Some of the people who will be performing live at Friday’s ceremony at Earls Court Exhibition Centre are Macy Gray, Travis, Basement Jaxx, Five (sorry – 5ive), Geri Halliwell, Tom Jones and the Stereophonics. And over the years, there has been a remarkable cross-over between those artists who agree to sing a song at the show and those who pick up awards As ever with the Brits, you can’t say fairer than that.. If making your mark on the national consciousness means coming out of building site radios, or being played at weddings or on the Queen Vic juke-box down in Albert Square, then it’s happened to Prefab Sprout only once. That was in the summer of 1988, when “The King Of Rock ‘n’ Roll” arrived in the Top 10. The synergy between intent and outcome was perfect: the song was created as a send-up of pop music’s more crass aspects, and its thrillingly silly chorus became a minor national anthem.

“Hot dog, jumpin’ frog, Albuquer- que,” it went, energised by the fact that a lifetime on “Solid Gold” radio stations was its natural birthright. If making your mark on the national consciousness means coming out of building site radios, or being played at weddings or on the Queen Vic juke-box down in Albert Square, then it’s happened to Prefab Sprout only once. That was in the summer of 1988, when “The King Of Rock ‘n’ Roll” arrived in the Top 10. The synergy between intent and outcome was perfect: the song was created as a send-up of pop music’s more crass aspects, and its thrillingly silly chorus became a minor national anthem. “Hot dog, jumpin’ frog, Albuquer- que,” it went, energised by the fact that a lifetime on “Solid Gold” radio stations was its natural birthright.
Eleven years on, Paddy McAloon, the band’s songwriter and chief, is living in Co Durham, and preparing for their first tour for a decade. Given the time that has elapsed since his last collision with the charts, he has precious few delusions of grandeur: “Prefab Sprout are a minority taste beat group,” he laughs.But his humility is ill-founded. Despite the fact that the aforementioned single was their last big hit, his group have just added an extra London show, meaning that they’ll be playing to close to 5,000 people.

McAloon, however, is more preoccupied with the task of relearning his own work. “I’m just trying to remember all the chords and lyrics to things I thought I might never see again,” he says “To be honest, that’s one of the reasons for doing the tour A lot of the songs are on the very edge of memory. I figured that if I made an effort now, I could retrieve them.”His best-known songs – to be found on Steve McQueen (1985), From Langley Park To Memphis (1988) and Jordan: The Comeback (1990) – may have been created in an increasingly far-flung era, but they wear their age well. McAloon was always blessed by his singularity, maintaining a quiet detachment while pop music entered into its usual short-lived frenzies. His lyrical vocabulary and musical depth placed him a different orbit entirely – which also explains the loyalty of his public. Prefab Sprout, throughout their 18-year existence, have been a rare break in an ever-more moronic current. Once you find them, you tend to hold on.The patience of his public, however, was sorely tested by McAloon’s seven-year retreat between 1990 and 1997.

After the release of Jordan, he disconnected himself from the demands of the music industry and began work on a series of conceptual song-cycles that rapidly amounted to a vast mountain of unrealised material. The ideas from this period provide instant proof of McAloon’s giant musical ambition, and his love of wide-screen romance. It’s probably some indication of music’s current inch-high ambition that when he’s describing them, he can easily sound like a goggle-eyed innocent.On the backburner since 1985, and added to ever since, he breathlessly explains, has been a Christmas album called Total Snow. In the late 1980s, he began work on a tribute to the simple power of songs entitled Let’s Change The World With Music. Soon after that came Behind The Veil, a fictitious musical biography of Michael Jackson.