Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends...

Or in this case the EBBAs. I have written about them before, as they are the EU's own music awards. (Drumroll). And tonight in Holland the award will be handed over by Jools Holland to a German outfit, the Baseballs.

There is something so right about the Baseballs getting this award. After all they are German, and have had success across the continent, chariting in Austria, Germany, Holland, Finland Sweden and Norway.

But even more apt given that the award is being handed over by the EU is that they don't seem to have their own tunes. Their oeuvre is, as far as I can tell all cover versions, what is more they are rockabilly cover versions, of Lady Gaga, Rhianna, and here below, Snow Patrol.



There biggest hit to date is Rhianna's Umbrella, which reached the dizzy heights of number 135  in the UK single charts.

Now given that they are a pop band, given that they have a Platinum disk, why of why oh why is the taxpayer paying anything to them? Will somebody please explain?

Now pop pickers : Does the EU think it is Fluff Freeman FFS?

Not content in funding film prizes and literature prizes, and journalism prizes and...

Now I learn that the nincompoops are funding a pop prize. Trendily called the EBBAs (no doubt because any credibility the EU has is Ebbing away) this is an award to celebrate "success in reaching audiences outside their own country".

In the case of the UK nomination, Mumford and Sons, fine act though they are, are hardly struggling with 700,000 fans on their facebook page. Isn't this a breach of competition law. I didn't know that Island Records was a failing corporation:

Look, I have said it before and I say it again. It is not the business for the EU (or any other state, crypto-state, exo-state or whatever) to be creating this sort of prize. No business at all.

It smacks of approved, licensed politically approved art and it is wrong.