Good evening, and welcome to the 1st annual Polly Awards ceremony! Here in the grounds of the magnificent Erin Hall we're coming to you live, for the very first time, from the Sunrise Club to present our personal picks of the last year. I'm Stacey-Lynn, and assisting me in presenting the nominations will be my four Newsfoxes, Laura, Helen, Alicia and Li-Chang. This award show breaks with the traditional format somewhat, in that there are two separate parts. The first is the “Chronological” awards, where we present nominations for material created and/or released in 2011. The second part, or “Non-Chronological”, concerns albums or material we have only heard for the first time in 2011. So for instance, an album released in the eighties or even the seventies could be eligible, if the first time we heard it was last year. The only criteria here are that the material must have been released before 2011, and we must have heard it
for the first time that year.
Each category has four nominations, but only one can win the Polly. So without further ado I'm going to hand you over to Helen, who has the first category.
Thanks Stacey-Lynn, and welcome all to the 1st Annual Pollys. The first award is for the best album cover of 2011, and the nominations are as follows:
And the first ever Polly goes to....
Alesana, for “A place where the sun is silent”.
Thanks Helen, great to get the ball rolling, and congratulations to Alesana. If you've not heard their latest album it's certainly worth a listen. And of course a great sleeve: good choice and well deserved.
Well, now it's time to present the award for the Most Surprising or Impressive Album of 2011. This award is given to an artiste or album who exceeded all expectations, or just surprised the heck out of us with their work. I'm going to hand you over now to Li-Chang for the nominations.
Thanks, Stacey-Lynn. Good evening everyone, here are the nominations for the Most Surprising or Impressive Album of last year. The nominations are:
Snow Patrol, for “Fallen empires”.
... And you will know us by the trail of dead, for “Tao of the dead”.
Lanterns on the lake, for “Gracious tide, take me home”.
Solar Fields, for “Until we meet the sky”.
Worthy nominees all. And the winner is...
Lanterns on the Lake, for “Gracious tide, take me home”!
Great work, Li-Chang, and I have a sneaking suspicion that's not the last we'll be hearing of those guys tonight. Great album, great debut, and a very deserved winner indeed. And now we move on to the award for Best Male Vocalist. This award is not only presented to a
new vocalist, but any vocalist qualifying for nomination must have released new material this year. As you might expect, the competition for this award is pretty stiff, so here to read the nominations is Laura.
Thanks, Stacey-Lynn. Good evening everyone. The nominations for Best Male Vocalist are as follows:
Meat Loaf, for “Hell in a handbasket”.
Steve Earle, for “I'll never get out of this world alive”.
Arnel Pineda, for “Eclipse” by Journey.
Peter Gabriel, for “New blood”.
And the winner is...
Meat Loaf! Congratulations, big guy: you've still got it!
Yes indeed, after four decades in the business, Meat still has what it takes to leave the others trailing in his wake. Congratulations to him. And that naturally leads us to our award for Best Female Vocalist. The same rules apply, though this time the new girls are out in force, as Alicia will explain to us.