When writing about the Brit awards, there are a few clichés that need to be touched upon in the review: be it Jarvis Cockers arse, Mick Fleetwood and Sam Fox, or Brendon Blocks stage invasion. Something always shocks the nation, and its rarely the awards. The 2012 Brit Awards, hosted by James Cordon at the O2, took place last night and already there seems to be one event, and one event only that everyone is talking about- Adeles middle finger to the suits after being cut off during her speech. Looking at the awards, themselves I cant help but feel this year had the least imaginative bunch of recipients yet. From the blandness of the likes of One Direction or Ed Sheeran, to the plain predictability of Adele and Coldplays victories, you know its a bad year for the awards when the biggest surprise of the night award-wise is One Directions victory in the best British single category. Still, its hard to argue with the awards- Adele and Ed Sheeran have had such success in the last year that however bland I find their music to be, they probably deserve it. One interesting part of this years Brit award ceremony is the lack of a reward to a less popular, but critically acclaimed artist. Last year, both Arcade Fire and Laura Marling received awards, much to the disdain of my less musical friends and the Brit award crowd; this was not repeated this year, possibly for understandable reasons. One aged old tradition in the Brit awards is the BIG DUET where two artists collaborate; from Florence and Dizzee, to PJ Harvey and Bjork to Tom Jones and The Sterophonics, every year seems to have one. Aside from Chris Martin on piano during Noel Gallaghers performance, this year was duet free. Whilst this is probably a blessing, its always fun and interesting to see who is going with who. Even after re-watching all the performances, Im struggling to think of anything truly memorable about any of them. Adele was on perfect pitch as normal, Ed Sheeran, though boring delivered his performance very well. Although Im not a fan of his music, Bruno Mars played excellently, in an upbeat Vegas version of one of his hits. The other performers of the night included Noel Gallagher and his High Flying Eyebrows who were pretty good with Chris Martin on the piano, Florence and the Machine, who was admittedly quite magnificent, and Coldplay, which was like watching the rain come down outside your window; you know its an impressive feat, but that doesnt stop it boring the arse off of you. All this aside though, there was one thing I was watching the Brits for: Blurs magnificent comeback. After thanking half the country and taking about five minutes with their acceptance speech for the Lifetime Achievement Award Blur went on stage and performed an eleven minute, five track long setlist. As usual, Blur were on excellent form, playing three tracks from Parklife, the album that won them three awards at the 1994 Brits. LIST OF AWARDS: British album: Adele, 21 British female solo artist: Adele British male solo artist: Ed Sheeran British breakthrough act: Ed Sheeran British group: Coldplay British single: One Direction, What Makes You Beautiful British producer: Ethan Johns International female artist: Rihanna International male artist: Bruno Mars International group: Foo Fighters International breakthrough: Lana Del Rey Critics' choice: Emeli Sandé Outstanding contribution to music: Blur