Well, I was there, and it was a mixed blessing: great to see those who had sung and played so well getting their awards, but evening totally marred for me by the massive gale of sound emanating from the guests on the ground floor. (I was up in the gallery seats which were not exactly over-populated). Those downstairs on the "posh" tables were mainly nominees and friends, and while they might be excited about prospects of winning awards, the lack of courtesy and manners to those giving speeches and performing was diabolically absent! If you watch the TV footage, the biggest tribute has to be given to the sound engineers who managed to screen/filter out most of this pervading and overwhelming background noise, so you probably have no idea what I'm talking about if you watch it on iPlayer.. For those of us in the auditorium it was a very major problem, as were the multiple bright mobile phone screens, distracting from what should have been a good concert - and probably added to the "not paying attention to the concert" atmosphere. One of the TV presenters was actually encouraging people to Facebook and Tweet during the proceedings: oh, FFS, get a life and turn the bloody things off until the whole thing is over, and CONCENTRATE on and listen to the music! You can always tell people AFTERWARDS what a grand night you had!
I have been to all but 2 of these award ceremonies since they first started, but very unlikely I'll be going again after this last weekend's fiasco. Still applauding Simon Thoumire for his vision in putting it all together, but we really do need to teach some folks some etiquette and manners!