With the dust now settled on another edition of the annual CherryFest, the titular festival of Melbourne’s live music institution Cherry Bar, it’s now time the venue launches what’s set to be another fixture of the city’s music scene: its very own annual awards.
The full list of nominees for the inaugural Cherry Awards have been revealed, with a huge swag of local bands and homegrown favourites up for gongs in a series of the most distinctively named categories any awards show has seen.
Forgot those typical ‘Best Artist’, ‘Best Album’ brands of recognition, the first ever Cherry Awards – to take place on Wednesday 18th December in a rock and roll ceremony at Cherry Bar – instead divides its honours up by days of the week, and only towards a mix of over 65 bands that have already rocked the venue’s sticky carpets and sweaty walls.
The 12 Cherry Awards will be doled out to “Best Cherry Monday act, Tuesday act, Wednesday act, you get the picture,” Cherry Bar co-owner and booker, James Young, explains. “Plus Act of the Year and some special ‘promise’ Award categories.” Including the ‘Best Thursday Soul Act’ Award which sees the nine-piece Saskwatch, The Rebelles, plus Kylie Auldist & The Glenroy Allstars up for the gong.
Other unique categories include the likes of Monster Jeans, Brooklyn Hookers, and The Pass Outs among the six bands battling for the Best Monday Cherry Jam Act, while legendary Aussies Spencer P Jones, Chris Wilson, and Archer tussle in the Best Friday Arvo category. …A huge swag of local bands are up for gongs in a series of the most distinctively named categories any awards show has seen.
Other Cherry Awards nominees include such rock favourites as Drunk Mums, Sheriff, Jackson Firebird, Money For Rope, Strangers, Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk, and King Parrot.
There’s also a small batch of international acts that broach the ‘looking local’ flavour of the awards, including Jeff The Brotherhood, Endless Boogie, and recent CherryFest 2013 acts Blues Pills, Kadavar, and The BellRays.
The inspiration for the inaugural Cherry Awards was to give recognition to the achievements of those outside “the major label and established Oz acts,” Young explains.
“Cherry DJ & Bar Manager Mermaid got in my drunken ear one night about doing a Cherry Awards to celebrate and recognise ‘our bands’ and that got me thinking,” the booker recounts.
“I just got frustrated at most music awards because established acts win or one act wins all the awards and rock tends to get overlooked,” he explains. “Established acts don’t need the help… I book over 1,200 different acts a year at Cherry, 99.9% have zero chance of even being nominated in Australia’s major Music Awards. Some of these bands are brilliant. And these bands really really need the leg-up”
It’s a criticism that could potentially be levelled at AIR’s recent Independent Music Awards, where Flume scooped up wins in all but one category he was nominated for, then less than a week later, the Sydney beatmaker led the 2013 ARIA Award nominations pool with eight nods, while simultaneously claiming his first ARIA at the Fine Arts & Artisan ceremony.
“When Flume wins 5 this year I will neck myself,” says Young, emphasising that the recognition should be shared, not compounded. “No act should be allowed to win more than 2 ARIAs in any one year.”
The Cherry Awards, present in association with Jagermeister in the venue’s AC/DC Lane, will be “one helluva party too,” teases Young, with a secret headline band (“let’s call them Ladybird”) capping the night’s end, along with a live performance from Palace Of The King, as well as special guest presenters.
The free entry event will also be “open-to-all with a free keg of Carlton Draught, some hot snag rolls and party pies and much Melbourne media,” says Young.
“I hate a boring long Awards ceremony where the bastards close the bar. Fuck that. The bar will always be open and the Awards will be hosted in 2 distinct 10-minute blocks, at 8.45pm and 10pm,” says the co-owner, who wants an all-killer no-filler event.
No nominated band will leave empty-handed either, with every act turning up being gifted one of 300 limited edition Cherry Bar-branded medallions, which “will get you absolutely nothing…except some modest peer credibility,” says Young.
All Cherry Awards (except where indicated) are “100% selfishly nominated and judged exclusively by one James Young. How’s the ego on this guy!?” and if you’re looking to place some earlybets on winners, you could always check out the list of the best Melbourne bands of all time, as selected by Mr. Cherry Bar himself. There’s bound to be a few clues in there…
Cherry Awards 2013
2013 Jagermeister Cherry AC/DC Lane Awards
Wednesday 18th December, Cherry Bar
AC/DC Lane, Melbourne CBD
8pm til 3am, Free Entry
12 Cherry Awards
Live performance from Palace Of The King (9.30pm)
Secret Live Band ‘Ladybird’ (10.30pm)
Cherry Awards 2013 Nominees
Best Monday Cherry Jam Act (nominated by Dave ‘Red’ Whip)
Monster Jeans
Brooklyn Hookers
National Evening Express
Low Fly Incline
The Solicitors
The Pass Outs
Best Tuesday Act
Red X
Jeff The Brotherhood
Massive
Patron Saints
The Allan Ladds
Kill Shott
Best Wednesday Act
My Dynamite
Drunk Mums
Dead City Ruins
10 000
Jackson Firebird
Vice Grip Pussies
The Deep End
Sheriff
Best Thursday Soul Act
Andrea Marr & Her Funky Hitmen
The Sweethearts
Saskwatch
The Rebelles
Kylie Auldist & The Glenroy Allstars
Reverend Funk & the Horns of Salvation
Best Friday Arvo Act
Spencer P Jones
Chris Wilson
Archer
Best Friday Act
Peeks
Kill Shott
Winter Moon
Drunk Mums
Fifth Friend
Money For Rope
Palace of The King
Best Saturday Act
King of the North
Bob Log 111
The Ape
Gay Paris
Strangers
Murdena
Kashmere Club
My Left Boot
Best Sunday Blues Act (in collaboration with Max Crawdaddy)
Three Kings
Chris Wilson
Southern Lightning
Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk
Shannon Bourne
Best Sunday Act
King Parrot
Tex Napalm
Endless Boogie
Hell City Glamours/ Front End Loader
Bitter Sweet Kicks
Beastwars
Best International
Truckfighters
Jeff The Brotherhood
Beastwars
Endless Boogie
The BellRays
Blues Pills
Kadavar
Mermaid Award (*Nominated by Jamie ‘Mermaid’ Robertson)
Child
Mesa Cosa
Bugdust
The Council
CHERRY BAR ACT OF 2013
To Be Announced
