Simon Mayo's blog: A day for bellowing

Worth posting the whole thing, I think; it's not that long.

A tad bleary, welcome to Tuesday. A late evening of course at the Folk Awards last night. I hope you enjoyed the show from the Brewery (Mike Harding's confession was really rather fine) and then the show itself. As ever, it featured the combination of superb, wonderfully performed music and extraordinarily misjudged speeches. A great number of times I was moved to think 'It's not about you!'. The speeches from the winners were always charming and humble but so many times the prize givers got the tone all wrong (step forward Tamsin Greig, Joanna Trollope and others) resulting in embarrassed glances from the gathered folkies. Say hello, announce the winner and get off.

Anyway the show's highlights for me were the stunning, and ghostly white, Laura Marling, Chris Wood, Bellowhead and Port Isaac's Fisherman's Friends who managed to make everyone laugh and then then sing lustily. Top stuff.