Trollheart

One of the many hits of John Cougar Mellencamp, you spell it don't say it: R-O-C-K in the USA!

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Trollheart

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.

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Trollheart

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.

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Trollheart

Thank you, Stacey-Lynn. The award for Most Overrated Album is similar to the one just given, but it focusses more on the hype surrounding the album, the reviews it got and the fact that it failed to live up to its promise. It's not seen as the same as the Most Disappointing Album because, here at the Playlist of Life, we may not have expected it to be great anyway, but were drawn in by the buzz around it.

And the nominations in this category are:
Dream Theater, for “A dramatic turn of events”

Peter Gabriel, for “New blood”

The Von Hertzen Brothers, for “Stars aligned”

and Coldplay, for “Mylo Xyloto”.


And the award goes to...

Coldplay, for “Mylo Xyloto.”

Not really too much you can add to that, is there? Which takes us to the award no-one wants to win, but it has to be awarded anyway, so tell us Laura, what are the nominations for the Worst Album of 2011?

Well, there have been quite a few bad albums, Stacey-Lynn, but we've had to narrow it down to four, so they are:
Dream Theater, “A dramatic turn of events”

Peter Gabriel, “New blood”

Charred walls of the damned, “Cold winds on timeless days”

and “Sin-atra” by Various Artists


And the Polly goes to...
”Sin-atra”! Those of you who contributed to this mess should all be ashamed of yourselves haha!


Yes, well deserved. Funny for about five minutes until the joke starts to wear thin, and you realise there's little else underneath. But enough about Trollheart's Best Man speeches...!

Okay, so that takes care of all the awards nobody ever wanted to win, and leaves us with Best Debut Album of 2011, and the nominees for this will be read by Helen.

The nominations for Best Debut Album are:
For all we know, for “For all we know”
(CLIP NOT AVAILABLE)
Pistol Annies, for “Hell on heels”

Three Seasons, for “Life's road”

and Lanterns on the Lake, for “Gracious tide, take me home”.


And the winner, once more, is ...

Lanterns on the Lake, for “Gracious tide, take me home”!

Unbelievable! Can they make it a clean sweep, we wonder, as we come to the last category in this first part of the show? It is, of course, the one you've all been waiting for, which needs no introduction. Li-Chang?

Thank you, Stacey-Lynn. Yes, the nominations for the Best Album of 2011 are:
”50 words for snow”, by Kate Bush

“Grace for drowning” by Steven Wilson

“Gracious tide, take me home” by, oh, you know...!

“Fallen empires”, by Snow Patrol.


And the winner of the award for Best Album of 2011 is... can they do it again? YES!

”Gracious tide, take me home”! Many congratulations!

Yes definitely, huge respect and congratulations to a band who have all but made a clean sweep of the awards here tonight. The future is looking bright for Lanterns on the Lake. A total of FIVE Pollys! Fantastic work, delighted for them.

That's it for part one of the show. Please make your way in an orderly fashion to the bar and don't forget to return for part two, when we'll be dishing out the Pollys for the non-chronological awards. See you all soon! Bye for now!

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Trollheart

Hi everyone and welcome back to the 1st annual Polly awards. This is the part of the show where we honour those artistes who have been nominated in the Non-Chronological categories. The awards are basically the same, but the scope is much wider, and allows some artistes who may not have qualified for an award to be in with a chance of scooping a Polly.

So let's get underway as Alicia tells us about the nominations for the first award.

Thanks, Stacey-Lynn, and welcome back everyone. We've been requested by the Gardai (Irish police) to remind you that if you took a drink during the intermission, you should be sure to make use of the many taxis outside the venue, and your car will be returned to you in the morning by our valeting service. Do your bit to keep alcohol-related driving accidents to a minimum this year. Thank you.

And now, the nominations for the first category in the Non-Chronological Pollys. The award is for Best Album Cover, and here are the nominations:



And the winner of the Polly is...

Steve Thorne!

How about that? The oldest of our nominated album covers scoops the Polly. Well done, Steve, and we wish you well in your future projects. Next is the award for the Most Surprising or Impressive Album, and Laura will read the nominations for this.

Hi everyone. The nominations in this category are as follows:

Antimatter, for “Planetary confinement”, released 2005

The Gaslight Anthem, for “American slang”, released 2010

Steve Thorne, for “Emotional creatures, part 1”, released 2005

Lake of Tears, for “Forever autumn”, released 1999


And the Polly goes to...
Antimatter, for “Planetary confinement”!

Well done guys, very much a deserved win. Just shows though how an album can still make an impression years later, when one of the nominations there was from over ten years ago! That brings us to the award for Best Male Vocalist, and Helen will read the nominations for this.

Hi everyone, welcome back. The nominations for Best Male Vocalist in the Non-Chronological category are:
Janne Hurme, of Human Temple

Benoit David, of Mystery and later Yes

Jan Henrik Ohme, of Gazpacho

Steve Thorne


And the winner is...

Jan Henrik Ohme, of Gazpacho!

Thanks Helen, congratulations to Jan. Which of course brings us neatly to the award for Best Female Vocalist. Li-Chang?

The nominations for Best Female Vocalist are as follows:
Judie Tzuke

Lana Lane

Kim Seviour, of Touchstone

Faith Hill


And the award goes to...

Kim Seviour, of Touchstone!

Great stuff! Kim just missed out on an award in the Chronological sections, good to see her being properly recognised here. And that takes us to the award for Most Innovative Album, and it's back to Laura for this.

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Trollheart

Thanks, Stacey-Lynn. There have been a huge amount of innovative albums down the years, but of the ones we only heard last year, here are the four nominations we've shortened the list to:
”Terra incognita: beyond the horizon”, by Roswell Six

“Ghost”, by Matt Stevens

“Missa Atropos”, by Gazpacho

“Genius” trilogy by Daniele Liverani


And the award goes to...

“Genius” by Daniel Liverani!

Yes indeed. Some may argue that Mr. Liverani had an unfair advantage, as his nomination included three albums to the others' one, but we subjected it to much more rigorous critera, which in fact made it harder to choose. In the end though, the decision was easy, as “Genius” is one of the most innovative albums we have heard in a long time. Well done, Daniel.

And so we come now to the Best Album Track, and if shortening down a list of the most innovative albums was difficult, this task was next to impossible, but we managed it. Helen?

Yes, a tough task certainly. The final list for the nominations for Best Album Track are:
”Orphans”, by the Gaslight Anthem, from “American slang”

“Runaway train”, by Soul Asylum, from “Grave dancers union”

“The tinder box”, by Arena, from “The seventh degree of separation”

“Line of fire”, by Antimatter, from “Planetary confinement”


And the award goes to...

Well, there's a turn-up! ”The tinder box” by Arena!

VERY interesting! An album Trollheart only reviewed last week: obviously made a good impression. Well done, the boys from Arena. And now we come to the Best New Band category. As already explained, this is not a “new” band in the sense that they're just starting out, the moreso in these Non-Chronological categories. But Alicia will tell us more anyway.

Well, once again we stress that the term “new” in this context refers to a band who may indeed be new, or may have been going for some time, but 2011 is the first time we here at the Playlist of Life have heard them. The nominations in this category then are:
Gazpacho

The Gaslight Anthem

Roswell Six

Human Temple


And the winner of the Polly is...

The Gaslight Anthem!

Very well done to the boys, and I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more from them in the years to come. Thanks Alicia, and now we come to the “bad” awards, the ones that are perhaps an embarrassment to those who win them, if win can be the correct term. First we have the Most Disappointing Album award, which Laura will read the nominations for.

Some of these albums will be rather old, but still turned out to be a huge disappointment when we listened to them. The nominations are:
”Grace” by the late Jeff Buckley

”Prominence and demise” by Winds

”GTR” by GTR

“Aphrodite” by Kylie Minogue


And the award goes to ...

GTR! What a turkey!

We haven't an award for Most Overrated Album in this section, since it would be likely to stretch back too far, and how much can you overrate an album that's years old? So instead we're going to move directly to the award for Worst Album. Li-Chang?

The Award for Worst Album goes to an album we've heard for the first time in 2011, and the nominations are:
”Surface tension” by Clockwork

“GTR” by GTR

“Prominence and demise” by Winds

“Fur” by Jane Wiedlin


And the award goes to...

Well, what do you know? ”GTR”! Guess it's so bad it wins two awards!


Indeed. No wonder there was just the one album. Thankfully. And that completes the distasteful task of awarding the “bad” Pollys, so let's now move on to the award for Best Debut Album.

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Trollheart

Thanks, Stacey-Lynn. The nominations in this category as as follows:
Two Door Cinema Club, for “Tourist history”

Roswell Six, for “Terra incognita: beyond the horizon”

Lisa Hannigan, for “Sea sew”

Cowboy Prostitutes, for “Cowboy Prostitutes”.


And the winner is...
Roswell Six, for “Terra Incognita: beyond the horizon”!

Wonderful. Thank you Helen. And that takes us almost to the main event, the award for Best Album. But before we do, Alicia has one more very special award to tell us about. Alicia?

As part of our tribute to the very best in music, we here at the Playlist of Life have inaugurated the Lifetime Achievement Polly, which we will be awarding each year to someone who we believe has advanced the cause of music, given millions pleasure and earned our undying respect and gratitiude. There is no shortlist, as the winner is chosen beforehand. So without further ado, I would like to present the first ever Polly for Lifetime Achievement in Music to...

Mr. Steve Earle!


Yes, not only for his amazing albums, great live shows and wonderful music, not only for crossing over boundaries from country to folk to rock, but also for his tireless dedication to good causes, his kicking of the habit and his rebirth, if you will, after being released from jail in 1994, and his unwavering stand against the Death Penalty in the USA, Stephen Fain “Steve” Earle is awarded the first ever Polly for Lifetime Achievement in Music. Congratulations, Steve!

Thanks Alicia. Very well deserved indeed. And now we come to the highlight of the evening, the award for Best Album in the Non-Chronological section. Helen will tell us about the nominations.

Thanks, Stacey-Lynn. The nominations for the final award, the Polly for Best Album, are:
”One among the living” by Mystery

“Analogue” by a-ha

“Planetary confinement” by Antimatter

“The seventh degree of separation” by Arena


And the final Polly goes to...

a-ha, for “Analogue”!

Thanks Helen, just goes to show that even though they've broken up now, the boys from Norway still cast one hell of a long shadow! Very well done to them!

Well, that's it for the first year, the first inaugural Pollys. Hope you all enjoyed it, and we will of course be back next year, bigger and better with hopefully just as star-studded a lineup, if not better. If we didn't feature your favourite album or artiste, apologies, but we have to cut the shortlist to four in each category, and like any award, only one can win. I think everyone here though were worthy winners, and those who were nominated but didn't get an award are still very highly thought of by us to make the final list.

So now all that remains for me to do is to thank everyone who participated --- in particular my friends Laura, Helen, Li-Chang and Alicia --- and of course Trollheart for organising the whole night and providing the venue. Congratulations to all who won a Polly, and to those who didn't, well there's always next year! I'd like to wish you all a good night, thank you for coming and enjoy the rest of the evening.

See you next year!



From the Sunrise Club at Erin Hall, Dublin

Presenters
Stacey-Lynn McPherson
Laura Jennings
Helen O'Donnell
Li-Chang Matsuki
Alicia Frances Nolan

Artistic Design
Stacey-Lynn McPherson

Location Supervisor
Beth Williams

Scriptwriters
Stacey-Lynn McPherson
Laura Jennings
Helen O'Donnell

Cameras
The Laser Eye

Stage Manager
Trollheart

Sound
Jim Robinson
Keith Ryan
Oscar Lord
Jenny Patterson
Mike D'Ambola
Cathy McPherson
John McDermott

Catering
Hunger's Mother

Lights
Industrial Light But Not Magic

Music Supervisor
Thomas H. Blanchard III

Set Design
Maura Ni Bhealtaine
Anna Jameson
Linda D'Ambola
Gerry Stevens

Graphics
Now You See It

Hair by
Crowning Glory

Makeup
Connie Simpson
Geraldine Taggart
Laura Sanders
Tanya Dennis

Ms. McPherson's Personal Aide
Penny Johansson

Legal Representation
James McDonald

Producer
Stacey-Lynn McPherson

Executive Producer
Trollheart

An “Ivory Tower” production for “The Playlist of Life”, copyright MMXII

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Trollheart

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Ah come on, you know you all love ABBA! Let's have a shot of “Does your mother know?”

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Unknown Soldier

Page 8

Fleetwood Mac- After 8 pages I now know that you're a big fan of certain band's later albums that a lot of people often see as weaker efforts and this Fleetwood Mac effort falls into that category. Fleetwood Mac I love with a passion and Lindsey Buckingham has always been a musical hero of mine, so any Mac album without him on post-1975 gets a big thumbs down from me Behind the Mask is not a bad album it just lacks Lindsey and without him the heart and soul of the band are not really there. Billy Burnette and Rick Vito did a decent job on the album, but neither of these two could find the spark that was needed. The following album was also average but things got back to normal when Lindsey returned on Say You Will which is a very good album. Do you know Lindsey's solo discography? As his second album Go Insane is Lindsey at his best.

Millenium- I don't know this band but I'm very interested in giving them a listen.

Mostly Autumn- I've not heard too much of their stuff, but seeing this has now reminded me to give them a listen.

Peter Gabriel- Hahaha I think Us is a very average album also and doesn't come near the quality of the two albums either side of it So and Up, but admittedly I last heard this album about 10 years ago!!! when I listen to Gabriel these days, it still tends to be his Genesis stuff and his first four solo albums.

Pink Floyd- Now Division Bell is a great album and I was happy for Gilmour, Wright and Mason, because they demonstrated that they really could produce a great album without Roger Waters, their previous effort A Momentary Lapse of Reason showed that without Waters they weren't really capable, but Division Bell is the business and their best post-The Wall release without a doubt. BTW I was always a fan of Richard Wright and know he often took a confidence battering from Roger Waters.

Ric Ocasek-Now I know his solo stuff really well, Beautitude was always a slow plodding synth based effort with very few highlights, its best track "Jimmy Jimmy" was part of the Heartbeat City tour and always seemed even more polished and speeded up on that tour set, there are some other nice tunes as well, but the whole thing still gets the thumbs down from me and the best thing about the album is actually its name, its such an Ocasek word

Now This Side of Paradise is a different kettle of fish altogether. It's almost like a Heartbeat City pt.2 and stand's as Ocasek's finest solo release, its full of Ocasek classics and most of the songs on here would have gotten on any great Cars album, what's great about this album is the ambient feel it has and Ocasek has got that spot on, on this release. I love the tracks "Look in Your Eyes" which actually features Ben Orr and the final two tracks on the album are what actually elevate the whole thing to classic status "Hello Darkness" written with Greg Hawkes and "This Side of Paradise" the album closer.

That's all I've got time for now, but next time page 9 and more Ric Ocasek and maybe pt.2 of the NWOBHM.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History