No Rock And Roll Fun

ALMOST AS TOSSY AS THE AWARDS THEMSELVES: There's a dismal piece on the new look BBC News Online about the Brit Awards. For a kick off, it worries that the awards have to be carefully arranged to ensure it doesn't lose credibility in the eyes of 'serious' music fans - which is a bit like suggesting Bush spends time trying to sell his policies to peace-lovers.

What is interesting though is that the slippery question of 'what the fuck is urban?' was judged by Wilber Wilberforce, head of 1Xtra, because the Brits judges didn't have an answer of their own. Genres are pretty slippery things, admittedly, but if nobody really knows what fits under a heading, then how can the heading stand? At least the Brits should have the balls to call the award what it is "The Token Black Person's Award"; better yet, they could open up their voting processes to ensure that all British talent, regardless of race or backing from ITV, stand an equal chance of winning the main awards.

Meanwhile, if Private Eye were pissed off by the hijacking of News At Ten to promote the jacko doco, we'd imagine the next issue will be crackling with rage that last night's edition - already pushed back by the demands of Football and Footballer's Wives, the show that nobody actually watches because they can catch up on the 'shocks' in Heat anyway - was largely given over to puffing The Brits.