Random jukebox – The Avalanches

There doesn’t seem to be an official video for this, so let’s just watch some artwork here, for the brilliant Flight Tonight, from The Avalanches‘ 2000 debut album Since I Left You.

Revisiting The British Rock & Pop Awards

I had never heard of The British Rock & Pop Awards until about 2014, when I was researching my complete history of the BRIT Awards. I kept finding references online to how they had previously been known as The British Rock & Pop Awards, and while it quickly became apparent that this was not true, I think I can now see why that was such a popular opinion.

Both awards series seem to have started in early 1977, but the British Record Industry Awards, which was the one that actually evolved into the BRIT Awards, was held once in 1977 and then not again until 1982, and apart from the initial ceremony, it wasn’t televised until 1985. The British Rock & Pop Awards, meanwhile, were held annually from 1977 to 1984, and were televised every year, so inevitably they captured the popular opinion rather more during that time.

I first explored the British Rock & Pop Awards back in 2014, over a series of three posts (1976-1978, 1979-1981, and 1982-1984), but in retrospect those posts are a bit of a mess, plus readers Gary Jordan and Henrique Reikdal were kind enough to unearth some new (to me) information, which in turn led me to new information which either wasn’t available online or managed to escape my attention when I researched the awards series previously.

So this time I’ve gone back to my original research and cross-checked everything meticulously, and will put up a new post with the results of my work every week for the next few weeks. Sorry for the suspense, and sorry if you find that a bit slow, but I hope you find them interesting!

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Random jukebox – Way Out West

The brilliant Way Out West here, from 2004, with Just Like a Man.

Chart for stowaways – June 2020

June still saw Pet Shop Boys dominating, with Hotspot still at the top of the albums, and now My beautiful laundrette at the top of the albums. Kraftwerk continued to float around all of the charts, and we finally saw the long-awaited return of The Grid, with their new remix of Floatation.

Here are the singles from 13th June:

1. Pet Shop Boys – My beautiful laundrette
2. The Beloved – Grin
3. Pet Shop Boys – West End Girls
4. Pet Shop Boys – I don’t wanna
5. Pet Shop Boys – Will-o-the-wisp
6. Scotts/Travis Scott/Kid Cudi – The Scotts
7. The Beloved – Forever Dancing
8. The Grid – Floatation
9. Kraftwerk – Taschenrechner
10. Soft Cell – Potential

Preview – Kraftwerk

One of the greatest things about Kraftwerk is that even their bootlegs have taken on a degree of mystique. Their latest, Soest Live, has just reappeared with lovely artwork, and is available here. If you prefer not to give your money away for bootlegs, you can also watch the whole thing below, in its glorious experimental pre-Autobahn fame. Why not join in with the audience and jiggle around a bit while you watch?

Grammy Awards 2020

You probably gathered from previous years’ posts that I generally find the Grammy Awards a bit silly – there are just too many over-specific categories for it really to be meaningful. But it’s worth trawling through them once a year to see what happened, so here’s a summary for 2020!

#9 Best Dance Recording

The Chemical Brothers beat Bonobo and others to win this with Got to Keep On. They were also nominated for We’ve Got to Try for Best Music Video.

#10 Best Dance/Electronic Album

The Chemical Brothers won this too, for No Geography, beating Apparat‘s LP5, Tycho‘s latest, and others.

#16 Best Alternative Music Album

Thom Yorke won for Anima, which was also nominated for Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package and Best Music Film. He was also nominated for Best Song Written For Visual Media, for Suspirium.

#51 Best World Music Album

Angelique Kidjo won for Celia.

That’s about all I could find, although I must confess I’m intrigued by the nominations for Best Immersive Audio Album, and a few others. If you have the patience to work through the full list of nominees and winners yourself, visit the official website here, and click on “Read More”.

Preview – Nicolas Jaar

Instrumentalist Nicolas Jaar is back with another album Telas. I don’t honestly know anything much about it, but here’s All One as a taster:

Q Awards 2019

I’m still reeling from the news that Q Magazine is no longer with us, but it seems a fair assumption that the Q Awards probably won’t happen again any time soon. Tickets are still on sale for the event on 14th October 2020, at an eye-watering £999 per person, so let’s hope I’m wrong about that, but either way, I never got around to summarising last Autumn’s Q Awards ceremony, so let’s jump onto it now.

The 2019 event took place at N on N, and were presented by Nadine Shah.

Q Best Breakthrough Act Presented by Red Stripe

Nominees:

• Lewis Capaldi
• Gerry Cinnamon
• Easy Life
• Sam Fender
• Fontaines DC
• Little Simz
• Pale Waves
• Rosalía
• Self Esteem
• Slowthai
• AJ Tracey
• Working Men’s Club

Winner: Pale Waves

Q Best Track Presented by Absolute Radio

Nominees:

• Lewis Capaldi – Someone You Loved
• Billie Eilish – Bad Guy
• FKA Twigs – Cellophane
• JARV IS – Must I Evolve
• Lizzo – Juice
• Róisín Murphy – Incapable
• The 1975 – People
• AJ Tracey – Ladbroke Grove
• Stormzy – Vossi Bop
• Vampire Weekend – Harmony Hall

Winner: Lewis Capaldi

Q Best Album

Nominees:

• Dave – Psychodrama
• Lana Del Rey – Norman Fucking Rockwell
• Billie Eilish – When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
• Fat White Family – Serfs Up
• Foals – Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost (Part 1)
• Little Simz – Grey Area
• The 1975 – A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships
• Sleaford Mods – Eton Alive
• Slowthai – Nothing Great About Britain
• Sharon Van Etten – Remind Me Tomorrow

Winner: Foals

Q Best Live Performance Presented by The Cavern Club

Nominees:

• The Courteeners – Heaton Park
• Doves – TCT at Royal Albert Hall
• Florence & The Machine – BST Hyde Park
• Ariana Grande – The O2
• Michael Kiwanuka – End of the Road
• The 1975 – Reading Festival
• Stormzy – Glastonbury
• The Streets – Brixton Academy
• The Strokes – All Points East
• Neil Young & Bob Dylan – BST Hyde Park

Winner: Michael Kiwanuka

Q Best Solo Act

Nominees:

• Lewis Capaldi
• Loyle Carner
• Dave
• Billie Eilish
• Liam Gallagher
• Aldous Harding
• Kano
• Stormzy
• Kate Tempest
• Florence Welch

Winner: Stormzy

Q Best Act In The World Today Presented by Rocksteady Music School

Nominees:

• Arctic Monkeys
• Christine and the Queens
• Biffy Clyro
• Lana Del Rey
• Billie Eilish
• Florence And The Machine
• Liam Gallagher
• The 1975
• Bruce Springsteen
• Stormzy

Winner: The 1975

Q Best Festival/Event

Nominees:

• All Points East
• British Summer Time
• Glastonbury
• Isle of Wight Festival
• Latitude
• Reading and Leeds Festival

Winner: All Points East

Q Innovation In Sound

Winner: Dizzie Rascal

Q Classic Album

Winner: Tricky, for Maxinquaye

Q Maverick Presented by The Roundhouse

Winner: Edwyn Collins

Fender Play Award

Winner: Anna Calvi

Q Outstanding Contribution To Music

Winner: Kano

Q Classic Songwriter

Winner: Kevin Rowland

Q Inspiration

Winner: Madness

Q Icon Presented by Raymond Weil

Winner: Christine and the Queens

Q Hero

Winner: Kim Gordon

Q Song Of The Decade

Winner: Lana Del Rey, for Video Games

Q Best Vocal Performance

Winner: Little Simz

Preview – Paul van Dyk

Sometimes a bit of familiarity is a good thing, but it’s fair to say that the Paul van Dyk of 2020 sounds a lot like the Paul van Dyk of 2000. Either way, he’s back with a new album called Guiding Light, and this is Duality: