Kate Nash felt like a breath of fresh air when she burst onto the scene in 2007. She first released Caroline’s a Victim/Birds on a limited release run. This then lead to a new record deal which saw Foundations hit big. Then came the album.

I adored Kate Nash’ debut album, Made Of Bricks. It was fresh, innovative, and exciting. Nash has been out of the news for a while now, but she hasn’t been resting, instead working on her second album.

In an interview with BBC Newsbeat, Nash explained what she’s been up to, how the new material is coming along, and when we can expect to see the next album released.

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I remember a time not so long ago when there was such a dearth of British female singers that Annie Lennox was almost guaranteed a Brit award every year. Now times have changed somewhat, and not only do we have Amy Winehouse doing her thing (drugs, booze, music, more drugs and booze), we have people such as Kate Nash, Lily Allen, Duffy, and Adele flying the flag around the world.

Adele and Duffy have come through at exactly the same time, and their singles seem to have coincided with each other quite a lot. I don’t know whether that’s an intentional ploy from the record companies, but it has set up a kind of battle of the divas.

Both artists have quite a bit in common: have been compared to Amy Winehouse, have unconventional looks but are still sexy in their own way, have voices to die for. But I do declare that you can only like one or the other, or at least have to pick your favourite.

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The Vodafone Live Music Awards are an annual awards ceremony, sponsored funnily enough by Vodafone.

Unlike other all-encompassing awards ceremonies, these focus on live music. I bet you’d have never guessed if I hadn’t told you so.

The year’s nominations have now been announced and it’s an eclectic bunch of artists to say the least. Leading the way are bands such as Muse, The Verve and Led Zeppelin, while female solo artists are also well represented by the likes of Amy Winehouse, Duffy, and Kate Nash.

Unfortunately, the list of solo male artists is a bit bare, with Morrissey and Paul Weller surely there just to make up the numbers? And as good as Mark Ronson is, he is a producer, and needs a lot of support from singers and band members to be able to put any kind of show on. ‘Read More’ for the list of nominees…

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The Futureheads are one of my favourite British bands ever, and one which deserves a lot more credit than they currently get. So when they announced a new UK tour back in March, I nabbed some tickets before they all sold out.

It’s been a long two month wait for the gig to finally come around, but yesterday finally gave me the chance to see the band play live for the first time since they last played Manchester back in 2006. And they have lost none of the magic from those days, and in fact seemed even more energetic than last time I saw them, a tall order indeed.

Maybe it was the small(er) venue which did the trick, as they were playing Academy 2, a compact venue for a band of this magnitude. At one point, the band even acknowledged how good it was to be in a smaller venue and how it helps to see in to the eyes of their notoriously loyal fans. If last night’s show was anything to go on, I’d recommend they play smaller venues more often.

This is the fourth gig I’ve been to this year, with a real mixed bag of artists so far, comprising of Megadeth, The Feeling and Sugababes. They’ve all been brilliant, but this was the best so far, despite being too short for my liking. It was also the complete opposite of the Sugababes gig, with no props, and no costume changes, just out and out good music played at a frenetic pace.

The band came on at about 9.20pm, and apart from the huge cheer, there was no fanfare, no impressive light show or anything. These guys just let their music do the talking, and that’s all the fans need.

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The full line-up for this year’s Glastonbury Festival is due to be officially announced at midnight on Tuesday April 29th, but has instead been leaked by an eagle-eyed reader.

Someone posted photos on the eFestivals forum supposedly taken from the latest issue of Q magazine, which is due out tomorrow.

We’ve already heard that the headliners on the main stage are due to be Jay-Z (controversially), Kings Of Leon and The Verve, but the rest of the line-up looks even tastier.

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The Ivor Novello Awards are an annual celebration of the best displays of song writing over the past twelve months. It’s British biased, but also highlights songs from abroad which sold particularly well.

This year’s nominations have been revealed, and there is one woman head and shoulders above the rest. Amy Winehouse has managed to secure three nominations, two of which are in one category. All despite Back To Black, the album that the songs come from, having been out for over two years.

Winehouse has Love is A Losing Game and You Know I’m No Good both up for best song of the year, where she will compete with Ben’s Brother for their top 40 hit Let Me Out.

Rehab, which actually won the award for best contemporary song last year, is up for best selling British song this time around. Winehouse will be competing with Beyonce and Shakira for Beautiful Liar, and Mika’s Grace Kelly.

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A few of us here on the b5 music channel have decided to get together and talk about our favourite gigs. I’ve been to far too many to list them all, so instead, I’ll focus on my experiences of the last year.

I have quite a broad taste in music, loving everything from Bjork and Joanna Newsome, through the Arctic Monkeys and Bloc Party, up to Megadeth and The Hives, so my gig history is kind of fragmented.

My first gig was the Stereophonics back in the day (when they were good, or at least better than they are at the moment), and that kind of set the tone for my experiences since then.

All I remember about that gig was not being able to hear anything afterwards, and wondering why. Now I’m used to it, and know that my hearing will be relatively back to normal the next day.

Since I’ve started writing Brit Music Scene, I’ve reviewed the gigs I’ve been to, except Megadeth earlier this year because I didn’t know how interested my readers would be.

For the record, it was mind-blowingly good. It was my first metal gig, and one I’ll never forget. From seeing the master, Dave Mustaine, have the crowd eating out of his hand, to getting drenched in sweat that came flying from the long haired goon standing in front of me every time he rocked out, it was an unforgettable night.

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Adele is a new British singer that I would put money on making it big around the world.

Her début single, Chasing Pavements, is outstanding, and her album 19 went to number one in the British charts last month. But it seems it’s not just solo success that this girl is after.

According to The Sun newspaper, Adele has indicated her desire to be in an all female super group, and the line-up is pretty damn impressive: Adele, Amy Winehouse, Kate Nash, Lily Allen & Katie Melua.

Please make it happen, as I think this would be the best girl group ever, and with The Spice Girls now no more, and a lot of the other British girl groups splitting up, the UK is in desperate need of one. Girls Aloud are okay in small doses, but this group would kick their asses.

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9.00pm - Leona Lewis performs Bleeding Love after a fawning eulogy from Ms Osbourne. She doesn’t put a step wrong, but there’s no excitement, just a purple dress.

9.05pm - Denise Van Outen and Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber come on stage to present the award for Best International Group.

Nominations - Kings Of Leon, Foo Fighters, Arcade Fire, White Stripes, The Eagles. And the winner is…

Foo Fighters! Who unsurprisingly can’t be there.

Dave Grohl is a top bloke though, so he’s forgiven.

9.08pm - James Nesbitt announces the winner of Best British female.

Nominations - Kate Nash, Bat For Lashes, PJ Harvey, Leona Lewis, KT Tunstall. And the winner is…

Kate Nash! Brilliant… very much deserved. A favourite here at Brit Music Scene.

She does the normal thanking thing, and gives a shout out to the Brit School people.

9.11pm - International Album, presented by ex-Eastenders star Michelle Ryan.

Nominations - Kylie, Arcade Fire, The Eagles, Foo Fighters, Kings Of Leon. And the winners is…

Foo Fighters! Again, the right choice, and Dave Grohl even manages to make a joke by taking the piss out of the Brits themselves. Nice.

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There were rumours of a famous fourth member being added to The Cribs band line up earlier this month, and now that new band mate for the Jarman brothers has been revealed as Johnny Marr.

Two weeks ago, guitarist brother Ryan Jarman told The Independent:

“We have decided to change the format of the band. We feel like we have become quite comfortable now and that isn’t always a good thing.”

“I think it’s good to mess things up and change. So we have decided that we are going to bring someone new into the band. I think people will be really surprised when they hear who it is because the person is quite well known.”

That lead to intense speculation over the identity of the fourth member, with most people assuming the band could be taking a real change of direction by adding Kate Nash to the band. Maybe that was just the result of some romantic thinking because Kate is currently seeing Ryan.

Now the band have finally revealed the true identity, and explained how the collaboration with the former Smiths guitarist came about.

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