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Meteor Award Nominations

Jan 28

Written by:
Wednesday, January 28, 2009

If the Choice Music Prize is the Irish version of the Mercury Music Prize then the Meteor Music Awards are our very own version of Liverpool FC, i.e. predictable and boring.

According to a number of sources, including Drop-D and On The Record, the Meteor Music Award nominations were leaked online yesterday. Though they will be officially announced today (28th) it would appear that the people behind the Meteors haven't figured out that the secret to a good awards show is variety.

This is Key Notes second draft of this particular blog. The first draft was your typical 'how come my favourite band wasn't chosen' blog. However, while writing that, Key Notes had something of a 'Road to Damascus' moment. Not that I'm suddenly a God botherer or anything of the sort, but this blog now realises what 'normal' people have be trying to tell him for ages; music awards don't really mean all that much. Of course, Aslan winning best band at last years Meteors should have been enough for Key Notes to lose all faith with music awards but no, it was something else entirely.

Looking through the nominees for this years Meteors there is a distinct feeling of 'Meh.' There is far too much overlap for an award night that only has 8 categories. For example, The Blizzards and The Script are nominated for both Best Irish Pop Act and Best Band. Indeed, it seems that The Script are nominated in every category except best regional DJ and that's probably because not even Zach in the Meteor Music Marketing Department could convince his bosses that LA could be considered a region.

Now, obviously Key Notes is being facetious but it's difficult not to be. Perhaps it's a sign that we just don't have the quality and diversity of music in Ireland that those of us who write about it, talk about it, live it and breathe it think we have. Or could it be that, shock/horror, the peope that run these awards (other than the Choice) don't actually do the dirty work and go to gigs on cold, wet Monday nights where the only other audience members are the support band and the barman. Indeed it's difficult to see anyone from Meteor thumbing their way through the tiny (but important) Irish Independent Music Section in Tower when they've got all those Kings of Leon records to get to. As an aside, Kings of Leon are set to headline OXEGEN again!!! Are they the new Red Hot Chili Peppers for the GAA-jersey-wearing-Tayto-munching-not-there-for-the-music-but-for-the-craic/crack festival goer?

Now, this isn't a 'Key Notes is indier-than-thou' blog. Those sort of blogs I'll leave to the Skins-watching-skinny jeans brigade. No, this is just one man finally realising that music awards mean nothing when there is so much great music produced that goes unrewarded. It's only taken 26 years, but hey, better late than never.

For those of you who care/are interested here is the list of nominees:

Best National DJ

Tony Fenton - TodayFM
Dan Hegarty - 2Fm
Alison Curtis -Today Fm
Dave Fanning - RTE Radio 1
Ray Foley - TodayFM
Rick O’Shea - 2FM

Best Regional DJ

Dermot, Dave & Siobhan - Dublin’s98
Keith Cunningham - RedFM
Leigh Doyle - Beat 102.103
The Zoo Crew - Spin South West
Mark Noble - FM104
Jon Richards - Galway Bay FM

Best Irish Band

The Blizzards
Republic of Loose
Fight Like Apes
The Script
Snow Patrol

Best Irish Male

Mick Flannery
Damien Dempsey
Duke Special
David Holmes
Jape

Best Irish Female

Enya
Lisa Hannigan
Gemma Hayes
Imelda May
Tara Blaise
Camille O’Sullivan

Best Irish Pop Act

Boyzone
The Blizzards
The Coronas
The Script
Westlife

Best Irish Album

Fight Like Apes - Fight Like Apes & The Mystery of The Golden Medallion
Snow Patrol - A Hundred Million Suns
Lisa Hannigan - Sea Sew
Messiah J & The Expert - From The Word Go
The Script - The Script

Best Irish Live Performance

The Coronas
The Blizzards
The Swell Season
Fight Like Apes
Republic of Loose

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5 comment(s) so far...

Re: Meteor Award Nominations

I see your point that the Meteor Awards lack variety and risk. But there's no moral obligation on people (say, an Oasis or James Blunt fan) to buy records by obscure indie Irish bands or go see them in empty venues on Monday nights if they don't want to. The vast majority of people like their music to be reassuring and familiar: the charts prove that. And yet the charts also contain cracking pop singles that sound great on the radio.

We know that there's plenty of good Irish acts out there. What's needed is mainstream exposure for them so that mainstream music fans can become familiar with them - daytime radio airplay, for example (which seems to be the criteria for compiling the Meteor shortlists); it's not the same hard work of seeing new bands in small venues but it's a more effective way of diffusing new music. Would a radio station really lose so much advertising revenue by playing one new local band in an hour, if the song was good enough to keep people listening?

And what's the harm in people going to a music festival just to have fun? In GAA jerseys if they want? (OK, eating crisps is harmful for you, I'll give you that.)

And don't get me started on the Irish Independent having its own music section in Tower Records. That Kevin Myers won't stock the new Animal Collective album just to be controversial as usual :)

By aidan on Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Re: Meteor Award Nominations

I've no problem if people go to music festivals just to have fun, what I do have a problem is when their fun gets in the way of my enjoyment of the music and, worse still, they are the first to complain when you write a less than glowing review of their favourite band. The GAA jersey tayto part was a doff of the cap to Eyebrowy!

By Steve on Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Re: Meteor Award Nominations

Good blog. I agree with your points. Music awards are pants. But they're commercial projects. They're designed to make money - swipe a quick 30 bucks off yer average teeny bopper hoping to catch a glimpse of yer man from the blizzards hairy (or not so hairy) arse - multiply that by 6,000 and you've got yerself a nice whack of cash. Then there's the revenue generated from sponsors like meteor and (probably) Tayto to boot.
Ireland has a particular nack of putting on these shows in the most soul destroying fashion and i think that rubs salt into the wounds of these "glitzy" nights at the Point/O2 even more. The nights themselves look like cheap imitations of the NME awards which are the exact same as the meteors. The same criteria applies - daytime radio play, good looking indie boys. There's a whole different side to UK music that you never see or hear about unless you go and look for it. Same story in ireland. Choice and Mercury come close to bridging that gap, however slight, but in reality, it all comes down to subjectivity and musical preference. Best thing to do is ignore these god awful excuses for commercial endeavour, and concentrate on writing your blogs, including the facetious bits that often make me chuckle out loud. I think everyone at work thinks I'm weird.