CRS Awards Results

[Pedro]

CRS Awards

Best CRS Gig

Nominations
Magenta
Frost*
Pendragon
Touchstone

WINNER: Pendragon

Best Bass Player

Nominations
Dan Fry (Magenta)
John Jowitt (IQ, etc.)
Paul "Moo" Moorghen (Touchstone)
Pete Trewavas (Marillion, Transatlantic)

WINNER: John Jowitt

Best Drummer

Nominations
Andy Edwards (IQ, Frost*)
Gavin John Griffiths (Panic Room)
Johanne James (Threshold)
Scott Higham (Pendragon)

WINNER: Scott Higham

Best Track

Nominations
Frequency - IQ
Questioning Eyes - Breathing Space
Ryker Skies -IQ
Province - IQ

WINNER: Questioning Eyes
 
Best Keyboards

Nominations
Clive Nolan (Pendragon)
Iain Jennings (Breathing Space)
Jem Godfrey (Frost*)
Mark Westworth (IQ, Darwin's Radio)

WINNER: Clive Nolan

Best New Band

Nominations
Dee Expus
IO Earth
Parade
Parzival's Eye

WINNER: Dee Expus

Best Album

Nominations
Below The Radar - Breathing Space
Frequency - IQ
Out of the Tunnel's Mouth - Steve Hackett
Wintercoast - Touchstone

WINNER: Frequency

Best Roots Musician

Nominations
Anne Marie Helder
Dave Cousins
Dave Lambert
Troy Donockley

WINNER: Troy Donockley

Best Guitarist

Nominations
Brian Josh - Mostly Autumn
Chris Fry - Magenta
John Mitchell - It Bites etc.
Nick Barrett - Pendragon

WINNER: Nick Barrett

Best Male Vocalist

Nominations
Alan Reed - Pallas
Damian Wilson - Threshold
Declan Burke - Darwin's Radio, Frost*
Pete Nicholls - IQ

WINNER: Pete Nicholls

Best Female Vocalist

Nominations
Anne Marie Helder - Panic Room
Christina Booth - Magenta
Heather Findlay - Ex-Mostly Autumn
Olivia Sparnenn - Breathing Space

WINNER: Christina Booth

Best Band

Nominations
Frost*
IQ
Magenta
Pendragon

WINNER: IQ

Director's Award
WINNER: Martin Hudson

NOTE: All of the "classic" Frost* line-up nominated separately plus nominations in best band and best gig...which ever way you cut it, that's good.

[rogerg]

grats, JJ!!

and, hmm...

[D S]

They do seem to like their Pendragon at CRS! They're OK IMO (still find it difficult to get past NB's vocal style, which rather grates with me) but hardly the saviours of the universe or even the most innovative musicians in prog today.
OK I'm biased too but I'd have chosen a rather different set of results (except for bass player and new band)...  

(PS - when was the last time JJ and Christina didn't win their respective categories?!)

[Pedro]

Interesting question. I don't know but if JJ isn't doing anything other than IQ this year and another IQ album doesn't pop out and there isn't another CRS IQ gig in November/December....

....2010 might see the end of an era....

[Dodie]

Frankly I was disillusioned by the CRS BOTY results, and it seemed to me that most nominations that weren't Pendragon or IQ mustered only a half-hearted cheer at best.

Now, I should admit that I like Pendragon reasonably well enough, and I'm rather fond of IQ, but the overall results were baffling to me. Each to their own, I guess...
It made me think of last year, when Pendragon's 'Pure' won best album, notwithstanding the fact it hadn't been commercially released yet, and despite the impression I got that almost everyone thought It Bites's 'The Tall Ships' (or Frost's EIMA, of course) would walk it. Perhaps Frosties and Bitesies (!!!) caused our own downfall by splitting the vote ;-)

But this year I really thought Big Big Train, Panic Room and Transatlantic merited a bit more presence in the nominations at least, and perhaps also Darwin's Radio and Porcupine Tree. And yet despite all the really great fresh stuff, its the same people cleaning up as it was over 15 years ago. Maybe that's an unfair perception on my part, but I hope next year mixes things up a bit more.

However, Anne-Marie Helder played a really nice short set, despite a bizarre Scrabble-induced burn injury to her right hand, and her singing is really top-notch. I've got nowt against Christina Booth's singing, but I wonder if her winning of the Best Female Vocalist has more to do with the extended out-and-out proginess of Magenta than anything to do with singing. Btw, I think Heather Findlay won this category a few years ago, so it hasn't got Tina's name permanently on it.

IQ brought the house down with their encores (including a fun and seemingly spontaneous leap into the mighty Quo's "Caroline" mid-way through "Awake and nervous"). I just wish the new 'Frequency' songs grabbed me more, but I was really glad to see them live and in the flesh at long last.

Over and Out,

David

[MikeEvs]

I think Heather Findlay won this category a few years ago, so it hasn't got Tina's name permanently on it.

And before that Rachel Jones (now Cohen) won it 4 years in a row when she was in Karnataka

[Pedro]

I love the way people react to the CRS Awards and how the results don't reflect reality.
I voted for Big Big Train in a couple of categories but the scope of the awards appears to be (in some people's minds?) limited to things that have involved the CRS in some way - gigs mostly, recent or otherwise.
I try not to cry foul about it all because it isn't THAT big a deal...but if more "real people" were to join, we could change this thing from the inside...  

As for the results, my personal opinion is that it's a mix of general apathy (spoke to some who said "yeah I didn't vote because <insert excuse here>") and the GenerationGameConveyorBelt effect ("now let me think, who have I just seen..." and people like JJ who are regulars e.g. CuddlyToy). This is not to take anything away from the winners, of course.

I enjoyed the evening and long may it continue.
There were some nice moments...
Gordon Giltrap was a great and funny award presenter; "I got an Award once....for swimming a width..."
Lambsie: "...the nominations are, in alphabetical order, Magenta, Frost*....!
Liv Spernenn (accepting her award in a knock-out red carpet dress) "I *really* wasn't expecting this..."

[johninblack]

There are some (mostly quite bad) photos here.

I would be inclined to say about the scope of the awards that if you feel that strongly that your favourites are not represented you should join as Pedro said and try to change things from within.

[Dodie]

... but I am a CRS member, and I did vote! :-)

Rather than trying to influence from within, I fear it's more a case of "Resistance is futile" :lol:

I'm not moaning about the CRS Awards in the least; merely expressing my mild bafflement at some of them. I'm on the jury for a couple of sets of awards in a different pocket of the musical world, and my tastes are often out of kilter to the final results, so it's a feeling that I should have got used to by now!

Gordon Giltrap was a fab presenter. I also liked the story about Martin Taylor refusing to play an encore for a miserable audience because he'd "run out of sincerity". Class. The other one I liked was his anecdote about coming second to Eric Clapton in a magazine's acoustic guitarist of the year award. Mr Giltrap was far too nice to say outright what the rest of us were surely thinking!

All the best,

David

[johninblack]

Rather than trying to influence from within, I fear it's more a case of "Resistance is futile" :lol:

Oh dear, in that case we're buggered.  You know what that means then......Yes are more likely to win best new band than Big Big Train. What is the world coming too?
We thought Gordon was a fabulous presenter, the tale of the mobile phone in the underpants did it for me, lol.

[Mouse]

It was a fab night. IQ played a blinder and it was great to see the stuff from Frequency live - Ryker Skies rocked! I've got a pain in my neck from headbanging too hard during that number.    The mad unrehearsed encore was hilarious, especially the on stage guitar wars.  :lol:

Great to see the JIBs, Pedders and Catherine again. Hope you all had as much fun as I did.  

[catherine]

my pics are here

[mark_kennedy]

(PS - when was the last time JJ and Christina didn't win their respective categories?!)

IIRC, Graeme Murray of Pallas won it the year The Cross & The Crucible was released.

[D S]

(PS - when was the last time JJ and Christina didn't win their respective categories?!)

IIRC, Graeme Murray of Pallas won it the year The Cross & The Crucible was released.

And rightly so!  8-)