn’t think were stand out, sounded fantastic live.
As for Paul Weller winning best British male, not sure about that. I’ve not heard his album, or any new tracks from him. By all accounts he was excellent at the Victoria Hall in Stoke-on-Trent, as he was at Delamere Forest in Cheshire.
But then who is the alternative? Ian Brown hasn’t released anything in a while and other than that: James Blunt I would cheerfully kill, for reasons too numerous to go into here; likewise James Morrison. And who else is there?
As for the rest of the Brits, it all seemed a bit polished yet dull and corporate. The sight of music-criminal Louis Walsh grooving away to the Pet Shop Boys pretty much summed it up.
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