Phil Clifton's Backstage blog: Part 1

"WOWZERS, my first BRIT Awards with MasterCard blog entry. Better make this good. Or at least legible. Yep, I’ll definitely settle for legible at this stage.

Last week saw day one of filming as the BRITs backstage host, and the Nominations Launch at The Savoy! This year I am wildly pumped about The BRITs, way more so than other years. Is that just because I wasn’t invited to all those other years? No way!! No, no, no, no, no. (yes).

Let’s talk The BRITs shall we? It’s safe to say that the launch was a very exciting time to be a pop star. The last year in music has seen some brilliant artists break ground, and some amazing releases enter in to the British charts. Artists who have broken in to the commercial scene - your Ed Sheeran’s and Emeli Sande’s - and those well established acts who have continued in their ascent to mega-stardom - the Lady Gaga’s and Rihanna’s - were all nominated, and all now stand a chance of picking up a Brit on the big night. Now, I’m not sure what official line is regarding whether I’m allowed to comment on who I think should win stuff on the night, so I’ll simply say the following; “I think all the nominees are amazing, such strong competitors, and that everyone should think of themselves as a winner”… (that being said, If Ed Sheeran doesn’t win at least SOMETHING on the 21st February then I will be furious).

I'm going to be honest with you here - the BRITs Launch was my first time working a red carpet so, needless to say, I was absolutely bricking myself, and the fear kicked in as I interviewed Ed Sheeran ahead of his performance at the event.

Click here to watch Phil's interview with Ed Sheeran.

You see that big, heavy looking BRITs branded backdrop we’re quite confidently sat in front of during the interview? Looks pretty sturdy, right? Pretty well built. Yeah? Well it’s NOT.

The interview ended and the middle board fell directly on to Ed, sending his management and the entire room in to a very brief state of panic, and leaving me in the corner with a facial expression not entirely dissimilar to the one you’d see on a small child when all they really want to say is “I didn’t do it!”. Now I’m not exactly sure that, upon offering me the position of Online Host, the BRITs had me almost killing one of their nominees in mind, but I’m sure they’ll be pleased to know that, if I did decide to, I’d go for the one who is nominated in the most categories, was performing on the night of the launch and is book to perform at the awards ceremony.

Luckily for me Ed is as quick as a cat and, in a move not dissimilar to that of an acoustic guitar wielding superhero, he turned and caught the board before any long term damage could be done. Hurray for reflexes!

Anyway, Ed’s almost bumpy head aside, the day was a certified success. A lot of great people bagged themselves some very well deserved nominations, the red carpet went well (fans of JLS, Emelie Sande, and Jessie J will be pleased to know that they all proved to be particularly lovely), and no onstage fights erupted during the actual ceremony.

But then of course we’ve still got the actual BRITs to go, haven’t we?

Right that’s the end of my first BRITs Blog. Massive congratulations to all of the acts that got nominations last night, we’ll see you on brits.co.uk in February.

In between now and then, do feel free to come say hi on Twitter (@philclifton) if you have a chance."

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