Craig McLean

About the changing of the beat

With the nominations this year far more representative of contemporary British music — grime stars Skepta, Stormzy and Kano all figure — it marks an early win for Iley in his first year as chairman.

Sony also happens to be the label group with most British nominations, with 23 nods spread over 16 artists, including comeback kid Craig David, resurgent girl group Little Mix and critics’ choice winner Rag’n’Bone Man. At time of writing, his debut album, Human, is outselling the rest of the Top 20 combined, with staggering firstweek sales of 117,000. Another Iley signing, Robbie Williams, is being honoured on the night with the Brits Icon award.

In stark counterpoint, it’s Iley’s singular bad luck that this year’s awards have been beset by a range of challenges no one could have foreseen.

FIRST, his inspired choice for designer of the new Brit Award itself, Zaha Hadid, was seemingly sunk by the sudden death of the architect last March. Luckily she had already begun preparatory work and her team was able to finish the commission.

Then, another clever creative choice, for show’s presenter — Michael Bublé, a Canadian with a huge international profile — was undone by the singer’s three-year-old son’s treatment for cancer.

“Obviously we wanted to be respectful to Michael,” says Iley, who lives in Hampstead with his wife and sons, aged eight and 10, “and we allowed as much time as we possibly could for Michael, in our hope, to say yes. But earlier in the year he let us know that he couldn’t do it. So immediately you have to think who else can do it. “History tells us it’s one of the most difficult shows to do and all the presenters who’ve done it say it’s a very difficult task.”

Dermot O’Leary and Emma Willis quickly emerged as the obvious choice.

“She presents The Voice, he does The X Factor, they’re both great with artists, and they both present the two biggest musictype shows on TV. So the combination of them felt quite natural, and I was ver y relieved that they both said yes. Because obviously the pressure was on — this was literally a month before the show was due to be on air.

“But if Michael wants to do it next year,” Iley adds, “he can do it. The door’s open.”

Last ye a r ’s lastminute challenge for organisers was the death, on January 10, of David Bowie. Both the Brit Awards and the Grammys hastily pulled together tributes. Terribly, honouring a single legend’s passing now seems like the easy gig. Iley and his team have to work out how to pay tribute to a horrible toll of artist deaths in the other 11 months of 2016, including George Michael, Prince, Leonard Cohen and Sir George Martin.

“Because there are so many people, it is challenging,” he admits. “And even with one week left to go, we’re still working on it, and it still hasn’t been resolved.”

At the Grammys, Adele paid homage to Michael with a slowed-down version of his song Fastlove. Could she reprise that at the Brits? Iley laughs.

“She was amazing but that’s not going to happen! It was a song she wanted to do, and she wanted to do it in her own way, and she made it her own. But she’s going to be in Australia touring at the time of the Brits. Of course I would have loved her on the show — the Brits would like Adele on the show every night of the year! But it’s not just feasible this time.”

Iley was ensconced onsite at the O2 from yesterday. His Gucci suit is ready to go. The event’s final A-list performer, Katy Perry, was announced last week. All the issues, from diversity to award design t o p re s e n t e r, h ave b e e n

‘The day we start telling artists what they can and can’t say is the day we all go home — isn’t it?’

addressed. He and his team are as prepared as they can be. Beyond that, it’s in the hands of the viewing public — who, this year, are getting a longer show, with ITV adding 30 minutes to the live broadcast tomorrow, a mark of the broadcaster’s faith in British music’s biggest night.

“When we put out a record, we do everything we can to set the artist up — then we have to hope the general public buy it. And with the Brits, we have to hope the general public watch it.”

Iley’s first job in the music industry was at the label group he now runs. Aged 25 he was a product manager at Epic, and his first project was Michael Jackson’s HIStory album. And his first Brit Awards was 1996, the fateful year that Jarvis Cocker interrupted Jackson’s performance.

“Biggest artist in the world, and a British icon waving his backside in the air,” Iley recalls with a rueful smile. “I was young and the enormity of what had happened didn’t strike me till the next day. On the night I think I was more interested in having fun at the BRIT Awards. I don’t think even Jarvis realised the enormity of what had happened.”

And what if there’s a similar controversy this year? In these politically charged times, are there guidelines in place for artists in case of, say, impassioned Trump- and Brexit-bashing speeches?

“No,” Iley replies firmly. “One, the artists aren’t going to know they’ve won until they hear their name, so we won’t look at 13 awards times five nominees and give them all guidelines as to what they say. And two, it’s the music business. The day we start saying to artists, ‘You can’t say that’, is the day we all go home, isn’t it?”

The Brit Awards Live, on ITV from 7.30pm tomorrow