The Brit Awards—the United Kingdom’s answer to the Grammys—have been going on for 44 years, and it sometimes feels like all of its big, iconic moments are deep in its past. In ’97, Ginger Spice wore the now iconic Union Jack dress for the Spice Girls’ first Brits performance. In ’96 Jarvis Cocker stormed the stage and shook his arse while Michael Jackson sang “Earth Song”. In 2002, Kylie Minogue carved herself into the pop history books with this entrance. Teddy Swims wearing a silly coat just doesn’t have the same effect.
The whole ceremony has felt a little bit too bogged down in the Rag’n’Bone Man of it all (that’s music by and for straight men with beards) for me to get really excited about it. That was, until, they announced they were moving the ceremony to Manchester to freshen things up a bit. So I took the journey—thanks to the kind souls at Warner Music and Hennessy—to see if the British music industry was back.
JOURNEY SOUTH
While everyone else traveled to the ceremony from London to Manchester (South > North), on a plush Pullman train, I was heading in the opposite direction, arriving in Manchester from a trip home to Scotland. The train was packed full of women with their hair in rollers who seemed genuinely excited that a historical, televised event was being held somewhere slightly closer to home. Other passengers gossiped with the conductors about how it was their first time attending. I might not have been in the company of London’s media glitterati, but I *did* eat a tonne of the free biscuits. Here’s what my Transpennine Express train would have looked like if Warner music’s roster had been onboard:
THE COMPANY
My alternative route to Manny meant I wasn’t 100% sure who I’d be spending my evening with, but I was lucky to run into a few familiar faces when I got there, including:
• Lea Ogunlami, iconique presenter and “It Girl” (British Vogue). We go way back.
• Corbin Shaw, the great artist from Sheffield, back up North for the weekend.
• Flora Miles, Corbin’s partner/studio manager, and founder of the print studio flyhaven. She screenprinted every one of those tees worn by Harry Styles’ dancers.
Later, at the Warner Music x Hennessy afterparty, we also brought a few more into the mix:
• Kieron Moore, Manchester actor decked out in Hacienda-esque smiley face Moschino.
• His mate Joe, who once lived with Lea Ogunlami, who makes music under the moniker MASI MASI, and who also has really great hair.
• Archie Madekwe, BAFTA nominee and i-D-approved baddie wearing Shinyakozuka on the night.
• Bez from the Happy Mondays. In the basement club, dancing non-stop in his fabulous exaggerated baker boy cap, he was truly everyone’s friend. <3
BIG SHOW
Anyway, back to the ceremony. The Co-op Live arena (yes it’s named after a supermarket) felt fresher than London’s O2 (yes, that’s a mobile network,) because it opened a year or two ago. I think Harry Styles built it with his own two hands or something. We were sitting in the Hennessy box, in which everyone was well watered. It gave us a good POV of the celebrities on stage, and sitting at their tables on the arena floor:
THAT SURREAL, BRILLIANT ROSALIA PERFORMANCE
The Brit Awards has gone ultra-pop recently, meaning some of the most memorable performances have come from American megastars kindly blessing us with their presence, or celebrating the global breakout of a homegrown artist like Dua Lipa. But we don’t see art up there that much anymore. We got that with Rosalia’s jaw-dropping performance of “Berghain,” complete with a full orchestra, a covert troupe of opera singers-turned-jumpstyle dancers, and a surprise appearance from Bjork. Part of the brilliance came from that choreography, courtesy of cult-y and hot movement collective LA(HORDE), who you should absolutely see do their thing if they come your way. I reached out the morning after to ask them a few Qs, which you can read in full here.
CONSULTING THE CARRIAGE
On the Warner Music x Hennessy chartered Pullman train back home, we ate roast dinner. I wound up in a carriage with the United Nations of British Fashion Media: Lea Ogunlami (an untethered queen, but a mainstay on The Face’s IG), Solomon Pace-McCarrick (Junior Music Writer at Dazed Digital), and Riann Phillip (Associate Features Editor at British Vogue).
What a great group to pose the question: Is British music back?
SP-M: I don’t think British music has ever gone away. But, more importantly, I do think British music is in a great place right now—not just with the moment of arrival Olivia Dean had last weekend, but with the amazing new crop of names we saw break through last year. Jim Legxacy, EsDeeKid, fakemink, Ledbyher, and the rest all point to a really exciting future for UK music. It would have been nice to see that get more recognition at the Brits last weekend.
RP: British music is in a transitional phase. Pop is democratizing it, and I think we have the women to thank for that—Charli, Raye, and Olivia Dean have all helped put the days of Lewis Capaldi and Rag’n‘Bone Man domination behind us (no shade). The kids are keeping fan culture alive; between Jim Legxacy, Esdee, Mink, there’s incredible things happening ‘underground’. But there is still work to be done. When is the UK funky house renaissance coming?
LO: It never left.
