On a quiet, rainy, miserable Tuesday evening in February the thought of watching a couple of hours of live music on tv would seem an attractive proposition to most. This would explain why ITV bagged an audience share of 25% last night with around 6 million viewers tuning to watch James Corden introducing some of the UK’s top acts. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/feb/22/brit-awards-tops-6-million-viewers?newsfeed=true
Based on these kind of viewing figures it begs the question why live music shows such as Top of the Pops or TFi Friday were ever axed……but more of that later. What most people were talking about was not the lovely Coldplay’s opening….nor Noel Gallagher’s keyboard player (Coldplay’s Chris Martin) ……but Adele and her acceptance speech cruelly cut short to enable Blur to perform three songs at the end of the show. (Blur had won the Outstanding Contribution Award – to cheese I think 😉 ) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2104544/BRIT-Awards-2012-Adele-flips-bird-James-Corden-interrupts-speech.html
The award Adele was being presented with, when she was so rudely interrupted, was the ‘British Album of the Year.’ Regarded as the main award of The Brits, the British Album of the Year had been built up right through the ceremony with trailers shown for the nominated artists. George Michael had flown in especially to present the award. The way in which Adele’s acceptance speech was interrupted was quite unprofessional and could have been handled much better by merging Blur’s performance between the ITV1 and ITV2 broadcasts and allowing Adele longer to say her piece.
ITV’s response was ”The BRITs is a live event. Unfortunately the programme was over running and we had to move on. We would like to apologise to Adele for the interruption.’ If I was an ITV executive I would be contacting Adele’s people to arrange an hour-long ‘special’ presented by James Corden to be broadcast primetime – a Sunday evening would be an ideal slot. It’s the least they could do really.
So what else caught people’s attentions at The Brits? Well it would be safe to say that the winners of the ‘Best British Single’ – One Direction – came as a surprise to everyone. Puberty has a lot to answer for. As do push-over parents.
The lovely Ed Sheeran had a great evening – he seems a very genuine and talented chap – and I do hope he continues to enjoy many successes in the years to come.
The Brits was, generally speaking, a tastefully mainstream affair this year – there were no spectacular live performances or collaborations. Some even criticised the winners as being “stars of the ‘New Boring’….” with ballads and anthems performed by safe, polite artists. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/niceness-rocks-ballads-take-centre-stage-at-the-brits-7282735.html
But maybe it’s the sign of the times. Maybe we do not have the passion for loud, angry lyrics from aggressive rock stars….. we need comfort and beautiful songs…..performed by polite artists. And the youth clearly need little boys – sorry – One Direction… and they are welcomed to them too. But I do wonder if the time is right to bring back TFi Friday……did Tuesday prove a passion is there for live music on tv?
Aside from the weak comedy bits, TFi Friday brilliantly presented live music and interviews broadcast twice on Friday nights on Channel Four from the Riverside Studios in London. (Well. When I say ‘live’ I mean pre-recorded after a couple of rude words uttered by Shaun Ryder and Ewan McGregor.)
The program ran from 1996 to 2000 with great viewing figures. Maybe the time is right to bring the format back….I mean apart from Jools Holland’s show on BBC2, which tv show showcases live acts in the same way? The only problem is who could front the show……Chris Evans owned the tv production company (Ginger Productions) behind TFi Friday but maybe he isn’t the right person to bring it back. I would say TFi Friday should be aimed at the older Radio 1 listeners and the younger Radio 2 listener age bracket.
I always felt that, towards the end of the TFi Friday run, they should have handed the show over to Zoe Ball as Chris Evans appeared to burn out. Zoe Ball would be an ideal main anchor, if the show was to return, with a couple of younger male side kicks to help along. I could see Wayne Collins (Cocktail guy from BBC2’s Something For The Weekend) playing a part too.
So, darling tv executuves, who would dare bring back quality Friday evening entertainment?
Channel 4's TFi Friday
Paulson500 
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