Adele was among the early winners at the Grammys, picking up best pop solo performance for Set Fire to The Rain.
The triumph added to the six awards she won last year, while she will perform her theme to the James Bond film Skyfall at the Oscars in a couple of weeks.
But she said backstage at the Grammys that she has been so busy she has had little time to work on her new album.
“I’m not very far along at all,” she confessed. “I’ve been out of the loop really”.
Sir Paul McCartney was another British success story, taking the best traditional pop vocal album prize for Kisses On The Bottom.
It was the ex-Beatle’s 15th Grammy, but it was his first solo album to win the top honour in its category.
The night was set to have a series of British highlights, with performers including Sir Elton John and Ed Sheeran, and Mumford & Sons.
Other early winners included the Beach Boys, who reunited at last year’s show and launched a tour to celebrate their 50th anniversary.
They won the first Grammy of their career for The Smile Sessions, which was intended to be the follow-up to their masterpiece Pet Sounds in the 1960s, but was abandoned at the time by Brian Wilson.
And big winners included blues duo The Black Keys and dance producer Skrillex, with three victories each so far.
There was a heavier-than-usual police presence at the glitzy Los Angeles event, because of a former police officer at large believed to have killed three people this week.
Police commander Andy Smith said the always heavily guarded Grammys would see even more officers at Staples Centre as the hunt for 33-year-old Christopher Dorner continues.
Scores of officers are outside the building others are stationed on a hotel roof across the street and Grammy participants’ credentials are being checked constantly.
The search is focused on mountains east of LA, but police say Dorner could be anywhere, and most of the targets he threatened in an online manifesto have ties to the LAPD, which has a major presence at the Grammys.
AP