Black Sabbath win big at Classic Rock awards

BLACK Sabbath are the big winners at this year's Classic Rock Roll Of Honour, walking away with three top gongs.

The veteran rockers landed the Living Legend Award, while also winning Album of the Year for 13 and Event of the Year for hitting number one around the world with the album, including their biggest ever hit in the US.

Manic Street Preachers founding member and guitarist James Dean Bradfield picked up the Musicians’Union Maestro Award, The Virginmarys were the winners of the Breakthrough Award and the late Irish guitar legend Rory Gallagher was honoured with the Tommy Vance Inspiration Award.

The awards at the Roundhouse in Camden, London, also saw legendary manager, film producer and humanitarian Shep Gordon recognised with theVIP Award. For more than 40 years, Shep has managed Alice Cooper and along the way has helped to sculpt the careers of a whole host of friends in the entertainment industry. 

Winners of five reader-voted categories were also announced through the evening. 

As well as Sabbath's Best Album nod, The Temperance Movement were voted Best New Band, while Band of the Year went to the Rolling Stones after their sell-out Hyde Park gigs and Glastonbury headlining slot. Fellow rock legends Fleetwood Mac and Led Zeppelin were also winners picking up Re-issue Of The Year for ‘Rumours – 35th Anniversary Edition’ and Film Of The Year for ‘Celebration Day’ respectively.

Finally, closing the night with a red-hot performance, The Darkness walked away with the Showmen Award. 

Classic Rock Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Scott Rowley said: “This year's winners are a who's who of British pioneers, from Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, the Stones and Fleetwood Mac winning the popular vote to John Mayall, Mott The Hoople and Wilko Johnson honoured in our special awards. 

"And with The Temperance Movement and Virginmarys coming through there's still hope for the future of British rock too.”

The full list of winners is: 

The Living Legend Award (sponsored by Orange Amplification) – Black Sabbath

Event Of The Year (sponsored by Roadrunner) – Black Sabbath go to #1 spot

Breakthrough Award – Virginmarys

The Musicians’ Union Maestro – James Dean Bradfield

Tommy Vance Inspiration Award (sponsored by Spinefarm Records) – Rory Gallagher

Outstanding Contribution (sponsored by Monitor Audio) – Mott the Hoople

Classic Album (sponsored by Eagle Rock) – ‘Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton’ – John Mayall

V.I.P. Award (sponsored by currencies.co.uk) – Shep Gordon

Metal Guru (sponsored by Mascot Label Group) – Zakk Wylde

Best New Band (sponsored by Kraken) – The Temperance Movement

Album Of The Year (sponsored by Live Nation) – Black Sabbath ‘13’

Reissue Of The Year (sponsored by Alchemy) – Fleetwood Mac ‘Rumours 35th Anniversary Edition’

Film Of The Year  – Led Zeppelin ‘Celebration Day’

Band Of The Year (sponsored by Investec) – The Rolling Stones

Spirit Of Prog (sponsored by USM / UMC) – Alex Lifeson

The Showmen – The Darkness

Innovator – Wilko Johnson

Bragg wins top award at AIM Awards

Outstanding...Billy Bragg

THE 2013 Independent Music Awards took place in London’s East End this evening with Billy Bragg, Macklemore, Enter Shikari and Daughter among the winners on the night.

The evening – hosted by BBC 6Music’s Steve Lamacq and BBC Radio 1’s Huw Stephens – kicked off with a performance from Franz Ferdinand before Richard Hawley presented Lamacq with a Special Recognition Award from the Association of Independent Music (AIM) to mark his 20th year at the BBC.

As Stephens told the audience the night was “about celebrating the community and shining a spotlight on the incredible talent you support”, the awards giving-out got under way in earnest.

First award of the night went to AlcopopRecords for Best Small Label before The XX picked up the Best Difficult Second Album gong for their LP Coexist.

Next up was the Special Catalogue Release of the Year, which was Cherry Red Records’ Scared To Get Happy – A Story Of Indie Pop from 1980 to 1989. This was followed by the Hardest Working Band/Artist gong, which was taken by Frankie & the Heartstrings.

Ghostpoet presented In The Woods with the Golden Welly Award for Best Independent Festival, before Macklemore and Ryan Lewis scored the Independent Breakthrough of the Year title – the first of two for the Thrift Shop artist.

Recognition...Steve Lamacq

The awards continued to come thick and fast and next up was the Indie Champion Award, which was handed to Gilles Peterson. This was followed by the Independent Video of the Year, which was won by Django Django for WOR.

Next came one of the big awards of the night as Enter Shikari scooped the Best Live Act gong, while Vampire Weekend landed the Independent Track of the Year honour for Diane Young.

Daughter then picked up the coveted Independent Album of the Year for If You Leave, before Macklemore and Ryan Lewis scooped their second honour of the night with the PPL Award for the Most Played New Independent Act.

Then came three of the biggest awards of the night. First up was Independent Label of the Year, which was won by Warp.

Pioneer...Geoff Travis

Then came the Pioneer Award, which was won by Rough Trade founder Geoff Travis, who not only received two standing ovations from the audience, but also got a tribute film from Pussy Riot from outside The Kremlin.

And the last award of the night was the Outstanding Contribution to Music, which was presented by Glastonbury guru Michael Eavis. Billy Bragg was the recipient and Eavis said: “Billy is an exceptional singer songwriter, born a crusader, and thankfully has used his skills to accompany his political gripes."

Bragg then performed a few tracks including NoOne Knows Nothing Anymore – which he dedicated to the major labels – and finished with A New England before receiving his second standing ovation of the night.

Polaris shortlist announced

Arcade Fire won the award in 2011 for The Suburbs

THE shortlist for Canada's Polaris Music Prize was announced earlier this week.

The list of 10 features three repeat appearances alongside seven newcomers for the award, which "celebrates and rewards creativity and diversity in Canadian recorded music".

It is similar to the UK's Mercury Music Prize and past Album Of The Year winners - who land $30,000 include Arcade Fire.

This year's shortlist is:

Godspeed You! Black Emperor – ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!

Zaki Ibrahim – Every Opposite

Metric – Synthetica

METZ – METZ

Purity Ring – Shrines

Colin Stetson – New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light

Tegan and Sara – Heartthrob

A Tribe Called Red – Nation II Nation

Whitehorse – The Fate of the World Depends on This Kiss

Young Galaxy – Ultramarine

Founder and executive director of the awards, Steve Jordan, said: "This moody and exciting list is proof that the ‘Canadian sound’ has no stylistic boundaries."

The awards bash takes place in Toronto on September 23 and Spotify users can visit https://play.spotify.com/user/polarismusic prize to sample the nominated acts.