The Artrocker Awards 2011

Forget award shows shrouded in secrecy, relayed through gloating tweets from music journalists permitting us to live vicariously through their reportage as they mingle with the best of the best, all in one room for one night only. To celebrate the launch of the first ever Artrocker Awards, Artrocker magazine is extending the invitation to everyone to come to Shoreditch’s XOYO this Friday 2 December to help them congratulate some of the rock and, as their name might suggest, art movers and shakers. 

With live bands and DJ sets from some of our favourite musicians throughout the night, the Artrocker Awards Show is guaranteed to compensate for not being at the ceremony. But we can’t promise not to join the gloating journalist tweets if we happen to go along…

Vying for the coveted ‘Band of the Year’ category is the newly reinvented The Horrors, scene-stormers Bombay Bicycle Club (pictured), old favourites British Sea Power, personal favourites Metronomy and, something of a wildcard, Grinderman. Representing musical imports in ‘International Band of the Year’ is Battles, LCMDF, White Denim, Atari Teenage Riot and Tweak Bird. Keeping in touch with the artier side of their rock, contenders for ‘Electro Act of the Year’ have found themselves up against some tough competition with newcomers, old favourites and electro veterans including Tom Vek, Gary Numan, John Foxx and the Maths and Ladytron.

Sponsored by Olympus, nominees for ‘Album of the Year’ include Battles – Gloss Drop, Gruff Rhys – Hotel Shampoo, The Horrors – Skying, Bombay Bicycle Club – A Different Kind of Fix and Deerhoof – Deerhoof Vs Evil. Unsurprisingly, Lana Del Ray Video Games gets a nod for ‘Single of the Year’, as does Yuck Get Away, Tribes We Were Children, Metronomy The Bay and Bombay Bicycle Club Shuffle.

In addition to the usual ‘Live Band of the Year’, ‘Video of the Year’, ‘Photographer of the Year’ and ‘Festival of the Year’, ever the trendsetters Artrocker have added some less predictable awards to its ceremony including ‘Reissue of the Year’. Celebrating some of the incredible cult albums that have once again graced our record players/Mp3s/Walkmans (delete as appropriate to cool-kid standing), this category includes The Fall’s The Nation’s Saving Grace: Omnibus Edition, The Jesus and Mary Chain Psychocandy: Special Edition and of course Nirvana Nevermind: 20th Anniversary Edition. I know which proverbial floating baby I would dangle my dollar bill in front of.

A last minute addition, but perhaps the most intriguing and aptly titled of the awards, is the ‘Artrocker Artwork of the Year’ award. Judged by 4th Plinth commission nominees Bob and Roberta Smith and sponsored by Resonance FM, this award recognises those who bare their talents on their (album)sleeves. The deserving album art up for the award includes Pete & The Pirates’ One Thousand Pictures by the band’s drummer Jonny Sanders, Japanese Voyeurs’ Yolk by guitarist Romily Alice and Tom Vek’s Lesiure Seizure, by the man himself. Just to make sure we really grasp the fact that these guys are literally artrockers.

While the awards themselves are taking place earlier in the evening, you can join in toasting the winners – and commiserating the losers by the Jagermeister bar? – from 8pm when any self-respecting artrockers music collection comes alive to the tune of live sets from Gruff Rhys and The Computers and DJ sets from Tribes, Jesus and Mary Chain and even Gary Numan himself getting behind the decks. The cavernous warehouse of XOYO offers an ideal setting with the perfect amount of cool to guarantee that just because your invite to the ceremony got lost in the post, you won’t be excluded from what looks set to be one to watch on the music awards scene.

The Artrocker Awards 2011 is presented by Artrocker and The Orange Dot and will take place on Friday 2 December at:

XOYO
32-37 Cowper Street
Shoreditch
EC2A 4AW

Tel: 020 7729 5959

Advanced tickets are £15 and available from XOYO.