By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter
@Siwri88
The finest
talent in British and international music gathered at the 02 Arena in London on
Wednesday night (19 February) for the biggest night in the music industry. The
2014 BRIT Awards provided some great live performances and memorable
collaborations in a show that revived the sparkle that had evidently been
missing 12 months earlier.
Rudimental
and Bastille came together with one of the finest BRIT partnerships live on
stage, whilst there were also live gigs from Ellie Goulding, Bruno Mars, the
Arctic Monkeys and Pharrell Williams.
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| It was a brilliant night for the Arctic Monkeys who scooped two awards |
On the awards
front, it was Arctic Monkeys (pictured above) who were the big winners. Not only did they open
the show in grand fashion, they walked off with two awards including the
prestigious MasterCard British Album of the Year. To no-one’s surprise, One
Direction also won two more BRITS to their collection but despite earning four
nominations, Disclosure walked away with nothing. There were acts as young as
17 and as old as 67 also collecting these prestigious gongs.
Corden’s final farewell
This was the
final year that the BRITS were to be hosted by James Corden. Having hosted the
show for four years on the bounce, he decided to step aside back in November
from 2015 onwards. Corden arrived on stage to introduce the evening’s
entertainment with his sleeve on fire (pictured below) in a stunt which was clearly part of the
opening act by Arctic Monkeys. He did try to blame their pyrotechnics but
no-one was falling for that.
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| James Corden's final ceremony as host began with his sleeve on fire! |
The actor and presenter who is best known for his roles in Gavin & Stacey and A League of Their Own
kept everything together, although his mucking around with Radio 1 DJ Nick
Grimshaw was unnecessary. Nevertheless while he is replaceable, there will be
something odd about Corden not hosting the BRITS anymore.
First award
of the night went to the sensational Ellie Goulding. She deservedly picked up
Best British Female Solo Artist and later went on to put in a fiery rendition
of her two most familiar songs in the last 12 months; ‘Burn’ and ‘I
Need Your Love.’ Fellow beaut Katy Perry produced the most colourful
performance of the night. She gave an electrifying performance of new single ‘Dark
Horse’ in an electrifying outfit. However she was beaten to the
International Female Solo Artist by New Zealander Lorde, who is one of the
BRITS youngest winners at just 17.
50 years her
senior and David Bowie won Best British Male Solo Artist. The 67-year-old was
not in attendance to collect the accolade and it was left to model Kate Moss to
provide an acceptance speech on his behalf. The speech included references to
Scotland going to the polls later this year in a bid for independence. It had
no relevance to the night’s performances and his view could have been saved for
another day and another time.
The loo is important!
Now when a
male normally needs to go to the toilet, he must go! However, the timing of
this can sometimes be a bit off and the ladies’ favourite Harry Styles
certainly got his timings totally out of joint.
Whether he
was in a long queue, having a private moment or tying John Terry up to stop him
stealing another award is irrelevant, he had to dash back onto stage when he
found out that One Direction had won the Global Success award for a second
successive year. With 11.5m in global sales and a box office movie in the last
year, this award was extremely predictable. The boyband were back later in the night
to collect the inaugural award for Best British Video, which was voted by users
of the social media giant Twitter. The video was for ‘Best Song Ever’ and this
time; Harry actually made it onto stage without needing to visit the cubicles!
Bruno Mars
regained the International Male Solo Artist award he last won two years ago,
before putting in an uneventful live performance. Flying in especially for the
event was another popular American in Beyoncé, who did put in a classy
performance.
Listeners of
BBC Radio 1 supported and voted for the highly acclaimed British Breakthrough
award. There were a series of live lounges the week before from the five
contenders and eventually, the fiercely competitive award saw Bastille coming
out on top. Their album ‘Bad Blood’ was the most downloaded
album of the last 12 months.
Clever collaborations
The first
collaboration of the night was from Lorde and Disclosure who put in a unique
performance together for the first time. It was a clever routine, even if it
lacked the fireworks of other live acts on the night.
An even
better collaboration and far more catchy was the one from Rudimental and
Bastille. It is so popular; it is currently in the top 10 of the iTunes music
chart this week. It was a good evening for Rudimental. They won Best British
Single for ‘Waiting All Night’ which is their first BRIT award and if the evidence
of the last calendar year is anything to go by, the first of many.
Arctic
Monkeys won Best British Group for a third time which was a great award for
them to win, considering those popular lads from One Direction were nominated.
The biggest award though was the last, as the Arctic’s album ‘AM’
held off stiff competition from Bastille, Rudimental, Disclosure and David
Bowie to win the MasterCard Album of the Year. The other award winner was Sam
Smith, who had been confirmed last month as winner of the Critics’ Choice for
2014. It will be interesting to see if he can follow in the footsteps of
previous winners ADELE, Florence & the Machine and Emeli Sande. The show
was closed by Pharrell Williams and music icon Nile Rodgers.
Despite huge
social media following with over four million messages on Twitter, TV viewing
figures were disastrous, both for the organisers and for ITV. A measly 4.6m
tuned in to watch – the lowest ratings since the show went live back in 2007.
While the
evening might have lacked controversy, it was a strong show with some superb
live music mixed in with the usual awards ceremony. The BRITS will continue to
get people talking for many years to come.
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