Pick at the pops: 25 February 2008

Our weekly round-up of the weird and wonderful world of pop music...

The pop newswires buzzed with Brits this week, as hordes of undeserving artists trooped off open-mouthed with bewildering awards. Even though she didn’t grab one herself, Scots rockster KT Tunstall was particularly excited about meeting Take That at the bash, gushing that Mark Owen once chucked her a pound coin when she was a 19-year-old busker in Edinburgh. And she jolly well should’ve been grateful – that quid was the sum total of Mark’s solo royalties.

Despite snaffling the prizes for Live Act and Single, Take That themselves weren’t so overjoyed on the night. Here’s the studiedly unshaven Gary Barlow: “It’s amazing that when the public get to vote we always do well… but it gets to me that whenever we have been nominated for other awards we always get overlooked. It’s a disgrace.” A harsh man might call the public idiots, but on a night when the Foo Fighters bagged a couple of awards for Making No Memorable Records In The Last Decade But Isn’t Dave Grohl A Nice Chap? or something, Gazza might’ve had a point.

Rather more happy with the night was r’n’b princess Rihanna who – in spite of losing out on International Female to the Kylie machine – had a thoroughly nice time duetting with Klaxons on a cacophonous mash-up of her ‘Umbrella’ and their ‘Golden Skans’. “It’s a different tempo and everything,” said Rihanna. Well, quite – about 12 different tempos in each bar, by the sound of it.

Also on the receiving end of a snub this week was Michael Jackson, whose 25th anniversary reissue of Thriller has been consigned by Billboard to the US Catalogue Chart – a mid-price graveyard – even though it features ear-poppingly bad “contemporary” reworkings with various Black Eyed Peas. The Catalogue Chart punishment is the least you deserve, Michael. And the punters of the Winkfield pub in Berkshire, rumoured to be welcoming a reunion of ex-Pink Floyd-ers Roger Waters and Nick Mason at the weekend, were all set for a titanic night of psychedelic prog pop until the news got out. The prospect of 75,000 middle-aged dads descending on the local in jeans and open-necked shirts prompted a swift re-think.

Matthew Horton

• 18/02/2008: Aretha or Tina - just who is the Queen of Soul? >>
• 11/02/2008: We mourn the Spice Girls - again >>
• 04/02/2008: Winehouse and Spears - will the madness end? >>
• 28/01/2008: Oh no! Simply Red and UB40 have split up! >>
• 21/01/2008: Annie Lennox and The Verve won't pave streets >>
• 14/01/2008: Robbie and Coldplay turn on EMI >>
• 07/01/2008: Out with the old, in with the new >>
• 2007 archive >>
• 2006 archive >>