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Artist News Awards
Lydon declared BMI Icon
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 16 October 2013
John Lydon was the latest European artist to be officially declared an Icon by the US collecting society BMI at its annual London awards event last night. Hot on the heals of the rival ASCAP awards show last week, the BMI event celebrates those European songwriters who have enjoyed significant success in the US, especially on American radio.
The Icon Award is the main event of the evening, and asked about how he felt receiving it by Rolling Stone magazine, Lydon said: “Fantastic. When you’re offered these things, you have to be sensible and see them as somewhat of a challenge. I’ve always got the thing in mind of the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame – that was something that I bitterly detested and rejected. This is slightly more serious, and it’s very interesting that it’s the British music industry saying, ‘Well done, John’. I think I’ve done a lot for this country, so it’s quite nice for that to be noted”.
Actually I think it’s more the American music industry saying that, though I’m sure plenty of British music publishers clapped along at the BMI shindig last night.
