It was great to attend yet another awards night at the CRS on Saturday. It’s been an annual tradition since the 90’s; a band plays, some awards are given out, and then there’s another band. Generally the band playing second will get an award or two (possibly because they’re playing?) but it’s all in good fun. The awards have a level of respect behind them, and everyone leaves happy.
But they don’t.
I was really amazed to hear someone bitch that they’re all “a fix”. Why? Because he attended and didn’t win anything? Well possibly…
I’ve been in the presence of others who have never won anything. And I often sit from a bassist point of view and think “seriously, you guys have the best bass when all they play is straight quavers all through each song?”. Now I’m not a keyboard player. I’m not a guitarist. I’m not a drummer. But if we are basing it on technical ability I often thing the awards are not given to the right people.
But they aren’t. The awards are given based on “what you’ve actually done”. Not what you did 20 years ago. It was nice from my point of view to see the awards given to current bands. The stalwarts of old didn’t get a jot. At one time two or three bands would sweep the awards. It wasn’t on technical ability, it was just the the scene was smaller and the audience didn’t listen outside their comfort zone.
Nowadays, with the CRS building the scene back up in the 90’s when it was all but dead, and all the other venues joining in later; there’s very much a prog scene. A small one albeit, but a dedicated one.
These days the yearly call to arms for the awards yields some great results. Some win. Many lose. Some bitch about not winning. But sorry, matey – and this is aimed at one person, this ain’t a talent show anymore. It’s a popularity show, and you aren’t popular because you’re too “same old same old”.
On a lighter note though, I met Carl – the previous Strangefish bassist.
And I stood next to Bev Bevan
