2007 APRA Music Awards

Celebrating 25 years of recognising outstanding songwriting

Songwriters and members of the music industry gathered at the Melbourne Town Hall on June 5th for the 25th Annual APRA Music Awards. In an eclectic fusion of tuxedos and sneakers, seasoned campaigners and young guns; Australia’s songwriters across a spectrum of musical genres, gathered to recognise and celebrate the outstanding achievements of their peers over the past year.

Following a moving official welcome and acknowledgement of the traditional land owners by Auntie Joy Murphy, the APRA Music Awards kicked off in their usual high energy fashion. The opening video montage was delivered to the sounds of the late Billy Thorpe’s “Most people I know…” then master of ceremonies, Jonathan Biggins, proceeded to put songwriters and the music industry in his cross-hairs, and kept them there all night.

Songwriter Glenn Richards of Augie March was honoured with the 2007 Breakthrough Songwriter Award. Richards invited his fellow band members on stage as he accepted the award, saying: “it’s a beautiful award to get from APRA; the first decade of our existence was paid for by APRA cheques.” The 600 invited guests at the Melbourne Town Hall were treated to a live performance of their hit single “One Crowded Hour” which also took out the coveted, peer-voted APRA Song of the Year.

Last year’s Breakthrough Songwriters, Wolfmother, were awarded the 2007 Songwriter of the Year award in recognition of the outstanding local and international success of their debut album, 2006 Grammy win and sold out gigs world wide.

Music Manager, music industry champion and mentor, and all round good-guy, Michael McMartin was awarded the Ted Albert Memorial Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music. His good mates John Watson and John Woodruff were on hand to recount the highlights of his 30+ year career as manager of bands such as Radio Birdman, Hoodoo Gurus and 1927 and his achievements with the Australian and International Music Managers Forums and Support Act Limited.

“I’ve spent the past 35 years avoiding getting a real job,” said Michael in his acceptance speech. “I would have loved to have written a song, so it’s a real honour to receive this award from a songwriters association.”

Awe-inspiring performances
APRA Member and Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment & Heritage, Arts, Peter Garrett, introduced singer-songwriter Kev Carmody to the APRA Awards performance stage. The legendary troubadour was joined by Paul Kelly and Missy Higgins for an inspiring performance of the epic ballad, “Droving Woman”.

Other live acts on the night included an energetic performance by Eskimo Joe of their Song of the Year nominated work, “Black Fingernails Red Wine”; Phrase performed his Most Performed Urban Work nominated song, “Hold On”; and rounding out the mix of music genres represented at the awards, Most Performed Dance Work winners, TV Rock featuring Seany B performed “Flaunt It”.              

In 1982, Men at Work were at the top of the Australian music charts. In honour of the 25th anniversary of the awards, lead singer and songwriter, Colin Hay performed the band’s hit single “Who can it be now” to rapturous applause from the audience.

Katie Noonan delivered an ethereal solo vocal and piano performance of Bernard Fanning’s “Watch over me” to a spell bound audience. The song was nominated in the category of Most Performed Blues and Roots Work; however, the award went to another Fanning creation, “Songbird”.

Recognising outstanding achievement in songwriting
James Reyne and Magic Dirt’s Adalita, presented Most Performed Australian work to Shannon Noll and Adam Reily, (also representing their co-writers Bryon Jones and Andrew Roachford [PRS]) for “Lift”. Most Performed Foreign work went to the writers behind Santana and Steve Tyler’s hit, “Feel Better”. ASCAP Executive Vice President, Todd Brabec, accepted the award on behalf of the ASCAP writers: Burleigh Johnson, Damon Johnson and James Scoggin.

MD of BMG Music Publishing, Peter Karpin accepted the award for most performed Australian work overseas, for “Are you going to be my girl” on behalf of Jet writers Nicholas Cester and Cameron Muncey. “Anyone who gets this kind of airplay overseas does this country a great service” said Peter. Jet won the award against tough competitors including winners from the inaugural 1982 awards (Vanda & Young “Love is in the Air” and Bon Scott, Angus & Malcolm Young’s “Highway to Hell”.

Young jazz sensation Mark Sholtez took out the award for Most Performed Jazz work for “Love me for the cool”; and Kasey Chambers won Most Performed Country work for “Nothing At All” and Eddie Jacobsen took out Most Performed Urban work for “Get Up Outta The Dirt”.