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Travis, Dido, Strokes Grab Brit Awards
02/21/2002 4:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Mark Armstrong
(2/21/02, 4 p.m. ET) - Travis, Dido, and up-and-coming U.S. rockers the Strokes were among the winners at the Brit Awards 2002, unveiled Wednesday (February 20) at London's Earl's Court.
Travis was named best British group for the second time while Dido grabbed two awards--best British female and best British album for her hit debut, No Angel. The Strokes, meanwhile, earned best international newcomer, on the heels of its acclaimed debut album, Is This It?
Other winners of note included Robbie Williams (best British male), Shaggy (best international male), and Kylie Minogue, who joined Dido as the only other multiple winner (best international female; best international album, Fever). Also, Sting was bestowed the honor of outstanding contribution to British music, and award previously granted to the Beatles, Elton John, and Sting's own former band, the Police, among others.
This is the third Brit Award for Travis, who earned two in 2000 surrounding its second album, The Man Who. With the release of last year's The Invisible Band, the Scottish foursome has remained one of the most cherished in the U.K. Travis frontman Fran Healy puts it into perspective for LAUNCH:
"It's a very traditional, old-fashioned band. It maybe harks back to a golden age where your carpenter would do the stuff during the week, the baker would bake the bread, and people would do all their business during the week and then at the weekend the band would play these songs and allow everyone to let their hair down and do that kind of thing. But it was a service. And so, we're like one of the public services in Britain, you know, there's the ambulance, there's the AA, which is the Automobile Association, and there's Travis."
As for the Strokes, the New York group's massive acclaim in England--earned long before it had an American release--helped them best a field that included fellow upstarts Linkin Park, Nelly Furtado, the Avalanches, and Anastasia.
Strokes guitarist Nick Valensi tells LAUNCH: "The first thing that we ever really released ever was in England and we sort of got a head start over there, and people caught on to it sorta quicker, I guess. But, it seems like everywhere we go, all over the world, opening for bands, playing to crowds that have never seen us before, it's like the same response. People sort of like us."
Brit Awards 2002 complete list of winners:
Best British newcomer: Blue
Best British female: Dido
Best British male: Robbie Williams
Best British group: Travis
Best British single: "Don't Stop Movin'," S Club 7
Best British dance act: Basement Jaxx
Best British album: No Angel, Dido
Best British video: "21 Seconds," So Solid Crew
Best international album: Fever, Kyle Minogue
Best international male: Shaggy
Best international female: Kylie Minogue
Best international newcomer: the Strokes
Best international group: Destiny's Child
Best pop act: Westlife
Outstanding contribution to British music: Sting
--Neal Weiss and Lyndsey Parker, Los Angeles For more news at LAUNCH, click here.
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