Cave & The Bad Seeds took Best Independent Release and Best Adult Contemporary Album for Push The Sky Away.
“This is crazy!” Illy spluttered when Bring It Back was a surprise win in the Best Urban Album category. It beat off strong competition from Bliss N Eso, Horrorshow, Seth Sentry and Urthboy who in the last two weekends celebrated the 15th anniversary of Elefant Traks with some fiery shows.
Russell Morris’ Sharkmouth rightly took Best Blues and Roots Album: his was the comeback of the year, after being forced to come up with the $20,000 when all the record companies turned him down, and which went on to go platinum without any commercial radio support.
Victorian-born Tom Ballard and his triple j cohort Alex Dyson, who turned up to present one of the awards “wearing” a huge CD cover, took Best Comedy Release for The Bits We’re Least Ashamed Of.
One of the most poignant in a night of impressive live performances were Hayley Mary from The Jezabels and Sally Whitwell doing a piano-vocal rendition of Pleasure And Pain in homage to The Divinyls’ Geelong-born Chrissy Amphlett, (Also remembered was Mr. Yunupingu; the Yothu Yindi leader passed away months after being inducted into the Hall of Fame).
The inaugural ARIA Industry Icon Award went to Michael Gudinski to celebrate Mushroom’s 40th year.
As most people feared, the night belonged to Sydney’s Flume who after being nominated eight times, took Best Male, Best Dance Album, Breakthrough Artist and Producer Of The Year. But he redeemed himself by being extremely humble, read out a list of other EDM acts who were equally worthy, and pointing out when he won Best Male that his research showed it was the first time that someone who didn’t sing won the category. “I’m a producer!” he emphasized. His was one of the stand-out performances, doing his slinky new single The Greatest View with Isabella Manfredi on vocals, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and rising Sydney electro-performer Elizabeth Rose on backing vocals.
The city of Perth flexed itself with wins by Tame Impala (three), Karnivool while Samantha Jade and film director Christopher Frey took Video Of the Year for her Firestarter.
Of all the wins, it’s significant that only Flume thanked community radio, and only Guy Sebastian (who after 20 nominations finally won one…well, two actually) thanked the venues that supported Australian live music. No one mentioned the rock press although road crews and booking agents rightfully got their due respect from some of the acts.
Air Supply were inducted into the Hall of Fame, thanking those Australian detractors for toughening them up so they could go on to spin eight Top 5 singles in the US charts and earn $60 million worth of publishing revenue.
Of the gossip, everyone from Flume to Missy Higgins to Alicia Keys wanted to see Lorde perform (although Keys wanted to also check out Tame Impala … Jessica Mauboy who admitted to being “really nervous” before the show said that her winning Best Female creatively opened doors for indigenous acts … The Potbelleez’s Jonny Sonic and fashion designer Camilla Franks made their debut as “an item”… Matt Corby’s acceptance speech lasted 15 seconds, possibly a world record although when John Lennon once received an award, he mumbled “Thank you, you’ve got a lucky face” and then sat down. On the other hand, we wish Tame Impala kept their speeches that short although it was cool when one of them made his thanks in French.
