In this final post (probably ever) about the British Rock & Pop Awards, I wanted to round out what we do know about the eight-year history of this ceremony. There weren’t too many awards each year, so this should be fairly brief.
Best Female Singer
1976: Kiki Dee
1978: Kate Bush
1979: Kate Bush
1980: Sheena Easton
1981: Toyah
1982: Alison Moyet
1983: unknown
Daily Mirror Readers’ Award for the Outstanding Pop Personality
1976: David Essex
1978: Ian Dury
1979: Paul McCartney
1980: Cliff Richard
1981: Adam Ant
1982: Boy George
1983: unknown
Best Group or Band
1976: Status Quo (Top Hard Rock Band), Wings (Top Pop Group), Wings (Top Rock Group)
1978: Bee Gees
1979: The Police
1980: The Police
1981: Adam and the Ants
1982: Duran Duran
1983: unknown
Best Male Singer
1976: David Essex (Best Male Singer), Paul McCartney (Best Male Group Singer)
1978: Leo Sayer
1979: Gary Numan
1980: David Bowie
1981: Shakin’ Stevens
1982: Simon Le Bon
1983: unknown
Best Album
1976: Bay City Rollers – Dedication
1978: Electric Light Orchestra – Out of the Blue
1979: The Police – Regatta de Blanc
1980: The Police – Zenyatta Mondatta
1981: The Human League – Dare
1982: Duran Duran – Rio
1983: unknown
Best Single
1976: Elton John & Kiki Dee – Don’t Go Breaking My Heart
1978: Gerry Rafferty – Baker Street
1979: Boomtown Rats – I Don’t Like Mondays
1980: The Jam – Going Underground
1981: Ultravox – Vienna
1982: Dexys Midnight Runners – Come On Eileen
1983: Culture Club – Karma Chameleon
Radio 1’s Disc Jockeys’ Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Pop Music
1976: unknown
1978: Nick Lowe
1979: Jerry Dammers
1980: John Lennon
1981: unknown
1982: unknown
1983: unknown
Nationwide Golden Award for the Artist or Group with the Most All-Round Family Appeal
1976: unknown
1978: Barron Knights
1979: unknown
1980: The Nolans
1981: unknown
1982: unknown
1983: unknown
Best Newcomer
1976: John Miles (Best New Singer), Real Thing (Best New Group)
1978: unknown
1979: unknown
1980: unknown
1981: unknown
1982: unknown
1983: unknown
Best Instrumentalist
1976: Eric Faulkner
Best Disc Jockey
1976: Noel Edmonds
Unknown Awards
1977: The Stranglers
You can see full details (or as much as my research was able to reveal) for all events below: 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983.
The 1982 ceremony was held on 9th February 1983, to celebrate the music of the preceding year. The ceremony took place at The Lyceum in London, and was presented by Anne Diamond and David “Kid” Jensen.
On 15th January, Tommy Vance and Kid Jensen voiced this promo for the awards for BBC Radio 1 (also trailed here). There’s some early coverage from Nationwide, below:
Best Female Singer
Winner: Alison Moyet
Daily Mirror Readers’ Award for the Outstanding Pop Personality
Winner: Boy George
Best Group or Band
Winner: Duran Duran
Best Male Singer
Presented by Toyah Willcox. Winner: Simon Le Bon
Best Album
Nominees included:
ABC – Lexicon of Love
Duran Duran – Rio
Madness – Complete Madness
ABC ended up in third place; Madness in second; and the winner was Duran Duran
Best Single
Nominees included:
Adam Ant – Goody Two Shoes
Dexys Midnight Runners – Come On Eileen
Musical Youth – Pass the Dutchie
Winner: Dexy’s Midnight Runners
Nationwide Golden Award for the Artist or Group with the Most All-Round Family Appeal
Winner: unknown
Further Details
Performances
Bananarama
The Belle Stars
Imagination
Junior
Kim Wilde – View from a Bridge
Comparison with the BRIT Awards
The 1983 BPI Awards can be viewed here, and was a very different ceremony. Alison Moyet wasn’t yet the ceremony favourite, and Boy George and Duran Duran failed to win too.
The 1981 ceremony was held on 8th February 1982, to celebrate the music of the preceding year. The ceremony took place at the Lyceum, London, and was presented by Dave Lee Travis and SueCook.
Best Female Singer
Winner: Toyah
Daily Mirror Readers’ Award for the Outstanding Pop Personality
Winner: Adam Ant
Best Group or Band
Winner: Adam and the Ants
Best Male Singer
Winner: Shakin’ Stevens
Best Album
Winner: The Human League, for Dare
Best Single
Winner: Ultravox, for Vienna
Nationwide Golden Award for the Artist or Group with the Most All-Round Family Appeal
If you would like to see the comparison, the 1982 BRIT Awards are covered here. While the nominee list was similar, Toyah Willcox and Shakin’ Stevens failed to win, and Ultravox and Bananarama weren’t even nominated.
From 1982 (confusingly the 1981 ceremony thanks to the year numbering) onwards, the British Rock & Pop Awards were happening concurrently with the British Record Industry Awards (later the BPI Awards, and even later the BRIT Awards).
1979
The awards for 1979 seem to have taken place on 26th February 1980. Simulcast on BBC TV and BBC Radio 1, and again at the Café Royal, London (see BFI record). Presented by Dave Lee Travis and Sue Lawley. Awards included:
Best Single
Best Album
Best Male Singer
Best Female Singer
Best Group or Band
Radio 1’s Disc Jockeys’ Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Pop Music
Daily Mirror Readers’ Award for the Outstanding Pop Personality
Nationwide Golden Award for the artist or group with the most all-round family appeal
Presenters included Barron Knights, Kate Bush, Marianne Faithfull, Andy Gibb, and Leo Sayer.
Rick Wakeman presented The Police with the Best Album award for Regatta de Blanc.
Kate Bush seems to have either won Best Female Singer for a second year running, or the previous entry was an error (see here). Paul McCartney won the Daily Mirror Readers’ Award.
Dave Lee Travis introduced John Peel to present Jerry Dammers with Radio 1’s Disc Jockeys’ Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Pop Music for his work with The Specials. Apparently Gary Numan also won “multiple awards” (see video entry for next year).
1980
Again presented by Dave Lee Travis and Sue Lawley (see BFI record here) on 24th February 1981. This entry on a Wikipedia talk page is largely apocryphal, but mentions The Jam winning the Best Single Award for Going Underground, which is mentioned in more detail here.
Best Male Singer nominees included:
Gary Numan
Cliff Richard
Paul McCartney
David Bowie
Winner: David Bowie. Presented by Lulu. See also image here and entry here. There’s an alternative recording of the video here.
Ultravox were nominated for Best Video for Passing Strangers, but failed to win.
Showaddywaddy were also in attendance according to this page, and Madness, Adam and the Ants, Hazel O’Connor, Hot Chocolate, Madness, and Ronnie Hazlehurst and HisOrchestra all performed (see here).
1981
The 1981 ceremony took place on 8th February 1982 at the Lyceum, London, and were presented by Dave Lee Travis and SueCook (see BFI record).
Shakin’ Stevens also won the Best Male Singer award (see here), while Duran Duran were nominated for Best Newcomer, and performed Girls on Film and My Own Way (see here). Bananarama performed Shy Boy (see here).
If you would like to see the comparison, the 1982 BRIT Awards are covered here.
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.
The third ceremony took place at Grosvenor House Hotel in London on 8th February 1983, where it was presented by Tim Rice.
This post is part of a series about the history of the BRIT Awards. You can read about the 1982 ceremony here, and the 1984 ceremony in a couple of days’ time.
Since there’s not a lot of video of the 1983 ceremony, here’s some BBC coverage:
Four and a bit years took place between the first ceremony in 1977 and its follow-up. Apparently perturbed by the domination of television at the previous ceremony, the “record industry” decided to reclaim its own awards. So there were no live performances, and there was no TV broadcast this year… and therefore no videos.
Now though, let’s transport ourselves back to London’s Grosvenor House Hotel on 4th February 1982, where David Jacobs is our host for the evening.
Best British Album
Nominees:
Adam and the Ants – Kings of the Wild Frontier
The Human League – Dare
Queen – Queen’s Greatest Hits
Winner: Adam and the Ants.
Best British Female
Nominees:
Randy Crawford
Sheena Easton
Toyah Wilcox
Winner: Randy Crawford.
Best British Group
Nominees:
Adam and the Ants
Madness
The Police
Winner: The Police.
Best British Male
Nominees:
Elvis Costello
Cliff Richard
Shakin’ Stevens
Winner: Cliff Richard.
Best British Newcomer
In a quite astonishing line-up of nominations, Depeche Mode were pitted against The Human League and Soft Cell, as well as some other people you’ve probably never heard of:
Depeche Mode
The Human League
Linx
Soft Cell
Toyah Wilcox
Winner: The Human League.
Best British Producer
Nominees:
Stuart Colman
Chris Neil
Martin Rushent
Winner: Martin Rushent.
Best British Single
Nominees:
Adam and the Ants – Prince Charming
Adam and the Ants – Stand and Deliver
Soft Cell – Tainted Love
Winner: Soft Cell.
Best Classical Recording
Nominees:
James Levine – Tosca – Puccini – Scotto
Simon Rattle – Symphony No. 10 – Mahler
Vernon Handley – Pomp and Circumstance
Winner: Simon Rattle.
Outstanding Contribution
Unlike the 1977 award, which was shared between two winners, this time there were three prospective nominees for the Outstanding Contribution award. They were:
As promised, today we start our journey through the BRIT Awards ceremonies of the past. We begin way back on 11th February 1985 at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London, where Noel Edmonds is introducing the BPI Awards 1985:
The year we’re celebrating, 1984, is, as we now know, one of the most important years in electronic pop music. This ceremony is also among the best documented of any of them. But having seen what we’ve seen in recent years, this is a fascinatingly corporate affair. As we’ll see Edmonds, the James Cordon of his day, does a great job, but the show is almost entirely lacking in glitz, glamour, or indeed Mr. Blobby. As he says, there were fourteen awards altogether, so based on various online sources here’s my relatively complete record of the 1985 ceremony.
Best British Female Solo Artist
Presented by Sting. Nominees:
Annie Lennox
Alison Moyet
Sade
Tracey Ullman
Kim Wilde
Winner: Alison Moyet.
Best British Album
Presented by Pete Townsend, somewhat the worse for wear. I’m not sure what Noel means when he says “he was the recipient of a special award” – in a previous year perhaps? Anyway, nominees:
Sade – Diamond Life
Nik Kershaw – Human Racing
U2 – The Unforgettable Fire
Queen – The Works
Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Welcome to the Pleasuredome
In subsequent years, U2 would be forced into the International categories, so it’s strange that they were nominated here, but there we go.
Winner: Sade.
Best Classical Recording
Presented by Richard Baker out of The 1930s. Nominees:
Arnold Bax Symphony No. 4 – Ulster Orchestra conducted by Bryden Thomson
Britten’s The Turn of the Screw – Royal Opera House Orchestra conducted by Sir Colin Davis
Mozart’s The Magic Flute – Rundfunkchor Leipzig and Staatskapelle Dresden conducted by Sir Colin Davis
Verdi’s Il Travatore – Orchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini
Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons – The Academy of Ancient Music conducted by Christopher Hogwood
Winner: Vivaldi‘s Four Seasons.
Best British Group
Presented by Rick Parfitt and Francis Rossi from Status Quo, who at the time had recently given up touring apparently. Before starting again a couple of years later. Nominees:
Bronski Beat
Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Queen
U2
Wham!
Winner: Wham!
Best British Producer
Presented by George Martin. Nominees:
Peter Collins
Steve Jolley and Tony Swain
Laurie Latham
Steve Lillywhite
Trevor Horn
Apparently it’s about time he won it for the third time running. Winner: Trevor Horn, who seems to have attended with an animal on his head.
Best British Single
Frankie Goes to Hollywood stood a pretty good chance of winning this one. Nominees:
Bronski Beat – Smalltown Boy
Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Relax
Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Two Tribes
George Michael – Careless Whisper
Sade – Smooth Operator
Winner: Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Relax.
Best British Male Solo Artist
Presented by Toyah Willcox. Nominees:
David Bowie
Howard Jones
Nik Kershaw
Paul McCartney
Paul Young
Unfortunately I can’t work out how to embed this video, but you can watch it in full here.
The winner is, of course, Paul Young.
Best Soundtrack / Cast Recording
Presented by Barbara Dickson and Elaine Paige. Nominees:
Electric Dreams (various artists)
Footloose (various artists)
Give My Regards to Broad Street (Paul McCartney)
Purple Rain (Prince and the Revolution)
The Woman in Red (Stevie Wonder and Dionne Warwick)
Winner: Purple Rain.
Best International Artist
Presented by a rather confused Holly Johnson out of Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Nominees:
Michael Jackson
Prince and the Revolution
Lionel Richie
Bruce Springsteen
ZZ Top
Winner: a decidedly bemused Prince, but without The Revolution in tow.
Radio 1 Best British Newcomer
Presented by Steve Wright in the afternoon.
Make sure you pay attention to Steve’s advice to stop taping records off the radio. As he says, it’s very, very naughty. Also in a fascinatingly off-colour joke, we learn that apparently Michael Jackson isn’t gay.
Winner: Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
Remember, Relax was banned on BBC Radio 1, so I’m particularly intrigued that their listeners would have voted for them in such numbers!
Edit: by strange coincidence The Guardian decided to celebrate the same ceremony by publishing Neil Tennant‘s review from Smash Hits, which you can read here. Thanks to daveid on the Pet Shop Boys forum for spotting this one.
Edit: removed two videos that are no longer available (13 August 2017).
