February is, most notabley but least significantly, host to the Brit Awards, in which people are generally recognised for selling records and consuming column inches. To give you a quick run down: Radiohead won nothing. The Verve scooped three, or two-and-a-third to be precise, which was no surprise, for "Best Group", "Best LP" and "Best Producer", which they shared with Youth and Chris Potter. They also grabbed a couple of the NME Brats I gather.
The other big Brit winners were All Saints, who seem to be taking the country by storm at the moment and are poised to dethrone the Spice Girls (who "won" the specially created award, the title of which I forget), despite not really having any great tunes yet, and failing to anything complimentary to the seminal Under the Bridge. They walked out with the "Best Single" and "Best Video" awards for their hit Never Ever. Stereophonics claimed the "Best Newcomer award. Of the lot, they were probably worth it.

Best Newcomer for '98 may well be the Warm Jets, if they can build on the success they've reaped so far. And if volume-of-press is anything to go by then they ought to do quite well. They've recieved a lot of attention for their breezey quality pop tunes, and for singer Louis Jones dating Zoe Ball. In early February they released Never Never, a spikier tune than most, with the usual quietly explosive chorus, hooks galore and an extra nod of approval for the gold vinyl 7". It crept somewhere into the lower reaches of the charts. Their album Future Signs came out a few weeks later to good reviews. I'll fill you in when I can. I hear their next single is going to be Hurricane, just like their last one. Seems a bit of a backward step, but nevermind...

February 9th should go down as one of the funkiest days of the year, and a busy one for the singles merchant! Firstly, the triumphant return of The Bluetones with the riff-tastic groove that is Solomon Bites the Worm. I hear it's not gone down so well with one or two of the old fans, as indicated by its chart position of #10, but it's a dynamite tune beyond denial (apart from perhaps being too short) and they'll soon come round. Secondly, as the memory of Daft Punk struggles in the background, the softer, dubbier, groovier (better!) Air released the best single of the year so far, Sexy Boy, comprising a highly addictive bassline and cool-as-f*ck, almost-whispered vocals. It crashed in at #13, and would, if you ask me, have been higher if they hadn't put the LP, Moon Safari out first. Word has it it's a quality piece of work, so I'm sure they'll get their due. As well as that we had the mad sixties timewarp that is Nanny in Manhatten, (and also the Monkees-esque Levi's ad) by The Lily's. The Guinness book of records ought to be onto them about how many hooks they attempted to squash into less than two minutes. Elsewhere in the same week Hurricane #1 slowed it down to produce the very mellow and only slightly M.O.R. Only the Strongest Will Survive, which has singer Alex Lowe sounding as good as he has yet!

Primal Scream seemed to be unfairly pushed out of the spotlight last year by the wealth of good albums released by other artists, so it's my duty as a fan to draw them some attention now. I shouldn't need to though, for their If They Move, Kill 'Em package (is it a single or isn't it?) is a masterpiece! It is also the first sign of activity from Kevin Shields (of the missing, presumed lost in one-chord-wonderland My Bloody Valentine) that we've seen in a good while. He provides an excellent remix of the song for track one. For a further explaination of the deal I'll quote Andy Crysell's review (for the NME).

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