Stephen Fry Can Sing? BBC Plan Own Toe-Curlingly Bad Version Of Brit Awards
THE BBC has long eyed up ITV’s pop-cultural weight with envy. ITV has The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent. The BBC have got the rather stuffy Later… with Jools Holland and the even stuffier Strictly Come Dancing.
One big hitter in the TV calendar is ITV’s coverage of the Brit Awards and now, trying to muscle in, the Beeb are launching a rival to it, which will no doubt be like the musical equivalent of the incredibly dry Sports Personality of the Year.
According to Auntie, the BBC Music Awards will be very different to the Brits, and will only have three categories – British Artist of the Year, International Artist of the Year and Song of the Year.
The televised industry do, complete with smatterings of applause and record execs getting the coke in, will feature live performances and all that. With award ceremonies all being junkets for already rich people, there’s going to be some consternation from people who worry about how the BBC spends licence fee money.
John Whittingdale MP, chairman of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, said: “There isn’t enough music on the BBC but the BBC’s job should be to provide a platform for new music and up-and-coming artists who would otherwise not get a lot of coverage. It isn’t to provide another awards show for established artists”.
“There is no shortage of awards shows in the music industry – quite apart from the overseas ones such as the Grammys, there are the Brits and the Ivor Novellos and others recognising specific genres.”
“I’ve not come across anyone complaining that there are not enough music awards shows on television.”
Want the bad news? The show will be presented by Fearne Cotton and Chris Evans. Basically, they’ll going to try and irreverent one off all over each other. Twitter might implode.
The event takes place on December 11th at Earls Court, which just so happens to be the former home of the Brits. It’ll be broadcast on BBC One and, you suspect, will feature all the likely candidates and barely scrape the surface of the new and exciting things that are currently happening in Musicville.
There’s more stuffiness! The ceremony will be produced by Guy Freeman, who was in charge of the BBC’s Diamond Jubilee Concert. Jesus wept.
This ceremony comes on the back of the news that the BBC is sacking a load of people in a bid to save £38 million from their budget. Those made redundant will no doubt be thrilled to hear that Auntie is excited to throw “the biggest musical event on the BBC since Glastonbury”.
Bob Shennan, the BBC’s director of music, says: “It will have ‘BBC’ written through it like a stick of rock. This is our annual moment where we reflect on the year in music through the prism of what we’ve done on the BBC. So it’s a BBC-focused event rather than a purely commercial awards ceremony.”
“This is about us getting BBC One to position a big entertainment show in the music environment. I think for the music industry this very different take will complement perfectly what they do with the Brits.”
You can almost smell the warm pants of trouble already.
Posted: 16th, June 2014 | In: Music Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
