Best Band (UK) 2020 Winner
Erotic Secrets of Pompeii –
It has been a hard year for bands and only technology combined with a total disregard
for Covid regulations has kept productivity moving. Bristol outfit Erotic
Secrets of Pompeii have managed to not only write and record but also to wow
with a flurry of singles this year and I genuinely think they could be
something special in 2021.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/eroticsecretsofpompeii
Previous Winners
2019 Winner – Dinosaur Pile-Up
2018 Winner – Black Futures
2017 Winner - Rews
2016 Winner – Narcs / Berries
2015 Winner - Allusondrugs
Best Band (South West) 2020 Winner
Moriaty – the two-man
Teignmouth tsunami waltzed in to 2020 like it was no big deal, dropped the
seriously impressive album ‘The Die Is Cast’ (on sexy vinyl, to boot) and then
squeezed in a couple of incendiary live shows between lock downs. Top work
gents.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/moriatysounds
Previous Winners
2019 Winner – Pattern Pusher
2018 Winner – The Velvet Hands
2017 Winner – The Malthusian Trap
2016 Winner – Wildwood Kin
2015 Winner – Lost Dawn / Sound
of the Sirens
Best Band (International) 2020 Winner
Larkin Poe (USA) – The Nashville
duo released not one but two excellent albums in 2020 with their original
composition ‘Self-Made Man’ followed neatly but an album of superb cover
versions, ‘Kindred Spirits’. Tight vocal harmonies and excellent mastery of various
guitars make their music incredibly moreish and ahead of anyone else working in
or around their genre.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/larkinpoe
Previous Winners
2019 Winner – Fontaines D.C.
(Republic of Ireland)
2018 Winner – The Nectars (USA)
2017 Winner – Parekh & Singh (India)
2016 Winner – The Watanabes
(Japan)
2015 Winner – Failure Machine
(USA)
Best Solo Male (UK) 2020 Shortlist
Riaz Ahmad – There was such
a stunning energy and honesty about Oxford’s Riaz Ahmad on his ‘All at Sea’ EP
that his talent stuck out like a glorious thumb. Unique lyrical content, beautiful
vocals and deftly played guitar makes Ahmad a real talent to enjoy.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/riazahmadmusic
Previous Winners
2019 Winner – Xam Volo
2018 Winner – Joshua Kyeot
2017 Winner – Jamie Lenman
2016 Winner – Jake Morley
2015 Winner – Cosmo Sheldrake
Best Solo Male (South West) 2020 Winner
Ollie Dixon – Tiverton based
singer-songwriter Ollie Dixon was fresh to my ears in 2020 but he totally blew
me away. Dixon’s superb voice and atmospheric dark folk was made for the
windswept vistas of the South West but, more importantly, is perfect for
cinematic soundtracking and that potential put him just ahead of a strong pack.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/OllieDixonMusic
Previous Winners
2019 Winner – Samantics
2018 Winner – Matthew Gordon
Price
2017 Winner – Gozer Goodspeed/Martyn
Crocker
Best Solo Male (International) 2020 Winner
Jacknife Lee (Republic of Ireland) – Irish producer and mixer Jacknife Lee released his album ‘The Jacknife
Lee’ this year and it brought so many wonderful artists along for the ride that
this award has to be for them a bit as well. This superb long player featured
the likes of Open Mike Eagle, Beth Ditto and Bibi Bourelly which made it a huge
party of an album and more than worthy of this recognition.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/thejacknifelee
Previous Winners
2019 Winner – Duckwrth (USA)
2018 Winner – Simon Lynge
(Greenland)
2017 Winner – Noah Gundersen
(USA)
Best Solo Female (UK) 2020 Winner
Tina Boonstra – Solo
artists seem to be in the ascendancy at the moment and the women are leading the
way creatively, so this was a tough category to call. Nevertheless, having
bubbled under the surface for a while, 2020 was the year of Tina Boonstra. A
huge EP full of hooks and insight really grabbed the attention and got the
imagination sparking, something we all needed this year.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/tinaboonstra
Previous Winners
2019 Winner – Lauran Hibberd
2018 Winner – Pip Hall
2017 Winner – Poppy Ackroyd
2016 Winner – Joanna Cooke / Lulu
James
2015 Winner – Malka
Best Solo Female (South West) 2020 Winner
Yazzy – Despite all the
setbacks and restrictions of 2020, Devon based vocalist Yazzy has emerged as a
self-professed ‘Half Lioness, Half Songbird’ and she is living up to that
title. A couple of hugely soulful singles have shown off her voice to the world
and a chance encounter with Jeremy Vine meant some early national airplay on
his Radio 2 show brought her to a wider audience.
More
information: https://www.facebook.com/YazzyMusicOfficial
Previous
Winners
2019
Winner – Rise
2018
Winner – Joanna Cooke
2017 Winner – Rosie the Crow
Best Solo Female (International) 2020 Winner
Madison Beer (USA) – I have
a feeling that Madison Beer may follow in the footsteps of someone like Dua
Lipa in 2021. Beer has a hand in everything from writing and performing the
music to directing the super stylish videos that accompany her sleek alt-pop
gems so she seems perfectly poised with a debut album on the horizon. Nevertheless,
a string of outstanding singles saw Beer make 2020 her own, effortlessly.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/MadisonElleBeer
Previous Winners
2019 Winner – Tami Neilson
(Canada/Australia)/Mavis Staples (USA)
2018 Winner – Grace Inspace (USA)
2017 Winner – Deqn Sue (USA)
Best Single 2020 Winner
The Clockworks ‘Enough Is Never Enough’ – There were so many great singles released this year but as soon as I heard
‘Enough Is Never Enough’ by Irish upstarts the Clockworks I pretty much knew
that nothing would top it for me this year. Agitated, raw, frustrated and
urgent but not without hope or purposed, this single really captured what it
felt like to be at the wrong end of the stick in 2020 and boy was that powerful.
More
information: https://www.facebook.com/theclockdoesntwork
Previous
Winners
2019
Winner – Ferris & Sylvester ‘I Dare You’ / Bicuruious ‘I Don’t Do Drugs, I
Just Sweat A Lot’
2018
Winner – X Ambassadors ‘Joyful’
2017 Winner – She Makes War ‘I
Want My Country Back’ / Moses ‘King Size’
2016 Winner – Mowbeck ‘Vaseline’
/ Childcare ‘Cinema Club’
2015 Winner – Azu Yeche ‘Lagos’
Best EP 2020 Winner
Tina Boonstra ‘City of Doubt’ – This makes Tina Boonstra a double winner but her ‘City of Doubt’ EP
really was that good and I can’t stress strongly enough that you need it in
your life. Uplifting, bold and with a real sense of cool assuredness, with this
EP Boonstra has definitely cemented her place as one of the UK’s most promising
artists.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/tinaboonstra
Previous Winners
2019 Winner – Sick Joy ‘Them Days
EP’
2018 Winner – Jones ‘New York EP’
2017 Winner – Mux ‘Can You See
Who? EP’
2016 Winner – Joanna Cooke ‘Wound
Up EP’ / Bare Hunter ‘Dry Rot EP’
Best Album 2020 Winner
I really wanted to just pick a single album this year, but I couldn’t separate
these two out so I’m going to have to share the award out yet again.
Moriaty ‘The Die Is Cast’ – You
can really feel that the Devon based duo have spent time on this album and ploughed
a whole lot of blood, sweat, tears and other bodily fluids in to it. Samples
are carefully chosen, riffs are enormous and the drums pack a punch like a
landmine in a Big Mac. Rock’n’Roll isn’t dead, it’s just been isolating in
Devon.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/moriatysounds
Nana Adjoa ‘Big Dreaming Ants’ – The vibe on this debut offering is so fantastically other worldly that
you can really lose yourself in it for the entirety of the record. I think that
is what appealed most about this album by Netherlands based Nana Adjoa because
the opportunity to lose yourself in another world with a beautiful soundscape
is so rare these days and yet so vitally needed.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/Nanaadjoamusic
Previous Winners
2019 Winner – William the
Conqueror ‘Bleeding on the Soundtrack’ / X Ambassadors ‘Orion’
2018 Winner – The Nectars ‘Sci-Fi
Television’ / Henge ‘Attention! Earth’
2017 Winner – Noah Gundersen
‘White Noise’ / Rews ‘Pyro’
2016 Winner – Narcs ‘A Thinking
Animal’ / Jake Morley ‘The Manual
2015 Winner – Lost Dawn / Malka
Best Video 2020 Winner
Spang Sisters ‘Eddie Murphy’ – People got creative with videos in 2020 but once you’ve seen one Zoom collaboration
you’ve seen them all. Therefore, the award this year goes to the cut for ‘Eddie
Murphy’ by Spang Sisters which features a brilliant story of love between a sausage
and a fish finger told using real life food and a lot of string. It’s heart-warming
and genius.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/spangsisters
Watch the Video: https://youtu.be/P_ZSBxKxCAU
Previous Winners
2019 Winner – Penguin Café
‘Chapter’
2018 Winner – Calva Louise ‘Tug
of War’ / LibraLibra ‘Tongues’
2017 Winner – Vei ‘Rolling on You
Romeo’
2016 Winner – Michelle O Faith
‘Lemonade’
2015 Winner – Husky ‘I’m Not
Coming Back’
Best Live Show 2020 Winner
Wille Edwards + Andy Quick, Downderry Village Hall – This might have been the only gig I went to
in 2020 due to Covid and Cancer, but seeing these two giants of the Westcountry
music scene on stage surrounded by lamps, crocheted items and a range of
guitars was as intimate and beautiful as you could hope for a gig to be. Add an
appreciative and attentive audience and you have the recipe for a night to
remember.
More information:
Wille Edwards – https://www.facebook.com/willeedwardssongs
Andy Quick – https://www.facebook.com/AndyQuickMusic
Previous Winners
2019 Winner – Shihad @ the
Thekla, Bristol
2018 Winner – Looe Saves the Day
Festival, Looe
2017 Winner – Wildwood Kin @ The
Brook Inn, Plymouth
2016 Winner – Blogtober 2016
feat. Berries / Pattern Pusher / Seaker / Jamie Yost / Rosa Belle
2015 Winner – Tankus the Henge @
Looe Music Festival
Best Band Name 2020 Winner
Death by Unga Bunga – the Norwegian
garage rockers have been a favourite for a while but I seem to have over looked
their glorious name in the past. Despite the slightly brutal meaning behind
their title, Death by Unga Bunga make sweet rock’n’roll and with a new album
due in 2021 I think you’ll be hearing a lot more from them. Via me.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/deathbyungabunga
Previous Winners
2019 Winner – Those Fucking
Snowflakes
2018 Winner – Have You Ever Seen
the Jane Fonda Aerobic VHS?
2017 Winner – Playboy Manbaby
2016 Winner – Yes Babez! / Taco
Hell / Queen of Jeans
Best Debut 2020 Winner
Nana Adjoa ‘Big Dreaming Ants’ – The Dutch-Ghanian singer-songwriter created something truly special with
her debut album ‘Big Dreaming Ants’ and it would be seriously impressive for an
established artist, let alone someone doing it for the first time. This was a
relatively easy decision, such was the power and prowess of this debut effort.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/Nanaadjoamusic
Previous Winners
2019 Winner – Gazel ‘Gazel’s Book
of Souls’
2018 Winner – Georgia Fearn
‘Perfect on Paper’
2017 Winner – Black Futures ‘Karma,
Ya Dig?’
2016 Winner – Berries ‘Siren’
2015 Winner – Vanessa Forero
‘Heaven Knows’
Best Year 2020 Winner
Lack of Afro – Not only did
Adam Gibbons (the one man band that is Lack of Afro) release the excellent ‘I’m
Here Now’ album this year, he also launched his new collaborative project The
Damn Straights with Herbal T. Now that’s what I call making the most of a bad
situation.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/lackofafromusic
Previous Winners
2019 Winner – Deux Furiesues
2018 Winner - Idles
2017 Winner - Cassels
2016 Winner – Wildwood Kin
2015 Winner – Sound of the Sirens
Best PR 2020 Winner
Sonic PR – The North-West based
and hugely experienced Sonic PR have had a hugely productive year bringing us
artist like Beans on Toast, Bruce Springsteen, Crazy Arm, Darling Boy, Frank
Turner, IDLES, Larkin Poe, Ryan Hamilton, Tankus the Henge, the Blinders, the Clockworks,
the Lotts and Tourists. And those are just the ones that made their way to my ears.
Bravo team Sonic, a fine year indeed.
More information: http://sonicpr.co.uk/
Previous Winners
2019 Winner – Prescription PR
2018 Winner – Fine Company
2017 Winner – Cannonball PR
2016 Winner – Wilful Publicity
2015 Winner – Hannah Gould Music
PR
Best Label 2020 Winner
Alcopop! – When a label, no
matter how big or small, brings you new music by the likes of Beach Riot, Gaffa
Tape Sandy, Helen Love, Peaness and Tokky Horror in just one year then you know
they’ve got their ears pointed in the right direction. There’s a lot more to
come from this team too so if you haven’t had the pleasure then, you know, go pleasure
yourself.
More information: https://www.ilovealcopop.co.uk/
Previous Winners
2019 Winners – Say Something
Records
2018 Winner – Integrity Records
2017 Winner – Cooking Vinyl
2016 Winner – Superfan 99
2015 Winner – Clue Records