King Gizzard, A.B. Original win big at The Age Music Victoria Awards 2017

The Victorian music industry has once again gathered to celebrate their own for theThe Age Music Victoria Awards, as part ofMelbourne Music Week.

Melbourne soul tastemaker and RRR host Chris Gill and PBS presenter Lyndelle Wilkinson hosted the 2017 Awards acknowledging the best acts, releases, venues and festivals throughout the State. Last night’s awards saw some familiar faces gracing the prize-winners’ stage on multiple occasions as well as some first-time awardees, in what was an absolute standout celebration of the past 12 months of great local music.

Congratulating the top picks of a diverse selection of categories with a massive 73,000 + tallied votes, this year’s publicly-voted awards commended back-to-back winners The Tote and The Corner Hotel for Best Venues under and over 500 respectively, as well as Meredith Music Festival for another Best Festival win. Rising favourites The Teskey Brothers took out this year’s Best Emerging Act, while unstoppable 7-piece psych outfit King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard were again voted Best Band and Best Live Act, but handed over their claim for Best Album to deadly hip hop duo A.B. Original for their AMP winning release Reclaim Australia.

Music Victoria CEO Patrick Donovan commended on this year’s impressive talent: “Congratulations to all of the winners and nominees. We are very proud that many of these winners haven’t just made an impact in Australia over the last 12 months, but acts such as Jen Cloher, The Teskey Brothers, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and A.B. Original have been flying the Victorian flag overseas. And of course, they all got their breaks at the 20 amazing venues which were nominated for the awards this year.’’

The industry-voted genre awards panel presented some first-time winners in 2017 including never before nominated act Divide and Dissolve with their massive debut LP Basic for Best Heavy Album which topped a tough list of nominated acts including Clowns, Batpiss, Mammoth Mammoth and Dødknell. Two-time nominated folk outfit The Mae Trio took out their first win for Best Folk or Roots Album with Take Care, Take Cover and Lamine Sonko and The African Intelligence won Best Global or Reggae Album for the Senegalese sounds of their 2016 release Afro Empire.

“In our 12th year, it’s perhaps more satisfying than ever to see our genre award winners also making a name for themselves nationally and overseas. The huge array of talent nominated this year speaks volumes about the health of our local music industry.”– Editor of The Age EG,Martin Boulton

The evening also provided further cause for celebration with the late, great renowned producer, sound engineer, and three-time ARIA award-winner Tony Cohen being inducted into The Age Music Victoria Hall Of Fame. Last night’s ceremony also acknowledged an Outstanding Achievement Award for the work of local music photographer Zo Damage with her 365 Day Live Music Photography Project and bookThe Damage Report whereby she photographed a band or more daily for an entire year, wrapping it up with a sold-out exhibition and book launch at Arts Centre Melbourne.

Following the awards verdicts as per tradition, the festivities continued into the night with the official Awards After Party featuring killer live performances from minimalist disco act Harvey Sutherland and Bermuda, powerhouse trio Cable Ties and post-punk four-piece Gold Class. Party starters the EG Allstars Band also backed some special guest performances from Josh Teskey (The Teskey Brothers), Archie Roach, Gretta Ray, Ella Thompson(GL), Michelle Nicolle, Birdz, Mojo Juju and Jim Lawrie performing some of the best songs of the year.

Music Industry charity Support Act received $5 from every ticket sold, and The Awards studio partnerBakehouse Studioshas once again kindly gifted all nominees with a fantastic rehearsal/pre-production package.

THE AGE MUSIC VICTORIA AWARDS 2017 – GENRE AWARD WINNERS

BEST BLUES ALBUM
Fiona Boyes – Professin’ The Blues

BEST COUNTRY ALBUM
Raised By Eagles – I Must Be Somewhere

BEST SOUL, FUNK, RNB, AND GOSPEL ALBUM
The Teskey Brothers – Half Mile Harvest

BEST JAZZ ALBUM
Brenton Foster – The Nature of Light

BEST HIP HOP ALBUM
A.B. Original – Reclaim Australia

BEST ELECTRONIC ACT
Client Liaison

BEST HEAVY ALBUM
Divide and Dissolve – Basic

BEST ABORIGINAL ACT
A.B. Original

BEST GLOBAL OR REGGAE ALBUM
Lamine Sonko and The African Intelligence – Afro Empire

BEST FOLK / ROOTS ALBUM
The Mae Trio – Take Care, Take Cover

BEST EXPERIMENTAL / AVANT-GARDE ACT
Winter Sound School / Bridget Chappell

THE AGE MUSIC VICTORIA AWARDS 2017 – PUBLICLY VOTED WINNERS

BEST FESTIVAL
Meredith Music Festival

BEST REGIONAL VENUE (UNDER 50 GIGS PER YEAR)
Theatre Royal (Castlemaine)

BEST REGIONAL VENUE (OVER 50 GIGS PER YEAR)
Workers Club (Geelong)

BEST VENUE (UNDER 500 CAPACITY)
The Tote

BEST VENUE (OVER 500 CAPACITY)
The Corner Hotel

BEST REGIONAL ACT
Cosmic Psychos

BEST LIVE BAND
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

BEST EMERGING ACT
The Teskey Brothers

BEST MALE ARTIST
Paul Kelly

BEST FEMALE ARTIST
Jen Cloher

BEST SONG
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Rattlesnake

BEST BAND
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

BEST ALBUM
A.B. Original – Reclaim Australia

HALL OF FAME
Tony Cohen – Aria-Award Winning Producer & Engineer

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Zo Damage – 365 Day Live Music Photography Project