The 1983 ceremony was held on 21st February 1984, to celebrate the music of the preceding year. It was simulcast on BBC TV and BBC Radio 1, and was held at The Lyceum in London. It was presented by David Jensen and Sarah Kennedy. Unfortunately, relatively little information was available about the final ceremony at the time that this article was researched.
Best Single
In the award for Best Single were True, by Spandau Ballet, in third place, and Duran Duran with Is There Something I Should Know? in second place.
Winner: Culture Club, for Karma Chameleon
Further Details
Paul McCartney appeared on video at the awards, presumably having won something.
By the following year, the BPI Awards (later the BRITs) were swiftly gaining momentum, and were well on the way to becoming the definitive British music award ceremony. They were also fully televised, for the first time since 1977, effectively taking the place of the British Rock & Pop Awards. Whether that’s the reason why these awards were discontinued, or whether there’s some other reason, is long lost in the mists of time.
For comparison, the 1984 BPI Awards can be viewed here. Culture Club won there, and Spandau Ballet received a technical award, but Duran Duran were entirely overlooked.
This week’s movie soundtrack comes direct from 1984, while the original movie was released all the way back in 1926. As a huge fan of the original film, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this album – on the one hand it’s the legendary Metropolis, with a soundtrack by the legendary Giorgio Moroder. On the other hand, it is pretty awful. But I haven’t actually seen this version of the film, so I can only really judge the soundtrack on its own merits.
First up is Freddie Mercury delivering a typically lively performance on Love Kills, which also sees Giorgio Moroder excelling himself with an enormous 1980s backing track. It doesn’t always quite seem to complement Mercury’s vocal, but by and large it works. Whether or not you think it’s any good will probably depend on how you feel about the performers, but however you look at it, this is a pretty strong opening track.
Next we get Pat Benatar to perform a pretty poor song called Here’s My Heart. Although written and mixed by Moroder, he doesn’t seem to have had much a say on this particular track unfortunately. Jon Anderson (of And Vangelis fame) turns up after that for the entirely competent Cage of Freedom, followed by Cycle V with Blood from a Stone.
Without having seen it, it’s difficult to even begin to imagine how this might have sounded as the actual accompaniment to the film. At times you wonder how it ever could have worked, but at others it’s rather more clear, such as the pleasant instrumental The Legend of Babel, which closes side A. But even in its better moments, it is, unfortunately, extremely dated. It might well be only thirty years since its release, but it sounds like considerably more.
Side B opens with Bonnie Tyler, whose heart seems to have recovered to the degree that she can deliver Here She Comes with some degree of flair. It doesn’t help hugely – it’s a pretty poor song, but she’s doing her best.
Slightly better, but still very much a 1980s power ballad is Destruction by Loverboy. You can almost see them making silly faces on Top of the Pops when you listen to this. Was it just that Moroder’s sound was so defining of the early eighties, or did he go out of his way to make this album sound as dated as possible? It’s difficult to be sure.
The later tracks don’t really help matters, as Billy Squier and Adam Ant do their level best with On Your Own and What’s Going On, but neither really achieves a huge amount unfortunately. Finally, Moroder turns up again for another instrumental, Machines, which this time proves just to be a bit of fairly aimless synth noodling.
I’ll watch it one day, but for all I know the Giorgio Moroder version of Metropolis may work extremely well. It is, however, difficult to see how this album might reach its sixtieth birthday and stand the test of time anywhere near as well as the film had when it was released in this form. Best avoided.
The 1999 reissue of Metropolis still seems to be available from major retailers, such as here. You can find the DVD of this version here.
Noel Edmonds was at the helm on February 10th 1986 at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. The BRIT Awards official website proudly tells us that Norman Tebbitt‘s appearance to present the Outstanding Contribution award brought “the first hint of official recognition.” Others might argue it signed a death warrant for the awards, but there we go.
This post is part of a series about the history of the BRIT Awards. You can read about the 1985 ceremony here, and the 1987 ceremony here.
Best British Album
Presented by Daryl Hall. Nominees:
Kate Bush – Hounds of Love
Phil Collins – No Jacket Required
Dire Straits – Brothers in Arms
Eurythmics – Be Yourself Tonight
Tears for Fears – Songs from the Big Chair
Winner: Phil Collins
Best British Female
Presented by Paul Young. Nominees:
Kate Bush
Annie Lennox
Alison Moyet
Sade
Bonnie Tyler
Winner: Annie Lennox
Best British Group
Presented by Joan Armatrading. Nominees:
Dire Straits
Eurythmics
Simple Minds
Tears for Fears
U2
Winner: Dire Straits
Best British Male
Presented by Alison Moyet. Nominees:
Phil Collins
Elton John
Sting
Midge Ure
Paul Young
Winner: Phil Collins
Best British Newcomer
Voted for by listeners of BBC Radio 1. Presented by Gary Davies.
Winner: Go West
Best British Producer
Presented by Howard Jones. Nominees:
Trevor Horn
Chris Hughes
Steve Lilywhite
David A. Stewart
Hugh Padgham
Winner: David A. Stewart
Best British Single
Presented by Roger Daltry. Nominees:
David Bowie and Mick Jagger – Dancing in the Street
Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill
Dire Straits – Money for Nothing
Paul Hardcastle – Nineteen
Tears for Fears – Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Winner: Tears for Fears
Best British Video
Nominees:
David Bowie and Mick Jagger – Dancing in the Street
On February 21st 1984, Tim Rice was standing on stage at the Grosvenor House Hotel, about to introduce the fourth BRIT Awards. This post is part of a series about the history of the BRIT Awards. You can read about the 1983 ceremony here, and the 1985 ceremony here.
It’s a little bit tricky to know what to say about this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, as I haven’t actually seen it yet. To tell the truth, the chances are I’m unlikely to, as it’s not really the kind of thing you want to watch except on the night.
Anyway – here are a couple of highlights and observations. What were yours?
More than just fjords and rollmops
The Norwegian entry was performed by former Pop Idolstars Factor – The Rivals contestant Margaret Berger, who has been responsible for some great songs in the past, so inevitably it was going to be pretty good. It fought its way to fourth place:
Old Blighty
Despite their best efforts bringing back Bonnie Tyler, Engelbert Humperdinck and Blue from the dead, Britain still hasn’t been anywhere near the top for over a decade. They’ve even managed to finish in the bottom three an alarming number of times. This year Britain snuck a few points out of friends Malta and Ireland, as well as Spain, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia and Switzerland.
Trouble in the Caucasus
So what exactly happened in Azerbaijan? Did they really bribe people in Lithuania for their votes? Did a load of people really vote for Russia and then have their votes annulled? The suggestion seems to be that a number of very fishy things happened in the Caucasus this year, but you do have to wonder slightly how likely that is. Why would anybody go to that much effort to sabotage a song contest?
Well, they did manage second place in the end, so maybe.
Through Hell and high water
There are always suggestions of block voting. Russia, Azerbaijan, and Ukraine all have plenty of neighbours, so by that argument it’s not surprising that they did so well again.
But it didn’t work so well for Armenia, Georgia, Estonia, or any of the other large countries languishing near the bottom of the table. They voted for one another, sure. But perhaps it’s got more to do with their cultures having a little more in common than some of the others.
And save a thought for France, who haven’t been anywhere near the top for a couple of decades now. None of their neighbours could be bothered voting for them. Although if they will insist on putting forward a song called Hell and Me, that may not be too surprising.
Returning to the top
Proof, perhaps, that your success isn’t solely dependent on your past performance. They haven’t been too close to a win for over a decade, and they even have to fight their way up through the semi-finals these days. This year’s winner came from Amelia of the Forest; the third ever win for Denmark:
As a general rule, the further back you go in the history of what we now call the BRIT Awards, the harder it becomes to find information about them. And the 1977 ceremony was the very first of the lot, so sure enough finding information about the awards is nigh on impossible. This post is going to be relatively short.
But it needs to be done, so let’s cast ourselves back a long way into the past, right back to October 18th 1977. Michael Aspel is our host, and the venue is Wembley Conference Centre, London.
The event was a celebration of music, but it was also timed to celebrate two anniversaries – it was 100 years since Thomas Edison invented the sound recording, and also the Queen’s Silver Jubilee year. By coincidence, it was also almost exactly 25 years since the publication of the first UK chart, but it’s not clear to me whether anybody realised this at the time. Nominations were for the best music of the preceding 25 years, which is why they are a little eclectic in places, although for all of that, there’s a very definite 1970s bias.
Best British Album
Nominees:
Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)
Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells (1973)
The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
Winner: The Beatles.
Best British Female
Nominees:
Cleo Lane
Dusty Springfield
Shirley Bassey
Petula Clark
Jazz singer Dame Cleo Lane is probably the least famous of the bunch. Despite managing a couple of hit singles in the 1960s, she must have been a lot more popular with “the industry” than the public! Or maybe not…
Winner: Shirley Bassey.
Best British Female Newcomer
Nominees:
Bonnie Tyler
Julie Covington
Julie, of course, had the honour of recording the original version of Don’t Cry for Me Argentina, which had hit number one in February 1977. An album would follow in 1978, and then she returned to the theatre.
Winner: Julie Covington.
Best British Group
Rather predictable nominees:
The Beatles
Pink Floyd
Rolling Stones
The Who
Winner: The Beatles. Who would have thought it?
Best British Male
Another predictable bunch:
Cliff Richard
Elton John
Rod Stewart
Tom Jones
Winner: Cliff Richard.
Best British Male Newcomer
Nominees:
Graham Parker
Heatwave
Here’s an interesting pair. Graham Parker wouldn’t release any solo material until 1979, and so we have to assume that the nomination was for his work with The Rumour, which had included hit singles with Hold Back the Night and Sweet on You earlier in 1977. He would carry on recording for a long time after, but never managed to regain his initial success.
Heatwave, on the other hand, had already had a number two hit with Boogie Nights, and would continue hitting the top twenty for the next three years. So who won?
Winner: Graham Parker. Hindsight, it seems, is a fine thing!
Best Comedy Recording
I’m assuming that’s what this award was for – The BRITs website lists it under the wrong category. Nominees:
Monty Python
Richard Burton & Cast
Tony Hancock
Winner: unfortunately history doesn’t record who won!
Best British Producer
Nominees:
George Martin
Glyn Johns
Gus Dudgeon
Mickie Most
As is normal with the Best Producer category, I’ve never heard of most of these, but I’m not proposing looking them up…
Winner: George Martin.
Best British Single
Nominees:
10cc – I’m Not in Love (1975)
Procul Harum – Whiter Shade of Pale (1967)
Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody (1975)
The Beatles – She Loves You (1963)
Winner: a tie, shared by Procul Harum…
… and Queen.
Best Classical Recording
Nominees:
Janet Baker – Das Lied von der Erde
John Williams – Guitar Concerto – Rodrigo
Winner: again, history doesn’t record who won this!
Best International Pop Album
Nominees:
Abba – Arrival (1976)
Carole King – Tapestry (1971)
Simon & Garfunkel – Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)
Stevie Wonder – Songs in the Key of Life (1976)
Winner: Simon & Garfunkel.
Best International Pop Single
Nominees:
Elvis Presley – Jailhouse Rock (1957)
Frank Sinatra – My Way (1969)
Ike & Tina Turner – River Deep, Mountain High (1966)
Simon & Garfunkel – Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)
Elvis, of course, had only passed away a couple of months prior to this ceremony.
Winner: unknown.
Best Orchestral Album
Nominees:
Oliver Knussen – War Requiem
Otto Klemperer – Beethoven Symphonies
Sir Adrian Boult – The Planet Suite
Sir Georg Solti – Wagner Ring Cycle
Otto Klemperer is my favourite, mainly because he wouldn’t have looked out of place in a silent movie. Actually, since he was born in 1885, he probably was in one.
Winner: unknown.
Outstanding Contribution
Joint winners: The Beatles and L.G. Wood.
The story of L.G. Wood is sadly forgotten in the internet age (OK, he isn’t on Wikipedia), but the BRITs website describes him as “a remarkable figure”. He was chairman of the BPI and EMI in 1977, and was apparently the person who originally signed The Beatles.
Music for stowaways 