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- The Observer, Sunday January 20 2008
To the sound of screaming teens helpfully supplied by the Brit School, the Brit Awards were launched at the Roundhouse in north London on 14 January. But the good cheer often felt forced: according to trade body the BPI, artist albums sales fell by 14.3 per cent last year; and the day after this nominations show, EMI was due to announce aspects of its new business plan, thought by the Roundhouse crowd to involve stinging job cuts. And then there was the announcement of the nominations themselves for the awards show proper (which takes place at Earls Court on 20 February): four for Take That, four for Mika and four for Leona Lewis. Hardly a ringing endorsement of the health of British music. Jeepers - Mark Ronson picked up three nominations and he only barely counts as a Brit, having been brought up in America. The chairman of the Brits Committee, Ged Doherty, admitted to OMM in the bar beforehand that it perhaps hasn't been a vintage year, but still promised a fabulous show next month.
At the launch, a handful of acts played live - the Hoosiers, Bat for Lashes, the Editors - but none thrilled quite as much as 19-year old newcomer Adele. She waved to those down the front - the bussed-in Brit School crowd - with particular enthusiasm because until recently she was a student there herself.
'I went to the Brits, then, too,' she told OMM in her dressing room afterwards, following her peformance of 'Chasing Pavements'. 'It was 2006 - I was down the front for the Kaiser Chiefs; it was brilliant.'
So the Brits aren't desperately uncool? 'God, no!' This year she'll be in the posh seats. 'And I can't wait for the parties afterwards, although I'll probably end up loosing my trousers!'
So some hope there for British music in more than one respect.
Leading the nominations with four apiece were: Take That (British Group, British Live Act, British Album, British Single); Mika (British Male Solo Artist, British Album, British Breakthrough Act, British Single) and Leona Lewis (British Female Solo Artist, British Album, British Breakthrough Act, British Single).
