“I started them to celebrate 21 years of EG, which has now changed its name to Shortlist,” says Donovan. “The Age EG Awards used to be a national awards celebrating the music from ‘81 onwards, which was when EG started. Then three years ago with Music Victoria I approached The Age and suggested a joint venture – turn it into The Age Music Victoria Awards and just focus on Victorian music.”
A panel of critics and esteemed industry figures decide the nominees, then it’s up to the public to choose the winners via an online vote. “We have 30 judges who put together five nominees in eleven categories and then we have 80,000 votes to pick those winners,” says Donovan.
Since rebranding as The Age Music Victoria Awards, the event’s also included the Genre Awards, where expert judges determine winners in the fields of blues, country, soul, funk, R&B and gospel, jazz, hip hop, electronic, indigenous, experimental/ avant garde, heavy, global or reggae, and folk roots.
“We actually set up 11 judging panels of experts in those fields,” says Donovan. “It’s complicated and there’s a lot of work but we definitely want the right acts to be rewarded, so it’s over 80 judges.”
Each year the awards have included a Hall of Fame component. It remains a fixture, but this year it gets its own separate event. On Friday November 20 at the Palais Theatre the likes of AC/DC, Bill Armstrong, John Farnham and Archie Roach will be inducted, along with performances from Farnham, Roach and more.
“We thought the annual awards should be a standalone event, because we would have young musicians coming in to see the best bands of the year who they voted for, but then at the end of the night we’d have a bunch of baby boomers coming in to watch Renee Geyer or Daddy Cool,” Donovan says. “We just thought it was a weird mix of demographic, so we thought we’d separate them.”
As for the Public Awards, while it’s a strong pool of talent every year, Donovan’s particularly impressed by this year’s list of nominees. “I think there’s so many fresh acts. One of the great things about awards, whether you’re a judge or just going to vote, is it’s a filter. There’s so much music out there, so to have the chance to discover some of these bands – Totally Mild, Mojo Juju, Crepes, Gold Class. That’s what I’m most excited about this year, just this huge regeneration of talent coming through.”
The Public Awards will be handed out on Wednesday November 11 at 170 Russell – an event that’s open to the public. Not a conventional awards night, it’ll feature short sets from Marlon Williams, Courtney Barnett and Harts, as well as the EG Allstars (Pete Luscombe, Ash Naylor, Bill McDonald and James Black) joined by special guest vocalists Ajak Kwai, Ben Salter, Blake Scott (The Peep Tempel), Briggs, Ecca Vandal, Emma Donovan, Iseula Hingano and Olympia, each performing an original song.
“Basically we want to celebrate the quality of music mainly in song,” says Donovan. “We do hand out the awards, and we try to do that very quickly, but we really focus on some of these artists performing with the house band. It’s a really interesting lineup – Ajak Kwai is a Sudanese global singer, Ben’s a folk rocky guy, Blake will be doing one of The Peep Tempel’s best driving songs. It’s going to be an amazing 40 minute celebration of some of the best music of the year.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
