NME Carling Awards - post-mortem

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http://www.nme.com/news/104182.htm

I've not looked at them yet (magic).

― Charlie (Charlie), Friday, 14 February 2003 06:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Yep. They've become absolutely everything they've always purported to hate. Shockah.

― Charlie (Charlie), Friday, 14 February 2003 06:04 (twenty-three years ago)

The NME Carling Awards?

Is this sort of like a British Grammy Awards?

― Evan (Evan), Friday, 14 February 2003 06:14 (twenty-three years ago)

sorta. with a humungous barely hidden sell-lots-of-copies-and-keep-the-shareholders-happy agenda.

Full list is:

VIRGIN MEGASTORES BEST UK BAND - Oasis

BEST INTERNATIONAL BAND - The Hives

4 MUSIC BEST LIVE BAND - The Datsuns

BEST SOLO ARTIST - Ryan Adams

CARLING BEST NEW BAND - The Libertines

MTV2 BEST VIDEO - BRMC 'Whatever Happened To My Rock 'N' Roll?'

CARLING BEST ALBUM - Coldplay 'A Rush Of Blood To The Head'

NME ALBUM OF THE YEAR - - Coldplay 'A Rush Of Blood To The Head'

THE F**K ME! AWARD FOR INNOVATION - The Polyphonic Spree

BEST TV SHOW - 'The Osbournes'

BEST SINGLE - The Vines 'Get Free'

NME SINGLE OF THE YEAR - Doves 'There Goes The Fear'

NME HOT NEW BAND - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs

BEST RADIO SHOW - Steve Lamacq

NME ARTIST OF THE YEAR - Oasis

GODLIKE GENIUS - The Clash

BEST FILM - '24 Hour Party People'

MOST SEXY MAN - Chris Martin

MOST SEXY WOMAN - Avril Lavigne

VILLAIN OF THE YEAR - Robbie Williams

HERO OF THE YEAR - Ozzy Osbourne

BEST LIVE VENUE - London Astoria

BEST HAIRCUT - Liam Gallagher

BEST DRESSED - The Hives

BEST WEBSITE - NME.COM

WORST ALBUM - Robbie Williams 'Escapology'

WORST SINGLE - Robbie Williams 'Feel'

WORST BAND - Nickelback

WORST HAIRCUT - Jack Osbourne

WORST DRESSED - Christina Aguilera

BEST EVENT - Carling Reading/Leeds Festival

― Charlie (Charlie), Friday, 14 February 2003 06:34 (twenty-three years ago)

so wait. the nme/carling awards says the nme has the best website and the carling festival was the best event?

― lolita corpus (lolitacorpus), Friday, 14 February 2003 07:30 (twenty-three years ago)

THE F**K ME! AWARD FOR INNOVATION - The Polyphonic Spree

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

phew

― willem (willem), Friday, 14 February 2003 07:35 (twenty-three years ago)

I have absolutely no comment to make except to tell younger readers that the NME once -- a long time ago now -- meant something, hard though that may be to believe.

― Momus (Momus), Friday, 14 February 2003 09:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Well, they were always seeking crossover into the mainstream for 'their' music, weren't they? Such a shame that they finally got it by diluting 'their' music to the point where it was indistinguishable from the mainstream it purported to level itself against and tried to overthrow.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 14 February 2003 09:27 (twenty-three years ago)

The list just reminds me why I stopped reading the NME a few years ago. Without waxing lyrical about 'the old days' (I was more of a MM reader anyway) the NME used to stand for something, now it only stands for what it thinks the readers want. And let;s face it, would the Clash have won 'godlike genius' if Strummer hadn't popped his clogs so recently? Incredibly sad.

― Rob M (Rob M), Friday, 14 February 2003 10:16 (twenty-three years ago)

The idea that there was some kind of "golden age" when the NME and the MM were bastions of independence and forward thinking is a bit ridiculous. The NME in particular (in my 20 years of reading) has always been broadly similar to how it is now - enjoyable if you're after a half hour fix of entertainment and the odd article that really moves you. It would always have been held in contempt by ILM. I can remember when Duran Duran were on the cover of the Melody Maker, and the big debate was whether they were better than Culture Club - to me MM was always just the Smash Hits that got your hands covered in ink. I can think of great NME pieces from pretty much every year, including 2002, eg, the Liam interview in April.

As far as the awards go, I think they've got it broadly right. Oasis deserve best band and I honestly can't think of a worse album than "Escapology" last year. But I do think the Polyphonic Spree are shit.

― reclusive hero (reclusive hero), Friday, 14 February 2003 11:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Melody Maker in late 80s/early 90s read very much like ILM, only with added tension because the discussion was in a paper that had to cover rock mostly.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Friday, 14 February 2003 12:43 (twenty-three years ago)

Oasis deserve best band

do they fuck, they've had their moment - it was called 1995

but this was all voted for by the readers of NME right? unbelievable really

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 14 February 2003 13:03 (twenty-three years ago)

(shrugs) fukc 'em. Why worry about it? It doesn't matter.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 14 February 2003 13:14 (twenty-three years ago)

do they fuck, they've had their moment - it was called 1995

just out of interest, who would have got your vote for Virgin Megastrores best UK band?

I'd agree that maybe the latter declining years of the melody maker did have similarities to ILM... but I wouldn't hold that up as a compliment. Their attitude seemed increasingly to be "look how much cooler the bands we like are than the bands that those awful normals like" which didn't really impress.

― reclusive hero (reclusive hero), Friday, 14 February 2003 13:23 (twenty-three years ago)

hi, i stopped reading the nme when i started to understand it.

― kevin brady (groeuvre), Friday, 14 February 2003 13:24 (twenty-three years ago)

They're pretty much an advert for ringtones these days anyway

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Friday, 14 February 2003 13:32 (twenty-three years ago)

i know what kevin means. i find it incredible when i read the NME now (i still pick it up on occasion) that in my early teens i'd have looked up to it as a great musical authority. Having said that, these poll results are an easy target. If a magazine like this sells quite well, it's hard to avoid the readers voting in Big Alternative Rock Acts as their favourites every year.

for proof that the NME has been a bit ropey for a while, check out their "Loveless" review, where they criticise its lack of a political agenda.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Friday, 14 February 2003 13:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Noel Gallagher plays surprise solo slot at NME Awards
The Oasis star plays 'Wonderwall' with a string section...

I'm sorry but thats the least surprising thing I've ever heard.

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Friday, 14 February 2003 13:43 (twenty-three years ago)

Well, the last time he played that song with a string section was 1995 (or "their moment") so I think that does count as a little surprising.

― reclusive hero (reclusive hero), Friday, 14 February 2003 14:04 (twenty-three years ago)

well didnt Noel say he didnt want to play it ever again (about a thousand times)?

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 14 February 2003 14:05 (twenty-three years ago)

just out of interest, who would have got your vote for Virgin Megastrores best UK band?

well i'm afraid to say i would probably have given it to Doves, i'm a fan and i think they deserve it as much as anyone - Primal Scream wouldve been a contender too. the problem is there arent really that many BANDS in the UK that REALLY stand out AS being just that - bands. Pulp and the Manics are beyond their greatest hits phase now and perhaps this renders them 'irrelevant' now in the eyes of NME and its readership - fair enough maybe

if i wasnt so reluctant to call a duo a band i wouldve given it to Underworld tho, fuck it

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 14 February 2003 14:10 (twenty-three years ago)

that many BANDS in the UK that REALLY stand out AS being just that

by that i mean bands who can make a credible claim for receiving such a 'prestigious' award e.g. Beta Band - but last year wasnt a big one for British band albums really was it?

i'm playing devil's advocate somewhat here as well - there's no way the NME should be creating this much fuss anyway (*slaps self*)

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 14 February 2003 14:14 (twenty-three years ago)

Seems these awards drew more people than the NME's weekly readership.

I know none of the bands these spotty twats write about. And you know what? I'm glad I don't know who they are. "Which band with a ridiculous/ironic/unpronounceable/forgettable name shall we slap on the cover this week?"...oh, who cares, NME. Your awards (Coldplay - album of the YEAR?!?! PLease....) were shite and as a trendsetting, important music paper..... it's over for you. You're now nothing more than an embarrassing, bumbling, indie obsessed insignificance. Utterly irrelevant.

NME is dead.

Thank God.

― russ t, Friday, 14 February 2003 14:44 (twenty-three years ago)

So on the one hand the NME is irrelevant because they're preaching to a lowest common denominator middle ground and on the other hand the NME is irrelevant because it concentrates on obscure "unpronounceable" "indie obsessed" bands who no-one has heard of?

Maybe the truth lies somewhere in between.

These threads seem to crop up periodically, usually when there's an NME sponsored awards ceremony or end of year poll - and since I started reading ILM the concenus seems to have been that *any minute now* the NME will collapse into the deep never to return again, sucking all the shit out of popular music in its wake. Well, still waiting...

― reclusive hero (reclusive hero), Friday, 14 February 2003 14:55 (twenty-three years ago)

Hasn't the NME just turned into the music section of J17 nowadays? "EXCLUSIVE HOT PICS OF FAB AND DREW!!!", "TIM POLYPHONIC SPREE- MY MOST EMBARASSINGEST MOMENTS!!!", "TOKEN PICTURE OF GARAGE MUSICIAN" etc etc.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Friday, 14 February 2003 15:05 (twenty-three years ago)

as each year, month, week goes by the NME gets worse. It has become a national embarrassment, it is just as conservative as Q.

It seems squarely aimed at clueless teenagers particularly boys between 15 - 18, "Colin Murray" on Radio 1 plays their music and they know very little about music history or contemporary music outside the narrow confines of the NME/Evening Session with Colin Murray.

Also the cultural effect of NME.com has turned the NME even more mainstream due to the nature, content and scope of what does and does not get covered.

An observation:
A political note, in 1985 the first time i become aware of the NME, it read as socialist weekly, leftist columns/ writers, political campaigns, support of Red Wedge/ support of GLC against Thatcher, Multi-Cultralism i page adverts for reggae concerts sponsored by the GLC etc

these days swallowed up AOL Time-Warner, corporate awards, the way it treats artists as celebrity news and so on - it has embraced/ been swallowed up by capitalist mainstream consumer culture. These days 1 page adverts include P.O.D on the back cover [also owned by AOL-Time Warner] and notice the AOL brand on the front cover.

The cultural change of the NME has been bigger than Old Labour to New Labour in the same time frame.

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Friday, 14 February 2003 15:11 (twenty-three years ago)

So DJM, I take it the centre spread fuck-off massive anti-war poster passed you by?! I know it's an ad, but the anti-war coalition (particularly where Albarn and Massive Attack geezer are concerned) has received extensive coverage both in the NME and on nme.com. Don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying the NME is amazing, just that it has always fulfilled a certain function and isn't getting particularly worse or better in my opinion.

It amazes me that people get so worked up about it though - I mean, I think the Daily Mail is shit but I don't go on about it, I just don't buy it. And the AOL/Time Warner thing is a total red herring - does anyone really give a shit about the whole indie/major thing anymore? I thought that went out with the Cartel...

― reclusive hero (reclusive hero), Friday, 14 February 2003 15:19 (twenty-three years ago)

fucking hell!
i mean,i had more conservative taste back then,by far,but when i read the nme,only about two or three years ago,it was still reasonably all right (as in,if it was still coming out with similar bands and articles i'd probably buy it occasionally)
i had heard people bitch about it here,but i hadn't quite realised the extent to which it had become complete dicksweat
i had a look through it in tower the other day,and this confirms my suspicions...

― robin (robin), Friday, 14 February 2003 15:27 (twenty-three years ago)

recluivehero which section of the NME do you edit? or are you just starsailors manager?

peole should remember these are the awards the NME's readers voted for. So you get what you deserve.

― pulpo, Friday, 14 February 2003 15:43 (twenty-three years ago)

haha, funnily enough Starsailor's lead singer is married to Paul MacNamee's sister, so there is a connection there if you were feeling cynical! But I can assure you that I have never written for or edited any part of the NME, though I imagine that a quick glance at the archives would confirm that I have an interest in the subject, if that's an issue.

― reclusive hero (reclusive hero), Friday, 14 February 2003 15:53 (twenty-three years ago)

I think the reason some people get worked up abt thee nme (it's the reason I get annoyed abt it sometimes) is that it's all there is, as far as a weekly goes. Perhaps there should be something , like, better? more open-minded? Less regionalist? Something like that, anyway.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 14 February 2003 17:53 (twenty-three years ago)

i always thought the problem with the NME was not the mainstream/indie thing or even politics or corporatization, but just how juvenile it all was. like a 14-year-old girl obsessed with a boy with finds out he doesn't like her and then goes on a rampage about him. they either LOVE someone and print everything down to what shoes they're wearing today or hate them all of a sudden because they're created a backlash and then print as many 'clever' insults as they can get in. i dunno. i'm american and there's a lot of things about uk journalism i don't understand. but I really looked up to it and enjoyed reading it when i was, um, a 14-year-old girl actually! I'm not sure how much it has changed. it's just a disappointment when you get older and want something a little less petty/nasty.

― lolita corpus (lolitacorpus), Friday, 14 February 2003 20:38 (twenty-three years ago)

yes, there's always a feeling that the NME needs to "get behind" bands, because they want to be seen to be promoting "exciting new music", rather than just praising good music that they've listened to and loved. see the starsailor live review this week, where the gloat about being behind them from the very beginning. congrats NME, you were praising a shit band before a couple of other magazines did. you deserve a medal (note to self: enough potshots at obvious targets).

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Friday, 14 February 2003 23:08 (twenty-three years ago)

I like the NME. They sound like normal everyday music fans. Which is a damn far cry from the lackadaisical attitude you get when you read the music mags over here in the U.S.

― Evan (Evan), Friday, 14 February 2003 23:20 (twenty-three years ago)

five years pass...

Why have I just been sent a press release about The Cure getting the 'Godlike Genius' award *at the end of February 2009*?

― The Slash My Father Wrote (DJ Mencap), Monday, 27 October 2008 11:31 (seventeen years ago)

three years pass...

NME editor Krissi Murison said more than 10 million votes had been cast for the annual awards on the magazine's website.
The full list of winners is as follows:
Best British band - Kasabian
Best international band - Foo Fighters
Best solo artist - Florence + The Machine
Best new band - The Vaccines
Best live band - Arctic Monkeys
Best album - The Horrors (Skying)
Best track - Florence + The Machine (Shake It Out)
Dancefloor anthem - Katy B (Broken Record)
Best video - Hurts (Sunday)
Best TV show - Fresh Meat
Best festival - Glastonbury
Best film - Submarine
Best music film - Back and Forth (Foo Fighters)
Greatest music moment - The Stone Roses reunite
Best reissue - The Smiths (Complete Re-Issues)
Best book - Noel Fielding (The Scribblings of A Madcap Shambleton)
Hero of the year - Matt Bellamy
Villain of the year - Justin Bieber
Worst album - Justin Bieber (Under The Mistletoe)
Worst Band - One Direction
Best album artwork - Friendly Fires (Pala)
Best band blog or Twitter - @Ladygaga
Best small festival - Rockness
Most dedicated fans - Muse
Hottest male - Jared Leto (30 Seconds To Mars)
Hottest female - Hayley Williams (Paramore)
Outstanding contribution to music - Pulp
Godlike genius award - Noel Gallagher
Philip Hall radar award - Azealia Banks
Highlights from the show will be broadcast on Channel 4 on Saturday 4 March.

Interviews and quotes here http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/17217439

― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 1 March 2012 10:07 (fourteen years ago)

Hang on, ten million?

And if even 50% of those think Kasabian are that awesome, 10% even, how come they aren't number one RIGHT NOW ?

― Mark G, Thursday, 1 March 2012 11:12 (fourteen years ago)

because loads of votes came from outside the uk?

― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 1 March 2012 11:14 (fourteen years ago)

Well, maybe. But that would imply Kasabian are a worldwide phenomenon.

(Not saying they aren't, I dunno)

― Mark G, Thursday, 1 March 2012 11:15 (fourteen years ago)

multiple voting too i'd wager

― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 1 March 2012 11:18 (fourteen years ago)

assuming that means 10 million across all the categories, there's like 25 you can vote for in there

10,000,000 / 25 seems plausible I guess

― Sylv_ebanks (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 1 March 2012 11:19 (fourteen years ago)

i know that the kerrang awards website when the voting is on is full of teenage girls saying they voted thousands of times while the voting period was on.

― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 1 March 2012 11:20 (fourteen years ago)

with the exception of like two categories it seems profoundly obvious that there aren't a lot of votes from outside the UK

― Sylv_ebanks (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 1 March 2012 11:22 (fourteen years ago)

i know that the kerrang awards website when the voting is on is full of teenage girls saying they voted thousands of times while the voting period was on.
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 1 March 2012 11:20 (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

misread that, but not saying how.

― Mark G, Thursday, 1 March 2012 11:30 (fourteen years ago)

i can guess

― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 1 March 2012 11:36 (fourteen years ago)

i even checked it before hitting submit to make sure i got it right

― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 1 March 2012 11:37 (fourteen years ago)

Well, you put "voting period" on it a lot.

― Mark G, Thursday, 1 March 2012 11:41 (fourteen years ago)

9.5m of the votes would have been repeat votes from Muse fans set on winning the Most Dedicated Fans category.

― Viva Brother Beyond (ithappens), Thursday, 1 March 2012 12:07 (fourteen years ago)

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