Awards Business News

Artist And Manager Awards presented, Robbie Williams uses speech to say “fuck you” to everyone

By | Published on Friday 4 April 2014

Guy Chambers & Robbie Williams

So well done one, and let’s not forget the all, who took home gong-like contraptions from the Artist And Manager Awards last night. By which I mean, it was the Music Managers’ Forum and Featured Artist Coalition’s big awards bash in London last night and what a lovely time was had by all. Well, no one died. And that despite big bad Spotify being the host.

The winners of the big life time achievement prizes were generally already known, them including Artists’ Artist recipient Robbie Williams (pictured with Guy Chambers who presented the award) who kicked off the proceedings by noting this was surely a night to say a big “fuck you to the man”.

That had been the spirit of his entire career he noted. “I did that cover of ‘Freedom’ didn’t I, that was a ‘fuck you’ to the man. And then I made ‘Rudebox’. That was a ‘fuck you’ to the fans… as it turned out”.

Despite musing that current label Island was presumably ‘the man’ in his career just now – “so fuck you, Island” – the one time Take That man still remembered to thank all the people who had supported his career to date, including the Universal division and his long-term management team at IE.

Elsewhere sponsors Spotify presented their ten grand Artist & Manager Grant to the band Gengahr and their management team at East City. The streaming whatnot’s artists guy Mark Williamson told CMU: “This grant isn’t just about the music; it’s about an artist and manager team that we feel is best placed to make the most out of the prize to take their career to the next level. Meeting with Gengahr and East City Management convinced us that they have a great team and plan in place to get their excellent music out to a wider audience. We can’t wait to work with them and help them grow over the coming months and years”.

So hurrah for all that. And now a list of winners.

Artists’ Artist: Robbie Williams
Manager Of The Year: Scott Rodger
Artist Of The Year: Pharrell Williams
Breakthrough Artist: Rudimental
Breakthrough Manager: Sam Evitt and Jack Street
Pioneer Award: Ruth Daniels
Industry Champion: Keith Harris
Peter Grant Award: Paul Loasby



READ MORE ABOUT: |