Radiohead are, without doubt, one of the biggest groups to have emerged from the UK ever. They are unique in being a modern-day British band just as loved in the Stated as they are in their native country.

When the band released In Rainbows in 2007 they also became great innovators, being one of the first artists to try and use the power of the Internet rather than try and rally against the new ways of distributing music.

Now, Radiohead are well on the way to releasing their next album, the eagerly-awaited follow-up to In Rainbows. Back in September, Ed O’Brien revealed that many of the songs for the next release had already been written, and fellow band member Colin Greenwood has now revealed the band are in the studio recording new material.

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There’s one huge story obviously dominating news of the Grammy Awards 2009 - Chris Brown being arrested for allegedly assaulting Rihanna. But that’s been covered to the nth degree in various different places, and the full details have yet to emerge.

So, as is my remit here at Brit Music Scene, I’d like instead to focus on the good that came out of this year’s ceremony. Several British artists went home with awards on the night, and they deserve the plaudits they are receiving.

Last year’s Grammy Awards were all about one British artist in particular, with Amy Winehouse winning five honors. She also performed live via satellite without screwing up, leading many of us to believe she was on the road to recovery. But that wasn’t to be.

The Grammy Awards 2009 saw the range of British artists winning much more diverse, and that’s a great indicator of the healthy state of British music at this point in time.

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What do you buy the man who has everything? OK, Barack Obama may not have everything but becoming the first ever black President of the United States is sure to have made most of his dreams come true. He’s also got a beautiful wife, and lovely kids. So what to get him?

David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative party opposition to Gordon Brown’s Labour Government, thinks he knows. The New Statesman reports that Cameron gave Obama the gift of British music when the pair met up in July, passing on albums by The Smiths, Radiohead, Gorillaz, and Lily Allen.

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Radiohead are collaborating with their fans in ever more intriguing and interactive ways. Not only did they decide to give their album away for free, but they now seem to be regarding In Rainbows as belonging to the fans as much as it belongs to the band itself.

Such was the case with the new music video for Reckoner, which was actually made by a fan for a competition. The band liked the promo so much that they decided to make it the official video instead of just a contest winner. Thom Yorke was even impressed enough to give the video praise despite not quite being with it.

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The last Radiohead album, In Rainbows, was not only musically brilliant, but was also a revelation for the way it was released. Radiohead decided to eschew giving the album its début on physical formats, and instead chose to release it on the Internet for free (or as near as damn it).

But that all happened almost a year ago now, with the download being available from October 10th, 2007. In Rainbows has since been released on CD and vinyl, but it’s now time to move on, and the band are already working on their next album. In fact most of it is already complete.

After losing the Nationwide Mercury Music Prize to Elbow last week, Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien spoke to BBC 6Music about the band’s forthcoming plans. According to the NME, he said:

“We’re still talking about doing some stuff and we’re really excited about it. First we came off tour to do some writing and we wanted to carry on doing it because it was so brilliant.”

Modest as ever, but it’s great news for Radiohead fans everywhere that a new album is already in the offing. If it’s already at that stage of completion, then I’d guess a 2009 release was on the cards. The only question left is whether the In Rainbows model will be used again, or will the follow-up see a much more traditional release?

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Elbow have won the 2008 Nationwide Mercury Music Prize, beating the likes of Radiohead, Adele, Estelle, and bookies favourite Burial. The Manchester band won the annual music industry award for their fourth album, The Seldom Seen Kid.

The prize was contested by 12 of the best of British acts from this year, all of whom were considered to have released the best albums from the past 12 months. The nominees were announced back in July, when I expressed my desire for Radiohead to win for In Rainbows. But it wasn’t to be.

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When Radiohead offered their new album In Rainbows, for free through their website last year, many industry analysts and bigwigs watched the results very closely to see if the model was workable. The album has since been released on physical formats but the download experiment gained Radiohead a lot of new fans and masses of press.

However, despite the good intentions of the band, it seems that the majority of Radiohead fans decided free just wasn’t cheap enough for them and so downloaded it from illegal sources such as torrent tracking and peer-to-peer sites instead.

The findings come from a joint research paper published by P2P monitor Big Champagne and the UK’s MCPS-PRS royalty collector. According to NME, the report suggests that 2.3 million people eschewed the officially sanctioned download portal inrainbows.com to instead download it by other non-sanctioned means.

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The members of the Rolling Stones may all be in their sixties, but they are still one of the most commercially-viable bands around at the moment. Which makes their defection from EMI to Universal a big blow to the former, and a massive boost to the latter.

The Rolling Stones have become the third big British act to leave EMI in the last year, following fellow sixties artist Paul McCartney, and alternative indie rockers Radiohead out of the door. The Rolling Stones have moved to the Universal Music Group, the biggest record label in the world, and have signed a deal covering three new albums, and the worldwide rights for the band’s back catalogue from 1971 onwards.

Radiohead were first to jump ship from EMI after the company was taken over by Terra Firma. They blamed a lack of direction, and knowledge of the music industry, particularly from their new boss, Guy Hands. There was also the fact that EMI refused to meet their contract demands. The band first released In Rainbows on the Internet, before signing a deal with indie label XL Recordings to release the album physically on CD and vinyl.

Then came Paul McCartney, who left EMI after 45 years, to join Hear Music, a new record label owned by American coffee shop chain Starbucks. He accused EMI and its executives of becoming boring, and claimed that working for the record label was like being on a mind-numbing treadmill.

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The Mercury Music Prize, sponsored by Nationwide, is the annual award given to the best album by a British or Irish artist released in the previous 12 months. The ceremony isn’t until later in the year, but a short-list is first released, with the name of the 12 artists, and their albums, on it which the judges think are the best of British.

Having said that, the Mercury Music Prize has a history of choosing albums by up and coming artists, rather than necessarily widely known artists, and certainly not the best-selling ones. Which means there are always some huge surprises in the short-list, and more often than not, in the eventual winner chosen as well.

Last year saw Klaxons named as winners, for their début album Myths Of The Near Future. They beat the Arctic Monkeys, Dizzee Rascal, and Amy Winehouse along the way, although Winehouse’ performance at the awards ceremony probably invoked more press coverage than the Klaxons themselves.

This year’s short-list has now been published, and the usual surprises are present, as well as there being many names missing that were expected to appear.

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Radiohead have received almost nothing but praise for challenging music industry standards when they released In Rainbows on to the Internet last year, and invited people to pay what they wanted for the privilege of downloading the album.

In effect, this meant you could nab a brand new album by one of the best British bands ever, for free.

Step forward Noel Gallagher, Oasis’ guitarist and chief songwriter. He’s not impressed with the idea, and vows never to do the same for an Oasis album.

Which is a shame because Oasis’ new album Dig Out Your Soul is due out in a few months, and I would have loved the chance to nab it for a penny.

Gallagher of course, is no stranger to controversy, and is a master of saying what he thinks in a blunt manner, knowing that he will gain publicity for his comments. This can sometimes land him in trouble though, as his negative comments about Jay-Z headlining Glastonbury spectacularly backfired when Jay-Z mocked him at the start of his set, and then went on to triumph.

So I wonder what the fall out will be from his latest comments about Radiohead, In Rainbows, and releasing a new album.

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