AND the winners are…The Spice Girls, Oasis and Robbie Williams.

Forgive me for wondering whether I had suddenly been transported back in time to 1999.

I know the BRIT awards have never claimed to be particularly avant-garde, but this week’s event was bordering on the ridiculous.

The supposed reason for all these retro awards was that it was the 30th anniversary of the annual ceremony, which first took place in 1977.Work that one out.

Of course no-one actually gave a stuff about the winners anyway as they were too interested in seeing whether the painfully bad lip syncher Cheryl Cole would don her wedding ring or not.

For the record, I’m a huge fan of all those 90s gems and am mighty glad Liam Gallagher and his usual sozzled antics livened up a fairly dull night, but it would have been lovely to see more new talent on show.

British music is a very different industry from the one of a decade ago and the BRITs needs to reflect that.

There’s been a stampede of talented female British singer songwriters recently, of which performer of the night Lily Allen is just one.

I loved seeing the likes of Geri Halliwell and Mel B at the BRITs but how about a little more from Little Boots and Paloma Faith?

The awards could do with leaping headlong into the new millennium.

Otherwise if we keep going at this rate, next year’s awards will most likely feature Slade and Showaddywaddy.