2018 BBC Folk Awards

Subject: Folk Awards
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 05 Apr 18 - 04:05 AM

Not seen or heard anything of this years BBC folk awards yet but surprised no one has started a thread. Anyone in the know want to post so I can prejudge and draw the wrong conclusions before I catch up with them on the red button?

:D tG

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: GUEST,guest
Date: 05 Apr 18 - 06:13 AM

Full list of winners is on Radio 2 website. I don't think you can watch it on the red button this year but it's on BBC4 9pm Sunday

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: Johnny J
Date: 05 Apr 18 - 06:19 AM

Interesting results.

Whether you agree with the winners or not, nobody can argue that these are really just "The English Folk Awards" anymore.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5gGtf8BHf9QT0lYDDy4Mtnn/award-winners

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 05 Apr 18 - 06:21 AM

Thanks for the info Guest:guest. I will either watch it on Sunday or record it.

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 05 Apr 18 - 09:20 AM

Donal Lunny [ Lifetime Achievement Award ] isn't English.

Dave H

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: GUEST,Derek Schofield
Date: 05 Apr 18 - 09:36 AM

Dave .. I think that was part of what Johnny J was referring to. Though fair enough to give an award to someone from Ireland when you're in Belfast...
Derek

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: GUEST,Reinhard
Date: 05 Apr 18 - 10:04 AM

Folk singer of the year         Karine Polwart
Best duo         Chris Stout & Catriona McKay
Best group         Lankum
Best album         The Young'uns: Strangers
Best traditional track         Siobhan Miller: Banks of Newfoundland (Roud 1812; Laws K25)
Best original track         Lankum: The Granite Gaze
Musician of the year         Mohsen Amini
Horizon Award         Ímar
Young Folk Award         Mera Royle
Lifetime Achievement Awards         Dónal Lunny
Good Tradition Award         Armagh Pipers Club
Folk Awards Hall of Fame         Nick Drake

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 05 Apr 18 - 11:26 AM

I suspect you are right Derek, it's happened like this before.

Dave H

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 05 Apr 18 - 02:50 PM

Understand exactly what Johnny J means: for many years, the awards were nearly all taken by English artists, which led people to dub them the "English Folk Awards": the trend has been reversed in the last couple of years, with Scotland, Ireland and N Ireland scooping up most of them: see above again.

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: Vic Smith
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 09:21 AM

May I add my annual comment that I find the whole thing utterly worthless and without any value to the existing scene - like a pathetic minor league attempt to copy the Baftas, the Oscars et al.

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 10:46 AM

You may, Vic as long as we can make the usual annual gesture and ignore it :-D

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 11:36 AM

Dead right Vic, it bears about as much relation to the music WE love as the Eurovision Song Contest

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 12:11 PM

Hey! I like Eurovision AND folk amongst a lot of other things.

DtG

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 12:14 PM

I like the BBC Folk Awards because it is an annual event to relish..

What else gives me such opportunity to spend an hour chortling and shouting at the telly..

"what do you think you look like in those wanky folkie clothes you upper middle class twats...!!!!!"...

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 12:21 PM

For a couple of years back about 15 - 17 years ago,
the Eurovision Song Contest became a showcase for really excellent East European and Balkan folk influenced pop music...

Now all nation's songs are written by more or less the same core of jobbing songwriters for hire...

But the best are still more intersting and enjoyable than many BBC Folk Awards nominations...!!!

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 12:25 PM

The Eurovision Folk Song Contest...bring it on.

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 12:28 PM

i didn't used to mind the eurovision contest - i think wogan killed it off for me. his whole attitude seemed to be - I know its crap, you know its crap, but if you're daft enough pay me that's enough to make me smile....insincerely.

did i ever tell you i went to An Evening with Brian Johnston at Newark theatre - expecting an evening of recollections about cricket?

However the Brian Johnston in question turned out to be the bloke who won the eurovision singing Singing High High High, Singing Lo Lo Low. His brother was Teddy Johnson who with Pearl Carr sang Sing Little Birdie! in the eurovision.

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: GUEST,Swindon/Enfield Folk
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 12:40 PM

Agree with Punk Rocker what a self congratulatory bunch of twats.

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: Johnny J
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 12:44 PM

This is the man here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2GivwSboXM

The Allisons were the entry the following year. I liked their song a lot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQSncOYk-Cs

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: GUEST,Cj
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 03:00 PM

Lankum, Karine Polwart, Lunny...

Met them many times. Self congratulatory they are not. Hard working fexkers who love traditional music and dedicate their working lives to it.

*raspberry*

From reading his Mudcat posts, I'm surprised Punkfolkrocker isn't a fan of Lankum btw.


https://youtu.be/cZo5qs2VamE

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 03:11 PM

I don't know if I am or not either....

Buggered if I can remember songs and bands I liked from even 12 months ago...???

My memory was reasonably reliable until middle age clobbered me....

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 03:23 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZo5qs2VamE&feature=youtu.be


yes.. I did like that.. a bit slow and dirgy for the mood I'm in right now;
but If they are the band I think I liked on a previous years award show,
then I'm up for listening to more from them...

They remind me of another band I liked, but I've forgotten who they were....???

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: Reinhard
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 03:43 PM

I never found the nominees and winners self congratulatory. Rather more, though, motormouth Mark Radcliffe and the B class entertainment stars and starlets of the last years' shows who were supposed to present the awards to the winners instead of speaking about themselves. At least this year they used more knowledgeable and sensible award presenters.

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 04:05 PM

Last year or the year before,
I saw someone I know, and have played in bands with, on the telly sat at a VIP table close to the stage..

He's now a rising 'young' mover and shaker in the folkie biz...

Whenever the camera glanced on him he was paying no attention to the acts or awards on stage,
but staring down at the table playing with his smart phone...

That must say a little about this award show...????

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: GUEST,Roger. Guest.
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 04:08 PM

Radcliffe always reminds me of Bruce Forsyth with all that waffling.
Roger

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 07:10 PM

Blimey, is that the show that had the execrable Donovan a year or two back, and, massive disappointment numero bleedin' uno, Don McClean with his out-of-tune guitar?

Mind you, Karine is sublime, and Donal Lunny has literally been the sine qua non of great Irish music for decades. So the whole thing is a curate's egg...

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: GUEST,Rigby
Date: 07 Apr 18 - 05:11 PM

It's a guilty pleasure but I fecking love Donovan.

'A Gift From A Flower To A Garden' is one of my favourite albums ever, and some of the singles he made with Mickie Most are pure gold.

Though, arguably, not folk music in any meaningful sense.

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 07 Apr 18 - 05:44 PM

Paul Brady was superb as always.

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 07 Apr 18 - 05:54 PM

Liking Donovan, got me into 'folk' when I was about 12...
Then shortly after, Lindisfarne were riding big in the pop charts and hooked me even further...

The best of Donovan & Lindisfarne's classic pop-folk tracks are still sublime...

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: GUEST,Chris B (Born Again Scouser)
Date: 07 Apr 18 - 06:30 PM

Last couple of years I thought it was hideous.

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: Tradsinger
Date: 08 Apr 18 - 05:04 PM

I haven't heard of most of these performers. Should I get out more?

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: GUEST,CJB
Date: 08 Apr 18 - 05:10 PM

English?????? It was just about all 'Celtic' aka Irish and Scottish. One recipient even gave a speech in Gaelic - FGS.

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: GUEST,Derek Schofield
Date: 08 Apr 18 - 05:19 PM

Well, it's not the English Folk Awards.... though it'd be interesting to see an English performer at either the Scots Trads or the TG awards in Ireland :-)
And actually I think 2 speeches were in Gaelic, but one didn't make it to the TV. Or am I misremembering?
Tradsinger. I don't get out much myself, but I'd heard of most of the performers!
Derek

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Apr 18 - 07:09 PM

Imagined conversation at Smooth Operations. 'Let's hold the folk awards in Ireland this year'....'Oh that's a good idea, best make sure we've got lots of Irish/celtic acts winning then!'

Just goes to show what a nonsense it all is. (for those that don't know, Smooth operations is the PR company that tell us what we must listen to)

Eliza Carthy was dreadful, and as for the wailing woman from Lankum!

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 08 Apr 18 - 07:34 PM

"like a pathetic minor league attempt to copy the Baftas, the Oscars et al."
I knew we had to agree on something Vic
I watched it for as long as I could - pretty grim and very ,very amateurish in presentation
Where HAS all the music gone?
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 08 Apr 18 - 07:58 PM

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.....
Some people cannot read properly. See other posts on on 5th April re "English": that was several years back, when just about every award went to English artists: more awards going to Scotland, Ireland and N Ireland NOW and last year. I thought I made that quite clear.
And some of the Scots Trad Awards are available to be won by artists performing in Scotland (so do not need necessarily to be Scottish). If they don't win them, tough!
As for geography, Belfast is where?

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 08 Apr 18 - 08:42 PM

we have the same discussion every year.

I suppose it all means something to somebody.

I refuse to feel guilty because it means sod all to me.

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 08 Apr 18 - 09:41 PM

Is even the BBC losing interest...

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: r.padgett
Date: 09 Apr 18 - 01:52 AM

The BBC2 radio Awards over ran by a good bit ~ at least it was live ~ the BBC4 televised seemed to cut out some interesting parts and thankfully the excess gushiness ~ thankfully the Young Un's slight tiff with David was cut out!
Liza Carthy is certainly a big girl and the band production was bit iffy on tv

I like Lankums female singers Travellers folk voice ~ but then I like Jim Eldon too and Ted Kemp ~ no no missus just saying!

Still a lot of English singers and groups out there of course and long may it be so ~ looks like you have to have had a CD released currently to qualify for nomination?

and yes lack of decent length sound clips does nothing for the overall ambience ~

For televisation I think quality not a good idea just to cut and paste

Ray

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 09 Apr 18 - 02:18 AM

The best bits shown on BBC4 to me were Paul Brady and Donal Lunny.


Dave H

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: Howard Jones
Date: 09 Apr 18 - 04:09 AM

Let's face it, award shows in any genre are usually pretty dire. I think we have such high expectations of this because there is so little other folk music on TV. We want it to be a public showcase for folk music, in a way which doesn't apply to the Oscars, Baftas, Grammies etc where the subjects of the awards already have a high public profile. It's hardly surprising that we're inevitably disappointed when the show turns out to be a bit shit.

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: GUEST,Cj
Date: 09 Apr 18 - 05:13 AM

I thought it was pretty good. Not all to my taste, but enough I didn't flick through. Glad Eliza is continually trying something different, she's quite easily talented enough to of coasted through life merely doing generic Waterson sounding material or MOR Disney-folk-toss, so here's to her for branching out.

Award ceremonies tend to be shite, not sure we can blame the folk awards for that.

Never knew Van Morrison spoke like Daffy Duck.

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: GUEST,Sol
Date: 09 Apr 18 - 05:24 AM

"Award" shows are everything folk music isn't.
Making it competative is an abomination and IMO, horribly destructive.

FWIW, a friend once said (cleaned up version) "The Oscars is Hollywood playing with itself". I tend to think the same re. all Award shows.

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: The Sandman
Date: 09 Apr 18 - 12:23 PM

I refuse to feel guilty because it means sod all to me. "
I agree it is irrelevant to me,this weekend i was out doing two gigs singing folk music and getting paid.
I have no inclination or time and do not have a television, so thank goodness i have better things to do

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: GUEST,FloraG
Date: 10 Apr 18 - 03:12 AM

Why do they employ manic camera persons? Flick Flick flick.
I don't want to see up performers noses or the underside of a piano players hands. I find it quite spoils what is quite nice - seeing what performers look like that I've heard of but not always seen.
FloraG.
PS Am I turning into the grumpy -----------

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: GUEST,Mark Bluemel
Date: 10 Apr 18 - 03:40 AM

We caught a few seconds when my wife was channel-hopping the other night. Donal and a fiddle-player were on, and my reaction was it sounded like the same approach to Irish tune playing that I'd heard on and off for something like 40 year, only with a harsher violin tone than most. We didn't listen for long.

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: r.padgett
Date: 10 Apr 18 - 04:01 AM

That's what it is Mark ~ what did you expect Elephants in kilts playing Uilleann pipes?

You either like it or you don't and fair play to you

and as I tell people the music is to be played and not so much to be listened to er um Donal Lunny is a brilliant professional musician and very deserving of his Award

I am still angry that people fail to realise that song choruses are meant to be joined in by everyone!

Ray

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: OldNicKilby
Date: 10 Apr 18 - 06:54 AM

Had I stumbled on this sort of" Folk Music " 55 years ago I would have left it well alone. A P R Company Bull Shit event. I like Vic and TradSinger knew almost none of the performers. This is not the Music that many of us know and love . Utterly and totally divorced from the Grass-roots

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: GUEST,kenny
Date: 10 Apr 18 - 08:13 AM

To be honest, I didn't like any of the performances broadcast either, but I find it hard to fathom how someone interested in the current "folk" scene of the UK and Ireland, - [ of which traditional music seems to be becoming an increasingly small part*, and that is something I deplore ] - could not have heard of Cara Dillon, "Lankum" [ changed their name from "Lynched" ], Eliza Carthy, Paul Brady and Donal Lunny. Apart from "Lankum", the others have been performing for between 20 and 40 years plus.
[* less so in Ireland, thankfully ]

Subject: RE: 2018 BBC Folk Awards
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 10 Apr 18 - 09:11 AM

Donal Lunny [played there with Zoe Conway didn't he? She's a highly trained and versatile fiddle[player/violinist. Mark Bluemel must be either a grumpy bollocks or have cotton wool in his ears.