British rock report

from August '04, after we returned from Kilimanjaro:

Based my informal research methods (a cursory inspection of the "Mercury Award" CD shelf at the HMV store in Heathrow on the way back from Tanzania, plus a thorough read-through of two British music magazines, NME and Word), these are the bands that the Brits are currently obsessed with:

top tier:
* Franz Ferdinand (pretty much unavoidable... )
* Keane (called "the rightful successors to Coldplay" -- damn, we buried Coldplay already?)
* The Streets

2nd tier:
* The Killers (a Brit-friendly band from Las Vegas)
* Hope of the States
* The Libertines (they were on my screen from last year’s Pazz & Jop)
* Kings of Leon (mentioned endlessly)
* Muse (never heard of 'em but apparently I should have)

3rd tier:
* Snow Patrol (beloved by critics)
* Kasabian (north English louts, one of whom played with the Stone Roses)
* Scissor Sisters
* The Dears (from Montreal.. critics invoked the Smiths)
* The Polyphonic Spree
* The Bees
* Sons & Daughters (one writer called them "next year’s Franz Ferdinand!!," which made me laugh out loud)
* Sondra Lerche (just releasing his debut – praisedf or his songwriting and was intriguingly called "the Norwegian Roddy Frame")
* The Paddingtons

of course the mags were also deeply fixated on acts like the Strokes, Morrissey, the White Stripes and the Pixies reunion, but we knew them already.