Ben Howard too scruffy to attend the BRITs

In an exclusive interview with Absolute Radio's Pete Donaldson at London's Hard Rock Cafe, British singer-songwriter Ben Howard admitted that he thinks that he doesn't dress smartly enough to be allowed at the BRIT Awards next month, and he thinks they wouldn't even let him in the door at the O2 - because of his shoes.

Talking about the annual awards ceremony Ben said "...something like the BRIT Awards...I'm not very good at dressing smart, this is about as smart as I go, I'm all black, I don't know if they'd let me in with these shoes."

Even though he's one of the hottest rising stars in the country, Ben also revealed that he's never even seen the BRITs on TV, despite the fact they're the biggest music show in the UK: "I don't really know what it's about; I've never really watched it or anything".

Chatting to Pete as part of the 'Hard Rock Presents The Absolute Sessions', Ben let slip that he'd spent much of the day before the gig filling out his tax returns (with a bit of help!), and although last year's numbers were "a bit hectic", the good news is that he's all up to date now.

Ben also talked about how it is "frustrating" that he's sometimes lumped together with other young male singer-songwriters around at the moment – and agreed that it can be hard to stand out as your own person, but explained how living in Devon helped him to "keep an outside view on things".

Ben spoke about his retro routes in the interview too, admitting that he still listens to cassette tapes of 60s and 70s bands in his van, and that he insisted to his record company that his album was produced on vinyl as well as CD and download last year.

Proving his rock 'n' roll credentials were worthy of the iconic London venue, Ben warmed up his vocals on the night with a double Whiskey before taking to the stage and playing for the packed out crowd.