Tickets for the 2011 Artrocker Awards Live show went on sale in November with the excitement of live sets from Gruff Rhys, Jim Jones Revue and The Computers acting as a pretty big draw for the event. It culminated in an epic night of brilliant DJ sets from Gary Numan, Tim Burgess and Jim Reid of The Jesus and Mary Chain making it one of the coolest outings of the year.
The awards ceremony was hosted at XOYO, in the East of London, and it marked the inaugural Artrocker Magazine awards night, with the hope of kicking off a new standard in alternative music awards. It made for a great venue for the event, with the upper floor making a good place to chill out and star spot, and the basement hall as the atmospheric music venue that it is.
It was a solid move for the relatively youthful independent magazine, which celebrated only its 7th year in existence in 2011. Artrocker Magazine started life as a weekly email newsletter that evolved into its first print publication in 2004. The awards ceremony is proof of its growth and longevity in an industry filled with sadly dropping flies and with the likes of Melody Maker probably gone forever, it’s good that we have Artrocker to take up the slack.
Brilliantly, tickets were just £15 each, with the show going on from 8pm until 3am including additional DJ sets from Tribes and Is Tropical. For anyone that was lucky enough to get in, you’ll probably still be looking back on one of the best music events you’ve been to in recent years, despite the unfortunate presence of Plan B, who awarded one of the prizes with a little too much small time gangsta bulsh…
In terms of the award winners, the big names include Bombay Bicycle Club, who took home the Band Of The Year award following up on the success of their 2011 album, A Different Kind Of Fix. The prize for the International Band Of The Year went to Battles, Tim Burgess picked up the Icons award and Mojo Fury won the Best New Band award on the back of their debut album, Visiting Hours of a Traveling Circus.
The Album Of The Year went to Gruff Rhys for Hotel Shampoo, Tribes won the Single Of The Year for We Were Children, The Jesus And Mary Chain took the Reissue Of The Year award with the 2011 return for Psychocandy and Is Tropical’s The Greeks was named as the Video Of The Year.
The Jim Jones Revue picked up the Live Band Of The Year award, 1234 Festival was named the Festival Of The Year and Gavin Watson was announced as the Photographer Of The Year. However, probably our favourite award of the night was that Gary Nuwman was honoured by being presented with the Legend award for services rendered for the good of humanity through the might of his amazing music.
