TRIPLE J’S BEN AND LIAM AWARDED RADIO HOST OF THE YEAR

MAREE HAMBLION NAMED PUBLISHER A&R OF THE YEAR

ANNA FITZGERALD NAMED PUBLICIST OF THE YEAR

BLUESFEST TAKES OUT FESTIVAL OF THE YEAR

HORDERN PAVILION NAMED VENUE OF THE YEAR

#TIOawards

The 2018 The Industry Observer Awards presented by TicketWeb were held tonight at the Sydney Cricket Ground culminating in triple j’s Ben and Liam taking Radio Host of the Year, and Adam Briggs taking out the Industry Impact Award.

Taking over from Matt and Alex on triple j breakfast last year, Ben and Liam had a mountain to climb. The Radio Host of the Year winners won over listeners and the industry alike with their enthusiasm and even featured on The Project on On R U OK? Day when Liam opened up about how tough the year had been in an honest, vulnerable and powerful on air monologue.

Festival of the Year went to Bluesfest Byron Bay with Marketing Manager Rusty Thorpe and Touring Manager Kimberley Galceran on hand to accept the award on behalf of the Bluesfest team.

Bluesfest Director Peter Noble OAM comments on the win: 

As the Joint Head of A&R at Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Maree Hamblion’s incredible 2017 named her Publisher A&R of the Year tonight. Her biggest success of the last 12 months has been with songwriter Sarah Aarons, who co-wrote 3x Platinum ARIA #1 single ‘Stay’ for Zedd and Alessia Cara.

Stephen Wade has been named Booking Agent of the Year. The owner and booking agent at multifunctional music company Select Music booked sell-out shows for some of Australia’s most celebrated exports in 2017, including Amy Shark, The Preatures and Skeggs, among many others.

Taking out the inaugural Publicist of the Year Award is Anna Fitzgerald, the Group Promotions & Publicity Manager at TMRW Music (formerly Ministry of Sound Australia). Fitzgerald’s stellar 2017 also saw her work across TMRW’s sub-labels Hussle, Astrx and Downright, plus sister labels etcetc and Vicious and work with acts like Pnau, Duke Dumont and Jax Jones.

It’s been a stellar 12 months for Adam Briggs, who picked up an ARIA Award with his activist project A.B Original and a Screen Music Award for best TV theme with ‘Here’. The award-winning rapper (with A.B Original), composer, writer (most recently for Matt Groening’s upcoming Netflix series ‘Disenchantment’), actor, and label founder even puts overachievers to shame.

Manager of the Year went to Kurt Bailey, who manages ARIA Award winners Gang of Youths through his fully-fledged Mirror Music Group company. His roster also includes Middle Kids, Sloan Peterson, Brightness, Fountaineer, Clea and new signing (and first US-based artist) Lola Kirke.

Sydney venue the Hordern Pavilion, took out the only publicly-voted award of the night Music Venue of the Year, made possible by our principle partner TicketWeb.

Jennie Sager, JAPAC Director of Content Partnerships at Twitter, presented the award for Top Industry Tweet of the Year to Cooking Vinyl’s co-Managing Director, Stu Harvey.

The stigma around mental health needs to be destroyed. We are all human and no one is living the life you think they are from the outside. I was diagnosed with depression years ago, I’m not embarrassed by it. We all have our personal battles and need to share, and ask for help

— Stu Harvey (@stuharvey) February 1, 2018

Watch Stu Harvey’s acceptance speech for Top Industry Tweet of the Year below:

Thanks @theindustry_o & @TwitterAU pic.twitter.com/4f4XlOexFb

— Stu Harvey (@stuharvey) March 27, 2018

:: See the list of all 16 The Industry Observer Awards winners below

The aforementioned follow previously announced winners Ralph Van Dijk, who took out Guardian of the Year for his work with Ruel, and Perth’s Dada Records for Retailer of the Year.

Gus & Rig hosted the inaugural Awards, which also featured a welcome speech by Holly Rankin (aka Jack River) and performances by Adelaide hip hop act Adrian Eagle and Sydney indie-pop singer-songwriter CXLOE.

During Holly Rankin’s welcome keynote address she asked the audience to think about the kind of music industry they wanted to live in, and asked us to dismiss the inherent Australian tall poppy syndrome that so often stops the talent behind the talent from publicly celebrating their wins.

“For some convict ridden reason, we find it so damn hard to claim our successes, and by nature – in our beginnings – we have a real knack for tearing down great things before they even start,” she said.

Adrian Eagle opened the show with his rousing breakout track ’17 Again’, while CXLOE wowed the crowd when she performed her latest single ‘Monster’.

The Industry Observer thanks its principal partner TicketWeb and its event sponsors KPMG, Mountain Goat beer, Madison Marcus Lawyers, BMG Music Publishing Australia and Doyles.

Information on the voting and judging criteria for The Industry Observer Awards presented by TicketWeb can be found HERE. 

2018 #TIOawards

Tuesday March 27

Sydney Cricket Ground

Tag us on Twitter and Instagram – @theindustry_o

Hashtag – #TIOawards

THE INDUSTRY OBSERVER 2018 AWARDS PRESENTED BY TICKETWEB WINNERS

Radio Host of the Year

Ben and Liam (triple j)

Venue of the Year

Hordern Pavilion

Digital Retailer of the Year

Spotify

Music Lawyer of the Year (sponsored by Madison Marcus)

Julian Hewitt (Media Arts Lawyers)

Booking Agent of the Year

Stephen Wade (Select Music)

Festival of the Year

Bluesfest Byron Bay

Guardian of the Year

Ralph Van Dijk (Ruel)

Publicist of the Year (sponsored by One Accounting)

Anna Fitzgerald (TMRW Music)

Retailer of the Year

Dada Records

Manager of the Year (sponsored by AAM)

Kurt Bailey (Mirror Music Group)

Community Radio Host of the Year

Brooke Olsen (FBi Radio)

Boutique Festival of the Year (sponsored by Mountain Goat Beer)

A festival called PANAMA

Record Label A&R of the Year (sponsored by Doyles)

Paul Harris (Sony Music Entertainment)

Marketing Manager/Director of the Year

Ben Martin (Golden Era Records)

Publisher A&R of the year

Maree Hamblion (Sony/ATV Music Publishing)

Industry Impact of the Year (sponsored by BMG)

Adam Briggs (AB Original/Briggs/Bad Apples)

Top Industry Tweet of the Year (presented by Twitter Australia)
Stu Harvey

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.