The Music Awards of Staffordshire and Cheshire

I can’t even begin to describe the night I’ve had.

I want to start by thanking the mastermind behind the music awards: Lee Barber

Lee has worked tirelessly to give us all, from musicians to producers, from bloggers to photographers and everyone in between, such a fantastic opportunity! It’s something that I am truly proud to be a part of.

The event was set up to appreciate the talent in our local music scene which often goes unnoticed; the Stoke music scene is thriving and bursting with gifted musicians, deserving so much more recognition than it receives. The music awards were the perfect way to unite the music and musicians that we have and celebrate their achievements and it definitely served its purpose well.

The nominees, their friends and their families were brilliant tonight. What I found most beautiful is the support that everyone had, not just from their family and friends but from each other. Nothing was clearer than the fact that this event, most definitely, was not a competition. It was a celebration of talent. You can really tell that the people involved in the music industry are proud, not only of the music scene itself, but of each other and it was really heart-warming to witness that.

I can’t congratulate Lee enough for what he has achieved last night! The host for the evening, Benedict McManus (ex-member of Friends of Ken), stated, ‘people say we should have this or we should have that; but for Lee to actually put something together is great!’ with which I completely agree. I’ve met some amazing people and created memories that will stay with me forever. I am immensely grateful, as I’m sure everyone involved is. He should be extremely proud of what he’s done.

Throughout the evening I was able to interview some of the nominees and sponsors as well as photograph and film some of the event for my new YouTube Channel (link below).

Before any of the awards were announced, I spoke to Thieves Asylum, who were very bizarrely dressed as French mutes; costumes complete with face paint, garlic and croissants claiming ‘what’s the point in doing it if you’re not gonna have a bit of fun’ (Such an awesome attitude, guys!). Thieves Asylum were nominated for best band, at which they were ‘surprised’ and ‘humble’ about as they’ve only been on the scene for 1 year. Within that year, the boys have gigged in and out of Stoke, building an empire of a following, and even supported the Pigeon Detectives! They’re influenced by the likes of ‘Zepplin, BRMC and Kasabian’, oh, and ‘garlic’ apparently… understandable considering the table was covered in it! When asked what TA were most excited about for the awards night, they said that they were excited to watch Dirty Rotten Souls perform – a statement that cropped up quite frequently throughout the night when speaking to other musicians too!

I also got to catch up with John Dhali (also one of the many who said that they were looking forward to seeing Dirty Rotten Souls) before the event began. Dhali was nominated for 3 awards this evening, which he was nominated for whilst out travelling in India which I believe really goes to show how much Stoke adore him - and rightly so! His live set, after the second award announcement, was gorgeous – I’d like to compare it to the likes of Jake Bugg, Ben Howard and Mumford and Sons, however, Dhali remains contemporary, producing his own unique sound. He says that his is ‘inspired by big, shining individuals like Bob Marley, John Lennon, Jimmy Hendrix and people that are just dead authentic’ people that are ‘totally themselves and really affect people’ which is what he aspires to be like. Dhali is an incredibly charismatic character with a lot of energy, so when I asked him how he felt about the awards night, I wasn’t surprised to hear the answer ‘excited!’ as he told me that it was ‘the night is going to be amazing because there’s a proper buzz around it’.

10 O’Clock Chemical kicked off the night with a killer performance. It was the boys first ever live set as they were not supposed to be gigging until April (The Exchange – April 8^th), however, couldn’t turn down the offer of performing at the Music Awards when The Torch couldn’t make it! Nonetheless, the lads did a brilliant job of getting everyone raring to go for the rest of the evening. Really well done guys – you’ve gotten us all excited to see what you’re bringing to the local music scene in 2016!

The performance was followed by a fantastic and comical introduction from Benedict, where he set the tone for the rest of the evening. Let’s just say it was a bit of a tipsy one… that got progressively more alcohol endorsed throughout the night, as a result of his cue notes instructing him to do so… Did you write them yourself Ben? #10MinuteInterval #GoGetTipsy. Ben did a brilliant job of keeping everyone entertained between award announcements and deserves a few more beers for his outstanding comparing! After Ben’s introduction we were passed on to Signal 1’s Paris Munro for a bit of audience participation, because everyone loves a bit of that!

To say that I was eager to find out which of the nominees had won each award would be the epitome of an understatement.

The first award which was announced was the Young Artist of the Year Award (sponsored by Choosedays at the Glebe) which was awarded by Annette Bellyou to 16-year-old Callum Jackson, who had been nominated for the award when he was just 15! When congratulating him on the award he said that he was ‘lost for words’ and it’s ‘a really nice feeling to be nominated at such a young age because I don’t really get recognition for what I do, so winning the award is just the cherry on the top really!’. Don’t worry Callum, thanks to Lee, recognition is now being given where it’s due!

The next award given was the one that I was in the most anticipation about: Best New Act (sponsored by DRMS, presented by Jim McShee of DMRS). I’m really happy and extremely proud of The Guru’s for winning this award. I’ve worked quite closely with them this year doing reviews and interviews and they really do deserve it! (Even if they did accidentally snap the award at the after party, posting a photo on their Facebook page of Jack and Jamie holding the broken award asking, ‘does anyone know a welder?’). The lads established themselves as a band around a year ago (a drunken idea of Jack and Jimmy’s) and have since had the opportunity to play with Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott in Manchester last month, and are supporting the Sherlocks this month (Monday 22^nd February at the Sugarmill) which in themselves are phenomenal opportunities that speak for themselves, not to mention the other various gigs they’re booked in for up until June! The boys said they felt ‘on top of the world’ and ‘fantastic’ about winning the award. To celebrate, they are playing at the Full Moon on Saturday 13^th February and Jimmy said ‘we’re gonna get on the karaoke’ and ‘boogie the night away’ and Jack said he’s ‘going on a 3 week bender now’ and that it ‘feels like we’ve just won X-Factor’.

John Dhali’s extraordinary set was followed by the announcement of the Best Gig award (sponsored by Harvey Joinery Services), which went to Sworn to Oath with their Sugarmill gig in August 2015. Unfortunately, Sworn to Oath couldn’t be there to accept the award, so JP Parsons accepted the award on their behalf, explaining that they were unable to attend the event because they were having a ‘Netflix and Chill session’… whatever that is.

Swiftly moving on, Ant Hulme of The Riff Factory presented the award that they sponsored of Best Single which was accepted by Megan Dixon-Hood for her ‘Early Morning Riser’ single that got played on BBC Radio 2 after Sir Terry Wogan fell in love with it! Regarding winning the award she said ‘it’s so unexpected but I’m really grateful and really excited’ followed by ‘there’s more people that I know that have listened to the track so it’s nice to know that there’s a big support there’. Megan is in her last year of university now, and is ‘hoping to apply to lots of festivals, lots of gigs, lots of song writing, working on some more tracks with my band and just continuing to get myself out there’ in the near future! Well Megan, with that award under your belt it’s definitely going to make you stand out from the rest when applying for jobs in the industry!

Local Record Producer, Sam Bloor, announced the winner of the next award of Best Record. I think that this was definitely one of the most competitive categories, in that it was incredibly difficult to say who could win – it was anyone’s game. However, RINSE have taken the Stoke music scene by storm this year and definitely deserved the recognition for their record ‘Jude Law’. I caught up with the guys backstage and they said they felt ‘ace’ about winning the award. On a scale of 1-10 the band’s ‘how drunk are you’ rating was between 3 and 8.5, so this was quite a comedic interview if I must say! For celebratory plans, the lads said they wanted to watch Dirty Rotten Souls and then went to the Exchange, where a big after party had been organised by Lee (where I presume they got more hammered than they already were!). RINSE are releasing a new track on Saturday 13^th February, which I will be reviewing in the near future, as well as a new music video and some gigs when Rich gets back from his holiday.

Then, the Act that everyone had been waiting for… Rock/Blues trio: Dirty Rotten Souls! The band performed so well and has such a brilliant Rock ‘n’ Roll stage presence filled with passion and energy – safe to say that the performance definitely justified why they had been nominated for Best Band!

The next award to be announces was Best Rock Band, sponsored by the Hippy Hippy Shake Company (where Richard Buxton of the Hippy Hippy Shake Company had dropped all plans on his 50^th birthday to attend the event and support his good friend Lee.) JP Parsons - whom I’ve heard was doing a hell of a lot of work backstage - presented this award that went to Sworn to Oath (2 wins guys?! Congrats!) and accepted the award on their behalf again. I feel that sometimes Stoke’s rock scene can go quite unappreciated sometimes; however for Sworn to Oath to win 2 awards last night speaks volumes about them as a band, and their hard work this year has really paid off.

The 7^th award of the night was sponsored by UTC Studio – an awesome recording studio in Stoke which a lot of the nominees themselves have recorded at. The Best Solo Artist award was awarded to John Dhali by Martin Gooding of CULT and he couldn’t have been more humble about it! It’s really nice to see truly deserving people win awards for their efforts so that they know that they are appreciated.

The final award for the musicians was both sponsored and presented by The Situation, who organise events around the Stoke-on-Trent area and always put on an incredible event as a result of their passion for the industry. The 8^th award was one that everyone was waiting in anticipation for: Best Band. The nominations for this award are all highly regarded and well known bands in the Staffordshire and Cheshire area and, like the Best Record award; the winner was anyone’s guess. When it was revealed that Lazy Eye had won the award there was an incredible roar from the audience, going to show that they have an amazing, supportive following. It’s another really well deserved award; I can’t help but be put in a good mood after listening to Lazy Eye! The lads said they were ‘over the moon’ because ‘just to be considered and nominated alongside the quality of bands in this category was enough.’ Lazy Eye are so grateful and have had a lot of thank you’s to say such as ‘all the people we’ve met and played for’ that have voted for them as well as ‘Lee Barber and the team who organised a fantastic night’ and they’ve got their ‘fingers crossed that this becomes an annual event’ – I’ve got mine crossed too guys!

The very last award of the evening was the only award that wasn’t voted for by the public, because there was only 1 man who really earned it, and the fact that he had no idea about the award made the announcement even more special. Presenters and sponsors Emily Law and Tom Ley of PhoenixxRecords gave everyone a bit of a cheeky teaser on who was being presented with the Contribution award, explaining how the winner of the award has helped most of the night’s nominees get BBC airtime. The winner of the award was Rob Adcock who said he was ‘totally shocked’ at the award, because he ‘could think of 20 people that deserve it more than me’. Adcock has worked on BBC Introducing from Stoke for 7 years now and says that ‘it wouldn’t work if the music scene wasn’t quality. The show is just a reflection of all the hard work, dedication and talent there is around here.’ And that ‘the music around here is stronger than it’s ever been, there’s so many [acts] that could break at any point.’ He continued to chat with me about Lee and how ‘he’s got to get a lot of credit for what’s happening’ because ‘he’s a truly passionate person’, finishing off with words similar to Benedict, because ‘a lot of people talk about it but [Lee] has got off his backside and done it.’

Benedict then completed his big thank you speech, including the greatest of gratitude to Lee Barber, whom he invited on stage to down a pint (after which he looked as though he was going to vomit) before introducing the final act of the night: Broken Flags. It was the last fifth ever gig and it’s clear to see why they were nominated for best new act!

Whilst Broken Flags were playing their set I had a chat with Sam Bloor who said that he though the event was ‘necessary’ and that it was ‘about time’ someone set an event like this up. He feels that it will ‘inspire more musicians to actually try harder because there’s an end goal’. I totally agree with Sam, I think the event has provided some healthy competition for the local music scene, without it becoming malicious, because at the end of the day, it’s all in good nature and it’s a lovely close-knit community. It’ll simply push, drive and motivate more talented musicians in the area whilst providing a beautiful support network and that’s what’s important.

Lastly, I spoke to the genius himself, Lee Barber, and his lovely girlfriend Anya Szczur to find out how they thought the night went. They said it was ‘fantastic’, ‘a lot better than expected’ and ‘more than worthwhile’. Lee has been incredibly stressed about the event (so much so that Sam Bloor said he’s surprise Lee hasn’t had a heart attack), however I’m sure people will agree with me when I say that you dealt with it tremendously! He’s just ‘glad it all went to plan’ as it’s been an incredibly long processes. Thankfully, Lee and Anya said that they’ve had a lot of really positive comments about the evening, so the hard work definitely paid off! What they loved the most about the night was the secrecy and the fact that ‘you couldn’t guess the outcome of the awards’ because it was all down to the public’s vote which is something that Lee is ‘very proud of, especially the mystery award [Contribution award] because nobody even knew what it was for’. The couple had a lot of thank you’s to say (you can see those in the Vlog I’ll be posting this week) as well as some sneaky insight into some of next years’ ideas!

I can ‘hand on my heart’ honestly say that this was one of the best, most professional and most needed events that I have ever had the pleasure of attending. Huge thank you and well done to Lee and the team. Moreover, all of the winners and nominees should be incredibly proud of themselves, not only for their achievements that got them nominated, but for being a vital part to Stoke’s thriving music scene.

Thanks for reading!

Bethan xx

*Side note: images and vlog to follow, check out the below links in the meantime 

My YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJMnfLL-R6703uSHFhE-GZQ

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