Brit Awards 2008

Last night was the 2008 Brit awards and in an awards ceremony that ‘celebrated’ the best of pop and rock, it was indie kids Arctic Monkeys who scooped Best British Group and Best British Album. They also won big last year and easily shrugged off the ‘boring’ label handed to them by NME recently.

Richard Hawley was denied Best British Male to Mark “Crimes Against Brass Sections” Ronson but Kate Nash gave Leona Lewis a huge reality check (nominated for four awards but won nothing - proving that she still have the X-Factor tag over her head no matter how hard you work) and got Best British Female ahead of PJ Harvey, KT Tunstall and Bat For Lashes, who should have won.

Radio 1 listeners (Gold bless ‘em) voted Mika Best British Breakthrough Act, again ignoring Bat For Lashes. This made up for the Mark Ronson award but was a slap in the face for Kate Nash - how can the Best British Female miss out on the Breakthrough Act award?

Take That took best live act over the Arctics, Muse and Kaiser Chiefs. This time it was down to Radio 2 to vote, so that explains that one. The newly formed group minus Robbie also won Best British Single for Shine.

Best International Group and Album went to Foo Fighters, who followed up their Grammy success and Bruce Springsteen was again denied by Kanye West as Best International Male. Kylie got the Best International Female ahead of Alicia Keys, Rihanna and more importantly Feist.

Adele took the Critics Choice Award, whatever that means.

The whole event was topped off with the Outstanding Contribution for Sir Paul McCartney.
So Bat For Lashes, Arcade Fire and White Stripes came away with nothing. Thankfully so did Amy Winehouse, Kings Of Leon, Hoosiers and Girls Aloud showing that there is some hope yet.