Record of the Day UK Music Press Awards: Alexis Petridis is the Best Music Writer in Britian

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http://www.recordoftheday.com/awards/RotDAwards.pdf

Record Reviews: Writer of
the Year
Alexis Petridis – The Guardian
Andy Gill – The Independent
Kitty Empire – The Observer
Pete Paphides – The Times
Simon Price – Independent on
Sunday
Runner up: Kitty Empire
Winner: Alexis Petridis
Alexis was praised for his “insightful”, “honest” and “carefully justified” opinions on new albums. Voters described his record reviews forbeing “funny, insightful, nicely unpretentious and always readable.”

Artist and Music Features:
Writer of the Year
Alexis Petridis
Dan Cairns
Pete Paphides
Sophie Heawood
Stevie Chick
Runner Up: Dan Cairns
Winner: Alexis Petridis
Your votes told us that Alexis is considered far and wide to be at the top of his game. You praised him for being “articulate and capable of independent thought,” and for always writing “interesting, well-written and memorable” copy.One voter told us Alexis should win because his “work stands alone”.

Editor of the Year
Caspar Llewellyn-Smith – Observer
Music Monthly
Conor McNicolas - NME
Mark Ellen – The Word
Paul Brannigan – Kerrang!
Paul Rees – Q
Runner-up: Paul Brannigan
Winner: Conor McNicolas
Conor won votes for his vision for
the NME,
together
with his
enthusiasm
and total
commitment
to his cause.
He was also
praised for being fully in tune with
the new media landscape, and
for proving himself highly adept
at finding new ways to reach and
enthuse existing and new NME
readers alike.

― acrobat (acrobat), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 00:39 (seventeen years ago) link

And the winner of Best Attendance was...?

― Andy_K (Andy_K), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 02:13 (seventeen years ago) link

"Record of the Day"?

ihttp://www.nostalgiacentral.com/images_tv/americanbandstand_02.jpg

― Factory Sample Not For Sale (Factory Sample Not For Sale), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 06:24 (seventeen years ago) link

"Britian"?

― Factory Sample Not For Sale (Factory Sample Not For Sale), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 06:25 (seventeen years ago) link

Passantino waz robbed?

― [electric sound of] esteban buttez (Estie Buttez), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 06:43 (seventeen years ago) link

"Broadsheet music press indulges in mutual arselicking" shock horror youth cult probe.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 08:28 (seventeen years ago) link

Artist and Music Features:
Writer of the Year
Alexis Petridis
Dan Cairns
Pete Paphides
Sophie Heawood
Stevie Chick
Runner Up: Dan Cairns
Winner: Alexis Petridis

Even if there were only five fucking music writers in the country, there'd be no excuse for nominating Heawood.

― Dom Passantino (DomPassantino), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 08:43 (seventeen years ago) link

With the obvious exception of the good Mr Chick, there'd be no excuse for nominating ANY of those tossers!

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 08:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Somebody call 999! Lex has been robbed!

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 08:51 (seventeen years ago) link

did a bit of yr googling and was struck by this. well one sentence really made my brain hurt.

Heart of darkness
Sophie Heawood

Published 16 October 2006

Amy Winehouse - Back to Black

Popular music has always walked hand in hand with the seven deadly sins, and the current crop of drug-guzzling stars is no exception. But while Mike Skinner and Pete Doherty headed to the Priory and wrote boring songs about it, Amy Winehouse didn't get past the check-in desk.

This may have been unwise mentally, but musically it was a canny move, as it's provided her with one of the least boring records to be released all year. "Rehab", the song that opens her new album, Back to Black, is all about the failed attempts of those around her to make her seek help. "They tried to make me go to rehab, but I said no, no, no," she bellows.

Those who remember Winehouse only for hitting the charts at roughly the same time as Katie Melua and Natasha Bedingfield might well wonder what she's been doing getting herself into such a state. In fact, she was always a world apart from the kind of female singer for whom exploring the dark heart of creativity means buying a peasant skirt from River Island. She's a heavily tattooed, 23-year-old north Londoner with fluctuating weight, a penchant for drink and a vivid sexuality, and a voice that clearly owes a debt to the childhood she spent listening to her daddy's jazz records.

That abortive trip to the Priory sets the tone for an album full of late nights and even later mornings. A fantasy about getting with the rapper Nas is the apparent inspiration behind "Me and Mr Jones (Fuckery)". "You Know I'm No Good" is about being a troublesome type, and "Love Is a Losing Game" is self-explanatory, though not predictable. The gluttony theme even extends to rhyming "bitter" with "chips and pitta", a couplet that Lily Allen would kill for. Back to Black reveals a darkness that would surely make Winehouse's daddy proud.

― acrobat (acrobat), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 11:39 (seventeen years ago) link

That sentence is on a par with the guy in the Independent on Sunday who commented on how lucky we were to have had the Vietnam war since it produced so many good soul songs.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 11:43 (seventeen years ago) link

"Bring the Boys Back" is almost worth a war.

― Domino Man (Modal Fugue), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 11:45 (seventeen years ago) link

Those who remember Winehouse only for hitting the charts at roughly the same time as Katie Melua and Natasha Bedingfield

Yeah, all those top 40 smash hit singles Ms Ron Perlman had before oh wait.

― Dom Passantino (DomPassantino), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 11:46 (seventeen years ago) link

The gluttony theme even extends to rhyming "bitter" with "chips and pitta", a couplet that Lily Allen would kill for.

― acrobat (acrobat), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 11:48 (seventeen years ago) link

If loving Amy Winehouse is wrong, I don't wanna be right.

― Domino Man (Modal Fugue), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 11:48 (seventeen years ago) link

for whom exploring the dark heart of creativity means buying a peasant skirt from River Island

What is the problem that allegedly left-wing newspaper The Guardian has with peasants? In the Guide the week before last there was a feature on "peasant food."

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 11:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Those Jews are just likeable people, fact.
-- Dom Passantino (juror...), November 29th, 2006.

― Dom Passantino (DomPassantino), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 11:50 (seventeen years ago) link

xpost

Noun 1. middle class - the social class between the lower and upper classes

― Domino Man (Modal Fugue), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 11:52 (seventeen years ago) link

I am of course more inclined to agree with the writer James Kelman who in his novel A Disaffection refers to the Guardian as "rightwing shite keech and tollie."

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 11:53 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.robot-boy.com/img/kid.jpg
You praised him for being “articulate and capable of independent thought,”

― acrobat (acrobat), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 11:54 (seventeen years ago) link

http://flyleaf.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/green_belts_02.jpg
You praised him for being “articulate and capable of independent thought

― Dom Passantino (DomPassantino), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 11:55 (seventeen years ago) link

If this was proper ilm, this thread would have 300 posts by now.

― Dom Passantino (DomPassantino), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 12:04 (seventeen years ago) link

nicely unpretentious = tosser writing for tossers.

― Domino Man (Modal Fugue), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 12:06 (seventeen years ago) link

yeh but 100 of them would be lex and enrique arguing whther this thread is mysoginist / racist / homophobic / other and another 75 would centre round the question of who is arthur askey.

― acrobat (acrobat), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 12:46 (seventeen years ago) link

Best music writing this year:

"Put Your hands up for Dirk Kuyt - he loves this city!" (To the tune and rhythm of 'Put Your Hands up for Detroit').
Liverpool fans in Middlesbrough v Liverpool match. (Steven Adams, Northern Ireland).

― Dom Passantino (DomPassantino), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 12:49 (seventeen years ago) link

who is arthur askey

― [electric sound of] esteban buttez (Estie Buttez), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 13:18 (seventeen years ago) link

Go "askey" your mum.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 13:19 (seventeen years ago) link

Put your hands up, put your hands up, put your hands up for Arthur Askey- he loves not having any legs.

― Dom Passantino (DomPassantino), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 13:24 (seventeen years ago) link

This being the same Arthur Askey who on Arena in 1980 commented "I'd put all them Communists and Liberals up against a wall and shoot 'em! I would!"

Truly the best pictures are in the mind.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 13:27 (seventeen years ago) link

yeh there's a lex joke there...

― acrobat (acrobat), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 13:29 (seventeen years ago) link

Go "askey" your mum.

And they call ME a careerist troll.

― [electric sound of] esteban buttez (Estie Buttez), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 13:38 (seventeen years ago) link

Yay, Sophie!

Oh, how it must burn you up, that she has the audacity not just to write for an organ that wouldn't touch you with a barge pole, but also to be a woman!

Frances May Morgan was robbed. Not even a nomination? She could make creme brulee of Conor McWhatsits.

― masonic boom (kate), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 13:42 (seventeen years ago) link

Our Hannah could do that, and she's 4.

That review upthread is fucking awful.

― Domino Man (Modal Fugue), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 13:44 (seventeen years ago) link

EJ Thribb?

― Feargal Hixxy (DJ Mencap), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 13:45 (seventeen years ago) link

I mean seriously, maybe people don't like Sophie Heawood cos she can't write, and her gender has nothing to do with it.

― Domino Man (Modal Fugue), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 13:45 (seventeen years ago) link

k8 otm!

what a very tedious thread. i wonder if dom and paul actually realise the extent to which their jokes aren't funny?

― lexpretend (lexpretend), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 13:45 (seventeen years ago) link

(or Squirrel_Police)

xpost

― Feargal Hixxy (DJ Mencap), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 13:46 (seventeen years ago) link

Going on the noms up there I'm guessing that Plan B wasn't studied wth too much scrutiny as regards the UK's best writers, but I could be wrong

― Feargal Hixxy (DJ Mencap), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 13:47 (seventeen years ago) link

The troll does have a point about Frances May Morgan though.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 13:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Since when has Dom and Paul's jokes been funny?

― [electric sound of] esteban buttez (Estie Buttez), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 13:51 (seventeen years ago) link

Pot, meet kettle. Kettle, this is pot.

― Domino Man (Modal Fugue), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 13:52 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh, how it must burn you up, that she has the audacity not just to write for an organ that wouldn't touch you with a barge pole, but also to be a woman!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0965146227%3ftag=chichestercou-21%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26dev-t=D2MKVTT17WAXGZ

― Dom Passantino (DomPassantino), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 13:52 (seventeen years ago) link

for the record, sophie is clearly a far superior writer to most people on this thread, not that that's hard or anything

― lexpretend (lexpretend), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 13:53 (seventeen years ago) link

Can we see some examples of her not being a dreadful writer with no flair, insight, and a general crushing "It's a career, right?" overview. Shouldn't be too hard, obviously.

― Dom Passantino (DomPassantino), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 13:55 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, album reviews that don't mention anything about how the record sounds are grebt.

― Domino Man (Modal Fugue), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 13:55 (seventeen years ago) link

Which record would that be then? Val Doonican Rocks But Gently? (xpost x 2)

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 13:55 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, album reviews that don't mention anything about how the record sounds are grebt.

this is dom's schtick though innit

― lexpretend (lexpretend), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 13:56 (seventeen years ago) link

Public, mediated talent contests are now the way of weeding out the wannabes and rising to the top. And anybody can win.

Anybody, that is, who looks vulnerably gay, or has steam-ironed Hollyoaks hair, or is big and fat and funny.

― Dom Passantino (DomPassantino), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 13:57 (seventeen years ago) link

this is dom's schtick though innit

Pretty much!

― [electric sound of] esteban buttez (Estie Buttez), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 13:58 (seventeen years ago) link

The acid test of a good music writer is whether they can persuade you to go out and buy the record they're reviewing.

Of the people listed at the top of this thread only Stevie has succeeded with me in that respect.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 13:58 (seventeen years ago) link

Skipping 306 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Predictably, I agree entirely with that Observer piece.

― Sick Mouthy (sickmouthy), Monday, 12 February 2007 10:53 (seventeen years ago) link

my god lady sov is bad.

um nick snow patrol are not indie. the piece made no sense.

― temporary enrique (temporary enrique), Monday, 12 February 2007 10:54 (seventeen years ago) link

in fact none of the bands she mentions are indie.

― temporary enrique (temporary enrique), Monday, 12 February 2007 10:55 (seventeen years ago) link

how are snow patrol not indie? what do you mean by 'indie'? they're indie to me.

― lexpretend (lexpretend), Monday, 12 February 2007 10:56 (seventeen years ago) link

it's a bit like calling u2 a post-punk band cos they did a record with martin hannett.

xpost

well yes.

― temporary enrique (temporary enrique), Monday, 12 February 2007 10:56 (seventeen years ago) link

"snow patrol are not indie"

eh?

― braveclub (braveclub), Monday, 12 February 2007 10:57 (seventeen years ago) link

they don't sound indie, they don't play indie venues, they don't sell indie records...

― temporary enrique (temporary enrique), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:00 (seventeen years ago) link

I saw Snow Patrol live in Leeds circa 1998. They were perhaps the most indie thing I have ever seen.

― braveclub (braveclub), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:00 (seventeen years ago) link

Once an indie band, always an indie band.

― braveclub (braveclub), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:00 (seventeen years ago) link

nah.

― temporary enrique (temporary enrique), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:01 (seventeen years ago) link

'once a skiffle band always a skiffle band'

― temporary enrique (temporary enrique), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:01 (seventeen years ago) link

you come up via indie routes = you have indie roots = you are indie in the broad sense of the word (as opposed to pop or dance or hip-hop)

― lexpretend (lexpretend), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:03 (seventeen years ago) link

also, wtf are they if not indie? they're obv treated as a pop group now but by that reasoning everyone of similar stature is pop, regardless of how they sound or where they come from

― lexpretend (lexpretend), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:04 (seventeen years ago) link

tell me more about 'indie roots', lex.

― temporary enrique (temporary enrique), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:04 (seventeen years ago) link

they are AOR, not so much pop. punk was a myth. indie was a fad.

― temporary enrique (temporary enrique), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:05 (seventeen years ago) link

if only

― lexpretend (lexpretend), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:06 (seventeen years ago) link

They used to be on Jeepster and sing songs about polar bears. NONE MORE INDIE. (that version of Snow Patrol bears little resemblence to this current one though)

― ailsa_xx (ailsa_xx), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:09 (seventeen years ago) link

Indie roots: http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/R/htmlR/roots/rootsIMAGE/roots.jpg

― Dom Passantino (DomPassantino), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:17 (seventeen years ago) link

Stadium Indie

― sede vacante (blueski), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:19 (seventeen years ago) link

meanwhile Harris does the required fortnightly 'no more heroes anymore too much choice today bloody apathetic kids life is too cosy for profound punk statements' whinny.

― sede vacante (blueski), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:23 (seventeen years ago) link

it doesn't feel like such a long time ago that we had the last revival of interest in punk.

― temporary enrique (temporary enrique), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:25 (seventeen years ago) link

soysaucegirl
February 10, 2007 1:24 AM

Wakey, wakey John. The rebellion of rap, being born when Sid Vicious was still alive, was far more internationally influential, creative and sustained than punk. Oh I forget, it was made by BLACK people in the US, so you don't have a handle on it, right? So therefore you can act like nothing significant has happened since punk?
White folks keep banging on about punk because they can afford to wallow in the past. Black music, by contrast, has been for the past 25 years fiercely competitive and therefore keeps re-inventing itself. Too busy fighting for the present to keep whining about the good ol' days of 30 years ago.

I do like it when people combine trolling with being right.

― Dom Passantino (DomPassantino), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:27 (seventeen years ago) link

but hip hop is dead?

― sede vacante (blueski), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:35 (seventeen years ago) link

Nas lied to you through song.

― Dom Passantino (DomPassantino), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:35 (seventeen years ago) link

I've been saying for ages that "indie" is an impotent, redundant and meaningless term. "Indie" in 2007 (and since about 1995, at a guess) has actually meant "rock". All the bands listed in the Empire piece are Big Rock Bands, no matter their routes. Very few artists start out massive and corporate from the get go, whatever genre they're in. Not everyone plays pubs and makes lo-fi records, admittedly, but, you know, Dizzee Rascal as analogue to Arctic Monkeys in terms of creation, discovery and reception of music.

That doesn't mean I disagree with what Empire's saying though - that bands are in way too much of a rush to go UNIVERSAL these days in terms of sound and appeal, and that perhaps some of them would be better off with more creative rather than commercial ambitions.

― Sick Mouthy (sickmouthy), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:37 (seventeen years ago) link

If Snow Patrol had "more creative rather than commercial ambitions" they'd still be playing third on the bill to Mull Historical Society and Salako in front of a crowd of 200. Rather than, you know, now sleeping on a mattress stuffed entirely with $1000 and gold bullion.

― Dom Passantino (DomPassantino), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:40 (seventeen years ago) link

People were having these discussions about the meaninglessness of the term "indie" in 1992, probably earlier. Plus ca change or something.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:41 (seventeen years ago) link

"Too busy fighting for the present to keep whining about the good ol' days of 30 years ago."

trudat -- rappers never dwell on the past. cough.

― temporary enrique (temporary enrique), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:41 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't think the two are necessarily mutually exclusive. I'm hoping that, say, the Patrick Wolf record goes mega.

― Sick Mouthy (sickmouthy), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:41 (seventeen years ago) link

Colonel Poo - true, doubtless, but did so-called "indie bands" in 1992 shift 1.6m units? The term may have been debated for an age but it's never been quite as brutally abused and meaningless as it is now.

― Sick Mouthy (sickmouthy), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:42 (seventeen years ago) link

How many copies did Nevermind sell?

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:44 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't think they were described as indie were they?

― Sick Mouthy (sickmouthy), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:46 (seventeen years ago) link

Sometimes, yes.

I remember an article in Select called What Is Indie? from about 92/93 that decided they were too rich to be indie, though.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:47 (seventeen years ago) link

"The Queen Is Dead" must have sold over a mill worldwide. Same as "Bossanova" and the Violent Femmes S/T

― Dom Passantino (DomPassantino), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:49 (seventeen years ago) link

the smiths were indie though.

― temporary enrique (temporary enrique), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:52 (seventeen years ago) link

it was probably easier to call nirvana "indie" than snow patrol as well. the game has changed a lot and i suppose punk/alternative signifiers are even easier to come by now; but all the same, nirvana surely had the power to alienate people in a way snow patrol don't. (obviously snow patrol alienate people, but not in the same way.)

― temporary enrique (temporary enrique), Monday, 12 February 2007 11:58 (seventeen years ago) link

yes (xpost), they were on rought trade. the rules kids: the smiths, erasure, kylie and rick astley = indie. the cure, the pet shop boys, madonna and morrissey = not indie.

― acrobat (acrobat), Monday, 12 February 2007 12:13 (seventeen years ago) link

no, that's silly; but the smiths were just more indie than snow patrol. it isn't simply about record labels, that's just one possible indicator.

― temporary enrique (temporary enrique), Monday, 12 February 2007 12:22 (seventeen years ago) link

But in the beginning it was! The word was first used to denote type of label then PWL (and others) made everything confusing by being indie but not “indie”. Or so I have been told.

― acrobat (acrobat), Monday, 12 February 2007 12:35 (seventeen years ago) link

there were indendent record labels before rough trade and whatnot, holmes. it was never just about labels.

― temporary enrique (temporary enrique), Monday, 12 February 2007 12:39 (seventeen years ago) link

"Bands that sound like they ought to be on an independent record label". i.e. not Coldplay.

― Sick Mouthy (sickmouthy), Monday, 12 February 2007 12:44 (seventeen years ago) link

yeh but the mythology round independent records changed sometime in the 70s. indie labels meant a certain type of music being released that otherwise might not have been released. so yeh it wasn't really about labels but it was about labels.

― acrobat (acrobat), Monday, 12 February 2007 12:46 (seventeen years ago) link

PUT YOUR HANDS UP FOR RIGHT-WING FARMERS - THEY DIG POST-1988 RAP!

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 12 February 2007 12:52 (seventeen years ago) link

in fact none of the bands she mentions are indie.

Arcade Fire not indie?

― zeus (zeus), Monday, 12 February 2007 13:07 (seventeen years ago) link

I find it very hard to believe any of you are actually interested in this debate.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 12 February 2007 14:00 (seventeen years ago) link

Isn't it.

― Sick Mouthy (sickmouthy), Monday, 12 February 2007 15:25 (seventeen years ago) link

...so anyway (great thread, just lost half an hour of my life reading it), anyone got the new arcade fire? meant to be reviewing it for, um, thursday but no fucker's actually got a copy it seems.

― CharlieNo4 (CharlieNo4), Monday, 12 February 2007 19:22 (seventeen years ago) link

tum te tum.

― CharlieNo4 (CharlieNo4), Tuesday, 13 February 2007 17:43 (seventeen years ago) link

what is this 'thursday' publication of which you speak

― unfished business (Scourage), Tuesday, 13 February 2007 17:45 (seventeen years ago) link

wheeee! (ok, the word 'deadline' would've helped somewhere in there)

― CharlieNo4 (CharlieNo4), Tuesday, 13 February 2007 18:55 (seventeen years ago) link

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