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Copyright
Nick Morgan, Kate Kavannagh and Serge Valentin
2007
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100%
Guaranteed without any publicity, whether hidden or
not,
like
everything by the Malt Maniacs. |
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2008
Whiskyfun Music Award Winners
by Nick Morgan, Dave
Broom and the rest of the crew |
| Ok
- here's our end-of-year Woolworth's basket full
of gongs for those bands and performers who have
reached the summit of the pyramid and entertained
us in the course of the year. But in keeping with
the spirit of the new age we've hedged our bets
– we’re short selling - and have applied
a minimum fifty percent discount, and strictly limited
our loquacious litany of libatory, laudable, and
often loxodromic logogriphs - in other words, we've
cut out the crap, sort of sub prime, if you will. |
| Nick's
Most Entertaining Performer of the Year
This
award could so easily have gone to David Thomas
for his outrageously funny Bring Me the Head of
Ubu Roi at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in April,
and for his contributions to the piratical Rogue’s
Gallery gig at the Barbican. |
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| But
actually it was as the early autumn night cooled
on the levees of the Mississippi in Helena, Arkansas,
that our winner put in two exceptional and award-winning
performances, one (almost) solo, the other with
his full band, which made the by-then packed natural
arena wriggle and squeal with delight. The winner
is the self-styled hardest working man in show business,
and the baddest man in the blues, Mr
Bobby Rush. |
| Dave's
Bonkers Event of the Year
Acid
Mothers Temple and the Melting Paradiso
UFO at the Greenhouse Effect, Hove. The band,
as you know full well are one of the leading exponents
of Japanese psychedelic music.. certainly one
of the noisiest.. and hairiest. |
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| What
you may not realise (and why should you?) is that
the Greenhouse Effect is one of Hove's smallest
licensed premises. Quite why I went I know not,
I could have stayed at home and opened the windows
and still been deafened by the glorious sounds.
As it was I was there, with the Welshman and about
50 others (it was sold out) with the band a few
inches from my nose. The ears haven't quite recovered. |
Nick's
Best Album of the Year
By a horse’s neck this was won by the audacious,
vibrant, cheeky and certainly cheerful Last
Shadow Puppets, whose potage of sixties
pastiche showed a maturity and knowingness way
beyond the years of its creators, Arctic Monkey
Alex Turner, and Rascal Miles Kane. And why I
drove to Luton instead of using the ticket I had
to see them at the Hammersmith Apollo remains
a mystery to me too, Serge. |
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| Dave's
Best Album of the Year |
| A
good year: Shadow Puppets is certainly up there,
EST's Live in Hamburg, Mr Cave's...'Lazarus',
Fleet Foxes, some amazing stuff from Christina
Carter, Portishead's 'Third'; a bunch of great
reissues [The Bachs! on vinyl! Dennis Wilson's
'Ocean Pacific Blue', Shirley Collins, early Steeleye
Span]; and great compilations [a draw between
African Scream Contest and Take Me To the River:
A Southern Soul Story] and some wild finds when
hunting for vinyl in Joburg and Tokyo [Cecil Taylor,
The Churls, Shelagh McDonald, a bootleg of Neil
Young's 'Tonight's the Night' tour]...but the
overall winner has to be James
Yorkston's 'When the Haar Rolls In'
which proves that he's the best songwriter in
Britain. |
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| Nick's
Best Gig of the Year
Around sixty gigs in all (phew! – never
again), of which four or so rated nine points
or more from the panel of judges. The honourable
runners-up included Nick Cave, Neil Young and
Bruce Springsteen. But our winners, or winners,
were Robert
Plant and Alison
Krauss for a simply sensational gig
in Cardiff, supported by a hugely talented band,
and of course that chapel choir of an audience.
|
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| And
fancy me not noticing that the Queen was in the
audience too, because today she’s made Robert
Plant a Commander of the British Empire ‘for
services to music’ – not bad, although
on the basis of this gig I might have made him a
Duke. |
Dave's
Gig of the Year
A close call between a truly extraordinary evening's
entertainment from Eels; and Nick
Cave with his Bad Seeds.. and Mr
Cave wins by a moustache hair.. actually he wins
because of Warren Ellis. |
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| Nick's
Best New Live Act
In a year in which we’ve managed to squeeze
in some pretty good new stuff (notably the Cold
War Kids and Fleet Foxes) among all the old fogies
this award has to go to that back-to-basics Mississippi
Hill Country duo Lighting
Malcolm and Cedric Burnside. |
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| They
played a memorable gig under the stars on the small
stage at the Helena Blues Festival, and produced
an equally good album, Two Man Wrecking Crew. As
the recession bites we’re frankly going to
need a bit less of the rather self-indulgent stuff
turned out by bands like the Fleet Foxes, and a
bit more of the sort of reality check that Cedric
and Malcolm (can they be blues stars with names
like these?) provide. Buy their music! |
| Nick's
Single Most Outstanding Live Song of the Year
How many songs in sixty gigs – including
Festivals? How to choose? Well, when I tell you
that my spine still shivers the moment I think
of this performance, as I’m sure that of
everyone who was in the Barbican for the Rogue’s
Gallery gig does, then it’s probably no
surprise to learn that it’s Norma
Waterson singing ‘Bay of Biscay’.
|
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| It’s
almost impossible to describe how accomplished,
and how moving, this was. Or the look of horror
that formed on Teddy Thompson’s face as he
realised he was going to have to follow her on stage.
Tough act to follow indeed. |
Dave's
Song of the Year
The Earlie King, by Baby
Dee. "Who could resist a 50-something
transsexual bellowing "Bring me a whisky,
get me a beer"? |
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Dave's
Best Moment at a Gig
Having my seven year old daughter on my shoulders
as we both sang along to 'Two Heads' with the
Alabama
3 in the freezing cold at the Beachdown
Fest. |
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| Serge's
Best Gig Photograph of The Year
|
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| With
so many to choose from, this had to be a tough call...
But there aren't so many photographs where you can
actually 'hear' the performer like on this beautiful
one of Buddy Guy at the Sheperd's Bush Empire in
London taken on June 24, 2008 by Whiskyfun's official
concert photographer Kate Kavanagh! |
| Nick's
Best Bang for Your Bucks
It could have been Rogue’s Gallery, or the
Teddy Thompson ‘Thompson Family Christmas’
(what a good year young Mr Thompson has had) or
maybe even the Sandy Denny tribute. |
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| But
when you have a three day free (FREE) Blues
Festival that features artistes such
as Pinetop Perkins, Sam Carr, Bob Margolin, Webb
Wilder, Michael Burks, Rick Estrin and the Nightcats,
Hubert Sumlin, Cedric Burnside and Lighting Malcolm,
Bobby Rush – well the list is almost endless,
but the point is, this event is worth every Euro
you might spend on flights, food, adult beverages
and camping. And everyone is so friendly. Take my
advice and ‘book’ now for 2009. |
Serge’s
Gig of The Year Award
This must simply go to a hero who defies age and
who, at 63, jumps on stage like a kid on Red Bull
(and who still doesn’t quite manage to put
an end to a 12min guitar solo – or so it
seems): Mr Neil
Young himself, seen and heard at
Colmar’s Foire aux Vins Festival 2008. Any
time, any place. Runner-up: Richard Hawley and
his timeless nostalgia (!) at London’s Astoria
in February. |
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| The
whole WF crew's Non Plus Ultra Award
With a simply brilliant new album under their
belt, and two awe-inspiring gigs, of which the
latest was a very close contender for Gig of the
Year, this award could only go to Nick
Cave and the Bad Seeds. |
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| Inspired
by last year’s Grinderman collaboration, they
have reshaped themselves into a fiercely recession-proof
outfit for 2009 – combining the rawest of
rock and roll with Warren Ellis’s outlandish
and percussive guitar and violin contributions,
and Cave’s perennially incisive and witty
lyrics. And performed live with a power that gives
a totally new meaning to the phrase ‘shock
and awe’. Non Plus Ultra indeed. |
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