Music Blogs

7.21pm

Having fought my way past vicious door whores, burly bouncers and rabid fans I've finally arrived at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in West London for tonight's Brit Awards. 

The press room is dreary to say the least and the assembled journalists are busy scurrying hither and thither like rodents preparing to bed down for the winter.

On the plus side there's a good supply of sandwiches, tea, coffee and even some free booze. I'm sticking to green tea for now but let's see how the evening progresses.

7.55pm

It's almost started and we're being barked at by a compare who sounds like he's straight out of Butlins. "Are you ready to party?" he screams.

20.10pm

Bam, it's off! U2 waste no time in kicking-off the proceedings with their suspicious new single ‘Get On Your Boots'. What a coincidence they decided to release it on the week of the Brits. Is it just me or is Bono beginning to look like Robin Williams?

Kylie takes the stage with a very short rendition of 'Can't Get You Out of My Head'. A rather giddy looking James Corden and Mathew Horne follow.

Best British Female: It’s the first award, and it’s doled out by a rather nervous looking Simon Pegg. Please don't let the winner be Duffy... the winner is Duffy.

20.31pm

Girls Aloud take to the stage with 'The Promise'. It's another immaculately choreographed performance with the girls being fanned by white-suited male counterparts. Is it just me or should someone have turned the auto-tune on? I definitely heard some duff notes in there. The journalist next to me grumbles "what a dreadful song".

Duffy Wins again. This time it's Best Breakthrough Act presented by a rather dapper looking Alex James. It looks like Duffy's night.

Coldplay take to the stage with Viva La Vida. Chris Martin is flailing around on a podium but delivers a rather lacklustre performance of the song.

20.50pm

British Group: Jamie Cullum and Jamie Oliver present. Is it just me or are there too many James' tonight? The winner is unsurprisingly Paul Weller (William Hill closed their books earlier in the week after a flurry of bets).

It's a good night for Duffy fans as the lady from the valleys performs her hit 'Warwick Avenue'.

21.00pm

We're halfway through and the general consensus is that it's been a pretty dreary show so far. U2, Coldplay and Duffy have failed to dazzle and Corden's jokes appear to have gone over the head of most of the audience. Perhaps the best is still to come.

Kings of Leon win again. This time it's International Album and they dedicate it to the people of Britain god bless them.

21.06PM

Take That descend from a bizarre UFO type thing and steal the show. The boys appear to be wearing singlets with a slit in the middle. This must be the performance of the night.

Another surprise. Iron Maiden win British Live Act. The boys deliver their thanks via a video satelite link-up. The rest of the group stand in the background, giving the impression that the diminutive Bruce Dickinson is the same height as the rest of the band.

It's the Hoff! "I'm still the Hoff" he says and then launches into a speech about how much he loves British music. Finally he delivers the award for Best British Group to Elbow. A seemingly inebriated Guy Garvey takes to mic.

21.13PM

Kings of Leon deliver a reasonable performance of 'Use Somebody' accompanied by a dazzling light show. This is surely the muso's pick of the night.

21.33PM

Kanye West takes the gong for International Male and delivers a suitaby smug speech via a video link.

The Ting Tings and Estelle take to the stage with a super medley mash-up of Shut Up and Let Me Go/American Boy/That's Not My Name. Again the light show is amazing even if the performance is rather pedestrian.

Kylie's changed outfit again. Now she's sporting a rather sparkly green dress. Dazzling.

21.40PM 

Girls Aloud have won British Single. It's their first Brit in six years (have they really been around that long?). "It's the cherry on cake" says an ecstatic Nadine Coyle.

Tom Jones appears looking like a big grey bear and presents ANOTHER award to Duffy. This time it's for British Album. The Welsh songstress almost breaks into tears but struggles on through her speech.

21.49PM

It's the big one. Killers frontman Brandon Flowers presents the Pet Shop Boys with the gong for Outstanding Contribution to Music. He proceeds to launch into an overlong speech and only fluffs the autocue a couple of times.

The Pet Shop Boys suddenly appear and commence with a medley of their greatest hits from over the years. Always On My Mind, Go West, are all present. Ignoring the once again stunning on-stage visuals, the performance doesn't sound unlike a Butlins-esque Pet Shop Boys tribute band.

Cut to Lady GaGa. Is she in drag? Could that be possible? Thankfully her performance is somewhat swift.

Brandon Flowers reappears giving a masterful delivery of West End Girls. The track snaps back to Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe and the curtain comes down.

10.00PM

That's it. The Brit Awards 2009 are over without a hint of controversy or rock and roll shenanigans. In fact it's been a pretty uneventful night on the whole. Take That have clearly stolen the show while the Kings of Leon barely scraped into second place. Except for the odd Craig David joke, Mathew Horne and James Corden were ill received, whilst Kylie was barely present.