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This Monday, an assortment of record company executives, stars, DJs, journalists and other such music biz hangers-on, will be assembled at the Albert Hall for the presentation of the BPI's BRIT awards. You don't need to watch it on television to guess at the nominations: the five short-listed for Best British Male Artist include Phil Collins and George Michael and those for Best British Group include Pet Shop Boys and Wet Wet Wet.
And why not? British pop music certainly deserves its own awards, even if such events are bound to suffer from self-congratulatory predictability. Every nomination makes me think of a dozen other artists who always get ignored, often because they're too difficult, too inventive, too original, or simply too good. Just like Elvis Costello.
It is 12 years since he released his first LP and since then he has surely matched all contenders, in the quality of his songwriting, the invention of his musical settings and his enthusiasm for new bands and sounds. That said, Costello has been mysteriously quiet of late, ever since his spate of work in 1986, when he released both King Of America and that instant romp with the Attractions, Blood & Chocolate.
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