Much Much Better

After last year’s fiasco where Sugababes and Girls Aloud were overlooked in favour of James Blunt, Katie Melua and Westlife for the Best Pop Category, U2 were nominated for the same album the 2nd year in a row and Paul Weller received an Outstanding Contribution to British Music, I wasn’t exactly overly-optimistic about this year’s Brit Awards nominations.

But surprisingly, glaring omissions and ridiculous nominations are few and far between. And the redundant Best Pop, Urban and Rock categories have also thankfully fallen by the wayside. Just a shame that Russell “hilarious on BBBM but humourless on anything else” Brand will be presenting it. Below are my predictions with who I think will win in bold. The international categories to come tomorrow.

Best British Male Solo Artist
James Morrison
Jarvis Cocker
Lemar
Paolo Nutini
Thom Yorke

So Robbie Williams gets award after award for releasing MOR drivel like Sing When You’re Winning and Escapology but gets completely ignored when he produces the most inventive, if albeit, inconsistent album of his career. Also surprised to see The Streets miss out as well. Especially when you see that Lemar, and two James Blunt knock-offs have made it. It’d be great to see either Thom Yorke, who did the rare thing of making a solo album actually different to his group’s output, or Jarvis Cocker, nominated for the first time since 1996, win it but I’m afraid it will surely go to James Morrison.

Best British Female Artist
Amy Winehouse
Corinne Bailey Rae
Jamelia
Lily Allen
Nerina Pallot

A much stronger category than the males, Winehouse, Bailey Rae or Allen would usually walk this in any other year but it’s been such a strong year for British females with all three having either #1 singles or albums. Winehouse’s current #1 album couldn’t be better timed and Back in Black will probably stand the test of time more than Alright Still but considering Allen’s received three other nominations, I think it’ll be her night. Great to see Nerina Pallot receive a nomination, if a token one, too.

Best British Album
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Lily Allen - Alright Still
Muse - Black Holes & Revelations
Snow Patrol - Eyes Open

Winehouse and Allen can be written off already as for some reason females never win this thing. The Monkeys are a strange one. Their album was released before last year’s Brits but too late to be nominated. So this nomination is for an album which feels like it was released light years ago. But can The Brits ignore their colossal achievement? I think they might. This award usually goes to the biggest seller, see Travis, Coldplay, Keane and I think Snow Patrol will end up with their first ever Brit.

Best British Band
Arctic Monkeys
Kasabian
Muse
Razorlight
Snow Patrol

You would think that the winner of the Best British Album would automatically get the Best British Group but the last two years, Coldplay and Kaiser Chiefs, and Keane and Franz Ferdinand have had to share the spoils. And I think it’ll happen again this year. I’d love Muse to get it and I do think they have an outside chance but I just can’t see them not rewarding the Arctic Monkeys at least once.

Best British Breakthrough Act
Corinne Bailey Rae
The Fratellis
James Morrison
The Kooks
Lily Allen

The Fratellis. Ugh. The worst nomination by far in the whole list. And I think they’ve got a decent chance of winning too. Considering it’s voted for by Radio 1 listeners, I don’t think the solo artists have the kind of fanbases to bother to vote. Which is why I think The Kooks, who I actually thought would have been up for Best Band and Album will win the only award they’re nominated for.

Best British Live Act
George Michael
Guillemots
Kasabian
Muse
Robbie Williams

A very strange award. You can listen to every album that’s been released last year, but you can’t go and see every act who tours. And how can you compare the old-skool "rock n roll" of a Kasabian show to the over-produced theatre of a Robbie Williams one. Anyway, I'm surprised to see George Michael nominated as from the clips I’ve seen, his live show looked completely soulless. Muse will surely deservedly walk this one for the second time in three years.

This Week's Singles

Quality not quantity seems to be the theme of this week's new singles with a rather small selection to choose from but several key releases from acts tipped to be big in 2007.

First up though, is one of last year's mild success stories, The Ordinary Boys. Preston may have had a sense of humour bypass (seriously, who goes on Never Mind The Buzzcocks and doesn't expect to have the piss taken out of them) but the slightly corny "I Luv You" (***) is rather charming although it's unlikely to reverse the fortunes of its almost Victoria Beckham-like parent album chart run.

JoJo returns after a three year absence with "Too Little Too Late" (***) a track which follows exactly the same R&B verses, guitar pop chorus formula as her first single but is still far preferable and less pretentious than any of her contemporaries have managed lately. Looks like it could be #1 next week.

Her main challenger will be "Starz in Their Eyes" (****) by Just Jack, which may be another rather patronising tirade against reality pop shows but whose Streets goes pop sound could be one of the most intriguing this year and is indeed the Single of the Week.

Much less palatable is the similar Jamie T, a self-proclaimed street poet whose bizarre accent renders "Calm Down Dearest" (**) almost unlistenable.

The Good, The Bad and The Queen seems like Damon Albarn's 56th side project but on the evidence of "Kingdom of Doom" (*) is as aimless and pointless as Gorillaz are inventive and innovative.

Last and definitely least is The View, who look like they're going to be this year's The Kooks. Which is not a good thing. "Same Jeans" (*) is yet more ramshackle student indie with not an original thing about it.

Is This The Best You Can Do?

Just when you thought no show could ever beat last year's Love Island for the most Z-list casting of a reality show, along comes Celebrity Big Brother 2007, with 11 rather depressing and mostly unknown dregs of celebrity society.

Has anyone ever heard of Danielle Lloyd? Donny Tourette? Shilpa Shetty? Is this really the best BB can do. Even someone who was once an extra on Eldorado has more entitlement to be called a celebrity.

Anyway from the launch night show, Jo O'Meara seems quite nice, and honest too. She definitely should have slapped the increasingly awful Davina McCall for cynically asking her whether she would release a record after BB. Why shouldn't she? Does Davina really think anyone else is n there for anything other than money, fame or career resurrection?

I know this is a horrible thing to say but I wouldn't be surprised if we had our first Big Brother death with Ken Russell in the house. Surely putting someone in who looks like he's going to keel over even before he enters the house is a bad and irresponsible move.

I'm undecided about H. Sometimes, I admire his constant enthusiasm for everything but most of the time I find it just plain irritating. And his "coming out" to The Sun was the most unnecessary confession of all time. Talking of enthusiasm, Leo Sayer has it in abundance - in fact you wouldn't be surprised if he turned out to be H's dad.

Carole Malone really is the most spiteful woman on the planet and I'm quite looking forward to her getting a taste of her own medicine over these next few weeks. Unfortunately, she came across as quite nice last night, but I'm 100% sure that was just put on.

People called Preston and Maggot for being unknown but at least they'd had hit records. Which is more than can be said for Donny from Towers of London. I'd like to think he's some kind of ironic Dennis Pennis-style character who's really a sweet mummy's boy underneath but I'm not sure he's that clever. But surely no-one can be that much of a cliche?

I can see Dirk Benedict having the same kind of ironic cult status as David Hasselhoff has had recently, and if I was a betting man, would probably put some money on him to win.

Elsewhere, Danielle Lloyd already out-dumbs Jade Goody for not knowing who Winston Churchill is, Shilpa is beautiful but looks like she could be a bit of a diva, Clea Rocos seems like fun, and I'd be very surprised if Jermaine Jackson doesn't quit within a week.

Not Exactly Worth The Wait

How disappointing was last night's This Life special? The original two series were unmissable ground-breaking TV at its best but the ten year reunion lacked any of its humour, realism or originality.

Why did they have to introduce the whole documentary element to it? Couldn't they have just had the reunion in normal circumstances. It was a plot device which was far-fetched, (why would anyone be interested in watching a bunch of smug 30-somethings meet up?) stretched any credibility (would every single person really be completely comfortable in revealing their innermost thoughts to a camera?) and created a rather pretentious, "too knowing" atmosphere to the whole thing.

The characters, with the exception of Milly, had all become so hateful as well. Miles and Egg always had arsehole tendencies, but they were quite likeable arseholes. Now, they're just arseholes. Warren was a walking gay cliche and Anna came across as pitiful and bitter rather than the ballsy "don't give a shit" character she was previously.

There were a few redeeming qualities - the mid 90s soundtrack was excellent -the scene where they were all dancing around to the Manics' "A Design For Life" was actually quite poignant, Milly and Egg's relationship was as real as ever, and I liked the fact it didn't really have a proper ending.

But ultimately, it left you a bit cold. They would have definitely been better off leaving it at Milly punching Rachel all those years ago.