Take That are favourites to take the viewer voted Best Single Award at the Brit Awards tomorrow night. As previously reported, eleven tracks were shortlisted for the Best Single prize, but that has now been whittled down to the customary five following voting on commercial radio stations around the country. The final five are The Feeling's 'Fill My Little World', Razorlight's 'America', Snow Patrol's 'Chasing Cars', Take That's 'Patience' and Will Young's 'All Time Love'. The final winner will be voted for by ITV viewers as the awards show airs tomorrow.
Take That have odds of just 1/2 as we write, with Snow Patrol in second place with 9/2 odds, then it goes Razorlight 4/1, Will Young 10/1 and The Feeling 20/1. Ladbrokes spokesman Nick Weinberg cited Take That's "solid fanbase" for his company's decision to make the reformed boy band favourites to win the gong, adding: "They're only up for one award which means their votes will be concentrated in one category", which is a slightly nonsensical statement given that no other categories will be voted for on the night (and only four of the twelve have a public vote at all) but I'm sure he knows what he means.
Not that I'm sure the Take That boys deserve to win the prize given that Gary Barlow has admitted the group has lost at least two of the four Brit Awards they won back in their heyday. He told reporters this week: "We won four [Brit awards]. I have one and I'm pretty sure Mark [Owen] has another. We've lost two somewhere along the way and we need to locate them. We'd absolutely love to get them back".
Of course, tomorrow night's Brits fest should be an interesting affair given that it is the first time the awards event has been televised live since the long remembered and really rather infamous Fox / Fleetwood debacle in 1989. Bosses will be hoping that the live screening will bring back the 'edge' that people reckon the awards show has lost in recent years, but at the same time not so much edge that things sink as low as the 1989 show. Though I suspect a lot of the people tuning in will be willing for it to be a complete disaster - everyone loving a bit of car crash telly.
It will be interesting to see if host Russell Brand is up to the job of keeping control of the proceedings. While, as I've said, I've warmed to the ubiquitous TV irritant of late (though just for the record, Caro wants you all to know she still thinks he's a irritating cunt) it will be interesting to see if his chaotic presenting style works well in what is already a chaotic environment, or whether it will add to the chaos making the whole thing difficult viewing. Could go either way if you ask me.
According to last Sunday's The People, the Brits people are less concerned about Brand's abilities to stop the show descending into a Fox/Fleetwood style farce, and are more concerned about pulling in enough celeb names to present the awards. The tabloid says the awards show's organisers are struggling to find enough A-C-listers willing to take part - possibly because they've picked Valentines Night to stage the event, or possibly because awards shows are out of fashion in celeb-ville. The tabloid quote what they claim is an internal memo which reads: "We're not exactly falling over guest presenters this year - at least not halfway recognisable ones. We are in an apparent drought of suitable faces, the only consolation being that even the BAFTAs cannot find enough presenters". Perhaps they could see if Mick Fleetwood or Sam Fox are available. You know, just for old times sake.