the brits are coming!

can't believe this was from the daily news in ny...they must have hired some new staff

The Brits are coming again

A new invasion of U.K. musicians is making big waves here

By JIM FARBER

The debut CD of British singer Amy Winehouse recently hit No. 1 in her native U.K. and bagged her a Brit Award for Best Female Solo Artist.

For decades that wouldn't have meant bupkis in the States. But, given a rapidly changing climate, Winehouse is getting a very different reaction here now. Her kickoff song, "You Know I'm No Good," just became iTunes' "Single of the Week" as well as the "most added song" on American Rhythmic radio formats, while gaining "Big 10" rotation on MTV.

Luckily for Winehouse (whose full CD arrives March 13), she's coming over amid a British invasion the likes of which America hasn't experienced since the heyday of acts like Culture Club, Eurythmics and Depeche Mode in the '80s.

Paving the way for stars like Winehouse are Brits James Blunt, Corinne Bailey Rae, KT Tunstall, Celtic Woman and Snow Patrol, each of whom has sold at least 1 million records in the States in the last year. At the same time, Natasha Bedingfield moved nearly 800,000 copies of her most recent CD, and promising sales figures continue to mount for up-and-comers Lily Allen, Imogen Heap and Paolo Nutini.

At this year's Grammys, three out of five candidates for Best New Artist were British (Blunt, Rae and Heap). While they all wound up losing - to an American Idol no less (Carrie Underwood) - their sales shot up significantly in the week after the show, as much as 132% and 165% (for Rae and Blunt, respectively).

Compare those triumphs to the low point for British pop - the benighted 2001-02 season. Back then, for the first time since the Beatles led the first British invasion in 1964, not a single U.K. act appeared anywhere on Billboard's Top 200 Album list.

It was the last straw for the British, who'd already endured years in which their biggest acts - from Oasis to Blur to the Verve - enjoyed fleeting, often second-tier U.S. hits, only to bomb quickly afterward.

The Spice Girls had a bigger impact (though briefly) and things began to turn around, by inches, when Coldplay's star started ascending in '02. But it took another few years for this full wave to swell.

So what changed?

For one thing, there's been a dip in pop radio's interest in hip hop, due to flagging sales in that genre. Rap sales were down 21% in '06, opening up room for something else. "British music provides an alternative to the urban music that has dominated American radio for the last 10 to 12 years now," says Phil Patterson, who heads a group that promotes the export of U.K. acts.

At the same time, radio analyst Sean Ross says, "radio has become more pop-friendly, post-'American Idol.'" And that favors the melody-mad Brits.

For all the changes on radio, however, TV has actually provided a bigger boost to many new U.K. artists. Corinne Bailey Rae only broke through after an appearance on "Oprah." Even in its wake, her singles haven't gotten Top 40 airplay. Likewise, Snow Patrol cracked the U.S. market by getting their song "Chasing Cars" on "Grey's Anatomy" before they made headway on radio.

The new emphasis on TV promotion is part of a larger trend in which the battered music industry has been more aggressively exploring nontraditional means of hawking its wares. The same need led it to gamble on a wider range of artists - including once disfavored Brits - if only because the old rules clearly weren't working.

For years, things had spiraled in the opposite direction. "Because of the climate at radio and the live scene for British bands, American labels weren't putting money into them for touring," says Patterson. "The bands thought, 'What's the point of coming over when you'll spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and probably lose money hand over fist.' They were better off staying in Europe or going to Japan or Asia, where they could make money."

Still, it's sobering to note that, for the most part, it's a particular kind of U.K. artist that's been selling over here. Generally, it hasn't been the cutting-edge stars. The cool Arctic Monkeys may be No. 1 at home, but they barely sold 300,000 copies of their debut here. Likewise, big Brit rap stars like Lady Sovereign have been unable to make the transition to these shores. Instead, mature, adult-oriented acts like Blunt and Rae have shot to platinum status.

Ross says these artists are favored by the tilt at radio and TV toward "quality singer-songwriters" as a corrective to all those years devoted almost entirely to teen-driven hip hop.

To further goose the new Brit wave, Patterson's organization will sponsor a huge showcase at this month's major industry festival, South by Southwest, in Austin, Tex. Locally, it will back a concert at Bowery Ballroom March 13 featuring Winehouse and the Pipettes.

Will such artists help escalate the expanding redcoat wave? Given the stagnant nature of American pop, more and more U.S. fans probably hope so.

Here's a look at the 10 most promising Brit names hovering on the horizon

1. AMY WINEHOUSE Already a No. 1 star in England with her controversial, anti-sobriety hit, "Rehab," Winehouse has a barreling '60s soul mama voice that would do Etta James proud. Her marvelous debut CD, "Back to Black," appears stateside March 13.
by the way....her album is one of the best i have heard in years!!!

2. THE PIPETTES The '60s girl group sound shimmies and shakes again in the music of the Pipettes. Sporting matching dresses and spouting lyrics rife with teen melodrama, this trio refigures the Shangri-Las for a new era on their debut "We Are the Pipettes," coming this summer.

3. THE VIEW You'll find Brit-pop at its most brash on "Hats Off to the Buskers," the debut CD from the View. Just out, this 14-song disk crackles with the most youthful music from the U.K. since, well ... last year, with the Arctic Monkeys.

4. THE BASEMENT The warmth of classic Ronnie Lane breathes through the rustic, countryish ballads and ruddy rockers of the Basement. The group, who hail from Ireland, but are now based in Liverpool, release the heartbreakingly sweet "Illicit Hugs and Playground Thugs" May 8.

5. THE FIELD The Brits had a fine time with folk-rock in the '60s with bands like Fairport Convention and the Incredible String Band. That autumnal vibe returns in a new form in the music of the Field. Flickering with pruned acoustic guitars and fine vocal braids, the Fields' debut, "Everything Last Winter," wafts this way May 8.

6. THE FEELING Not since 10CC or Leo Sayer (if not Supertramp) have the British produced such a high-voiced munchkin as Feeling singer Dan Gillespie. The group, whose debut, "Twelve Stops and Home," came out last week, has already earned three Top Five hits overseas with a sound that's light, bouncy and just a little bit cheesy.

7. MIKA This pretty boy singer has a powerhouse voice that mixes the range of Freddie Mercury with the R&B swank of George Michael. Look for the 23-year-old's first album, "Life in Cartoon Motion," to appear here March 27.

8. THE KOOKS An engaging foursome from Brighton, the Kooks exude a sloppy rock insouciance that has earned them comparisons to Thin Lizzy (though they actually took their name from the 1971 David Bowie song). Their shaggy dog of a CD, "Inside In Inside Out," came out last month.

9. WINTERKIDS Busy little guitar lines twitch nervously through the manic tracks of WinterKids' debut, "Memoirs," which comes out later this year. The band, who are reminiscent of the Buzzcocks at their most bustling, play Mercury Lounge on March 13.

10. JAMES MORRISON No relation to Jim, this new Morrison offers perhaps the catchiest, and slickest, example of Brit-pop-soul since Simply Red. Along with Amy Winehouse, Morrison has the best shot at becoming the next Brit to explode on this side of the Atlantic.