Thank you Stacey-Lynn, and welcome to you all. As Stacey-Lynn says, this last year has seen the emergence of some real talent, but as we have to restrict the nominations to a total of four, we've included one “old hand” as well. The nominations for Best Female Vocalist are:
Manda Ophuis, from Nemesea, for “The quiet resistance”.
Kim Seviour, from Touchstone, for “The city sleeps”.
Hazel Wilde, from Lanterns on the Lake, for “Gracious tide, take me home”.
Kate Bush, for “50 words for snow”.
And the winner is...
Hazel Wilde, Lanterns on the Lake!
Congratulations to Hazel. Told you that was unlikely to be the last we heard from this great band. Well done, and who knows? We may yet hear from Lanterns on the Lake again before the end of the evening. Well, now it's time to move on to the award for Most Innovative Album of the Year. I think we can expect some familiar faces in these nominations. Over to you, Laura.
Thanks, Stacey-Lynn. Yes, in these Cowell-fuelled days of quick-fix, prepackaged pop albums and by-the-numbers rock, it's always nice to see that some artistes out there are still pushing the envelope, trying to break down boundaries, experimenting, never happy to stand still. All of these names are synonymous with that pioneering spirit, and each one is worthy of winning this award.
The nominations are:
Tom Waits, for “Bad as me”.
Steven Wilson, for “Grace for drowning”.
Kate Bush, for “50 words for snow”.
Peter Gabriel, for “New blood”.
And the winner is ... if I can just get this pesky envelope open... ah!
Tom Waits, for “Bad as me”!
So another old hand collects a Polly! Well done, Waits: there's life in the old (rain) dog yet! Great album, and certainly innovative, that's for sure.
Now we come to the award for Best Album Track. Always a hard one, this. Here's Li-Chang with the nominations.
The nominations for Best Album Track are as follows:
Lanterns on the Lake, for “The places we call home”, from “Gracious tide, take me home”.
Snow Patrol, for “New York”, from “Fallen empires”.
Steven Wilson, for “Postcard”, from “Grace for drowning”.
Bell X1, for “Amsterdam says”, from “Bloodless coup”.
And the Polly goes to...
Oh!
Bell X1, for “Amsterdam says”!
Well, that's a surprise, but a worthy winner indeed, and nice to have an Irish band get an award. Very well done guys, some very stiff competition in there. Congratulations.
Now the award for the Best New Band. This is perhaps a slight misnomer, as any band can qualify, even if they have had releases previously. The criteria are that they, obviously, must have released something in 2011, and that year must be the first we at the Playlist of Life have heard of them. Of course, they
can be totally new bands, but they don't have to be to qualify, just as long as they satisfy the above conditions. Over to you, Helen.
Thanks, Stacey-Lynn. Well, I guess you've explained the category as well as I could, so all that's left then is to announce the nominations. And they are:
Coldspell, heavy metal band from Sweden, current release “Out from the cold”.
Lanterns on the Lake, folk rock band from the UK, current release, which is also their full debut, “Gracious tide, take me home.”
Alesana, heavy rock band from USA, current release “A place where the sun is silent”.
Touchstone, progressive rock band from the UK, current release “The city sleeps.”
And the winner is...
Well, wouldn't you know it?
Lanterns on the Lake!
Congratulations once again to Lanterns on the Lake. This is turning out to be something of a clean sweep for them! Well, as much as all the nominees no doubt wanted to win the Polly for any or all of the previous categories, there are few if any who would want to have been nominated for any of the next few to come. Just as every year brings great albums, it also brings bad ones, and the next award is given to the Most Disappointing Album of the year. Alicia will tell us more.
Not necessarily the
worst album --- that's still to come --- this category focusses on albums that should have been a lot better than they turned out to be, in our opinion. These are albums that were either hyped to the heavens or were from artistes we would have expected to have produced the goods. And the nominees are:
Peter Gabriel, for “New blood”.
Bon Iver, for “Bon Iver”
Charred walls of the damned, for “Cold winds on timeless days”
and Steve Earle, for “I'll never get out of this world alive.”
And the award goes to ....
Peter Gabriel, for “New blood.” Tough luck, Peter!
Yes, sorry about that, Peter. You know we love you, but that album was just hyped to be so much better than it turned out to be. A huge, huge disappointment and a real letdown. Just didn't work, for us. And this leads us to our next “bad” category, which we'll let Li-Chang tell us about.