TPi AWARDS 2011 Review

NEWS FOCUS: TPi Awards 2011

06 • TPi MARCH 2011

21:35 hoursMonday 7 February 2011The Champagne SuiteNovotel London WestHammersmithLondon W6

TPi MARCH 2011 • 07

“The TPi Awards are the concealed, industrious underside of the fragile, threatened glamour that the BRITs frantically promotes, and despite...the fact that

these backstagers of few words clearly prefer stayingin the shadows, it deserves as much TV time.”

Paul Morley in The Observer



TPi AWARDS 2011For 364 days a year, TPi magazine writes and publishes stories about people who create live events. Then, on the 365th day, it creates its own for an audience largely made up of the people who produced the live events we’d been writing about. Now that’s scary. Our saving grace, of course, is the company we keep and in the case of our 10th annual TPi Awards held on February 7 at the Novotel London West in Hammersmith, we benefitted from not only our highest level of sponsorship support, but also the unfailing ‘can do’ attitude of Production Resource Group, whose combined teams took up the challenge and worked miracles. Going back to our first production meeting in November, when asked for a theme, the word ‘burlesque’ fell out of my mouth and I spent the next few weeks failing to justify it. “Lots of block reds, blacks, gold and ivory,” I blurted. Louie Spence would’ve been proud.

The reality was that although the TPi Awards 2011 design offered very little in the way of burlesque flavour, it was arguably our most elegant visual production to date. “I think the spirit of burlesque was still there with Blackout’s red swags and gold tiebacks that extended from the front sides to the rear,” said our production manager of four years, James Cobb. “But clearly we’d moved on from the original brief.” Having decided to use a single source for our main production requirements if possible, I made an initial approach to Martin Locket, chief executive of Production Resource Group UK, back in July 2010 to gauge interest. “One of the big challenges for me as production manager is that the TPi Awards show design is built on goodwill and a fairly minimal budget, and I make this clear from the outset to anyone who commits to working on the show,” said Cobb. It was when Cobb had his first meeting

MARK CUNNINGHAM TELLS THE STORY BEHIND THE PRODUCTION OF THE 10th ANNUAL EDITION OF THE LIVE INDUSTRY’S LEADING AWARDS EVENT...



with Martin Locket early last autumn that the 2011 project got underway. “Everything else that we would be doing depended on what would be on offer from PRG,” he said. The end result amounted to the first major example of PRG’s departments working together on one project, sending out a very strong statement. Martin Locket observed: “The TPi Awards 2011 was a great opportunity for Production Resource Group to showcase its capabilities in lighting, rigging and automation, video and audio. The event came hot on the heels of the rebranding of our UK businesses and our new focus on being able to supply a combination of technical disciplines to our customers. “This event is always such a comprehensive gathering of key people from the production industry that we felt this was an ideal chance to let our clients and peers see what we can do. It is always nerve-wracking to put yourself on display in front of such a critical professional audience, so it was a relief that the show went flawlessly and all of the elements worked so well together in both design and operation.” Cobb commented: “For PRG to contribute to the extremes that they did was quite astonishing and much more than we could ever have expected.” We’ve said it before, but the TPi Awards

audience is, by its nature, the most difficult to please, as Cobb explained: “Without fail, every year, no matter what we do and how we design the event, we’ll always have some people who walk in, look around, and say ‘why did they do it like that?’. “The room is full of people who think they know better, and that’s pretty much unheard of at awards ceremonies in any other industry. But we came out of this exceptionally well this year.”

LIGHTINGThe show was essentially designed by Neil Harvey, with input from James Cobb and myself. Numerous approaches were considered until Harvey suggested hanging banners of Barco MiTrix behind a projection screen. This led to using LED fixtures behind the MiTrix to bring some depth to the overall on-stage look. “When the burlesque style was discussed, I thought about bringing in the warmth of generic fixtures behind the saturated colours of the LED,” commented Harvey. “The next thing to consider was how to interact with the whole room, and that’s when the idea of an automated six-fingered truss design evolved [see under Rigging & Automation] to enclose the room. Harvey’s main moving fixture choice was

PRG’s proprietary Bad Boy. “It was ideal for this event because the flexibility of its zoom, its brightness, its speed of movement and how much space you can cover with one lamp. We used 10 but we’d have needed more to do the same job with alternatives.” He specified 24 Vari*Lite VL5B tungsten sources to light the room with pastel shades during dinner before providing more saturated blues, reds and ambers for the ceremony. James Thomas Engineering approached PRG with a neat LED solution, as Harvey explained: “They suggested we use their new PixelSmart LED product, and we placed 24 of them behind the MiTrix banners. It’s a fully-controllable LED unit and I was really impressed with how it integrated so well with this design. We ran video content through it as well as the MiTrix to give a layered effect. “I loved the idea of shining light through the MiTrix and we purposely used Perspex lecterns [from Firecracker Works] to allow the MiTrix to be seen through them.” Also lending a hand was Clay Paky. The Italian company supplied 10 of its new Sharpy moving heads. “The Sharpy is a great little fixture that produces a very tight, precise beam. We had one of those on each finger of truss, and a few around the catwalk. Again, they gave us another valuable extension to our palette of

“The TPi Awards is without doubt the best industry night out of the year andit deserves the best suppliers to do it proud...” Mark Campbell, Showforce

LIVE PRODUCTION OF THE YEAR: Members of the Gorillaz’ Escape From Plastic Beach world tour crew pick up the first award of the night from Martin Locket, chief executive of category sponsor, Production Resource Group UK (front left).

visuals with some attractive movement across the audience.” Also from Clay Paky were 12 Alpha Spot 300s (for textured audience lighting) and eight Alpha Beam 300s (on-stage). The catwalk and B stage were lit by ETC Source Four profiles, PARs and PARnels. Lycian followspots and DF50 smoke machines completed the fixture spec. Controlling the rig were two grandMA full-size consoles — one used by Adam Power to run the LED elements, the other purely for lighting, operated by James Hamilton. Tied into the first of these grandMAs was the video content. Kate Perring and Richard Bagshaw from Digital Insanity produced the nominations/winners graphics package as well as editing and re-formatting supplied video material, and this was all loaded on to PRG’s MBox Extreme media server to send the content to the MiTrix, PixelSmarts and the main screen.

SCREENSThe lighting and video production was prepared on the previous Thursday and Friday at PRG’s East Molesey operation (formerly Essential Lighting), where minimal quantities of MiTrix, PixelSmarts and moving heads assisted wysiwyg programming and colour matching. Mick Jones was the PRG project manager in charge of the video and cameras. A pair of Barco FLM HD20 projectors were used to feed the main central video screen (21.25’ x 12’), while four Panasonic 6710 projectors were used for the two side relay screens. At each side, in between the stage and the relay screen, a vertical Barco 6mm LED panel transmitted Digital Insanity’s rolling package of sponsor and supporter company logos. At the back of the room, PRG installed a 103” plasma screen, two 65” plasmas and six 42” models (all Panasonic). James Cobb said: “The result was that we had more technology

dedicated to the rear half of the room than at any previous TPi Awards, and this was all about doing our best to look after everyone back there. “I think we really achieved that this year because I was constantly standing around there to gauge the mood and it was pretty obvious that we had their attention. “Another way of dealing with the rear audience problem was to make the height of everything in the main area relatively low — including the left/right relay screens — which resulted in a better line of sight from the back.” Capturing the live action was a five camera system — four manned Sony D55s and a Sony BRC 350 hothead in the truss. All the camera feeds and content were expertly mixed by video director Matt Askem — deputising for Richard Shipman who, after advising on the project, was on tour with Faithless — and processed via a Barco FSN 1400 production switcher.



Below: Lighting & video pre-programming at PRG’s East Molesey wysiwyg facility — PixelSmarts ‘poking through’ MiTrix; James Hamilton & Adam Power at the grandMA full-size consoles;Hamilton refuses to be distracted by the TPi camera; show cues on-screen; Digital Insanity’s Richard Bagshaw & Kate Perring; creativity in full flow.

Hall 9.0 Stand F82

RIGGING & AUTOMATIONIn most hotel-based gala dinner environments, the ceiling height restricts creativity, especially in the Novotel London West’s Champagne Suite where it’s only 6m from floor to ceiling. Add a hoist and some truss, and you can immediately deduct 1.5m. So when Neil Harvey came up with the lighting rig drawings featuring six extended finger trusses, PRG’s rigging department chose to incorporate Kinesys motion control into the system — operated by Chris Scott for some ‘waving truss’ sequences — and moved the truss positions around to gain the maximum height for this. Chris Walker, who headed the rigging crew, explained: “The finger trusses were hung on four points while the two nearest to the stage were left static (so as not to interfere with the projection), the two outer hoists were positioned next to a hinge in the truss so that the truss could form an arch. The truss used was a mixture of Slick Minibeam and James Thomas 30cm Supatruss. “We used about 220m of it in total, which is a lot for that environment,” said Walker, who was in the spotlight himself when he rose to accept the Favourite Rigging Company award on behalf of Summit Steel, the previous name of the business acquired by (and renamed as) Production Resource Group. All of the static hoists were half-tonne CM Lodestars; the Kinesys-enabled hoists were half-tonne CM Model JJ Lodestars that have been specially-modified for automation. Walker’s rigging team also included Andy Parsons and Steve Clements.

STAGINGWandsworth, south London-based Firecracker Works provided both the main stage and satellite B stage, and built custom treads up to the stages as well as the infills where provision was made for PRG to insert 24 Tryka LED modules along the edges, which provided a ‘directional’ effect. The mirror trim



“The TPi Awards is always a very different kind of job for me. There was a strong sense of creative collaboration, and I certainly believe we hit a new peak...” James Cobb, production manager

Left: Setting up in the Champagne Suite on the Sunday and Monday.

to the edge of the stage was another stylish example of Firecracker Works’ input. The T-shaped main stage measured 16’ long in the back portion and extended out by another 24’, while the B stage was 16’ x 16’ with rounded corners. The company also fabricated the pillars in the rear half of the room, creating boxed surrounds from timber frames and covering the surfaces with white pleated polyline to give a chic feel. The fabricated pillars were each toned by wireless LED uplighters, provided by Shok. A four-person crew was dedicated to building the stage and pillar surrounds. “We had a very funny moment on the Sunday night when Neil Harvey asked if we could kill the house lights to allow for focusing,” said James Cobb. “We both looked at each other and realised that the controls for the house lights were on the pillars, and we’d just boxed them in! The only solution was to locate each control panel and make a discreet slit in the fabric to gain access!”

Incorporating a B stage was an idea that had evolved for earlier TPi Awards events but had been shelved. This time, because we are constantly trying to do more to engage the audience at the rear of the Champagne Suite, we thought it was time to make this gesture. “I was fully expecting the B stage idea to be dropped again but it never disappeared from our to-do list,” said Cobb. “That was good because it worked well and allowed us to dedicate specific parts of the ceremony to that stage and that part of the audience, including Huey’s grand entrance. “I had my doubts right up until the afternoon rehearsal when Huey waved at the imaginary audience from the B stage and walked down the catwalk, and it was then that I knew it would work.” One of our longest-serving suppliers, Blackout has always delivered precisely what we need. This year, our requirements were a little more involved — the black drape with red overlays and gold braid tie backs were essential



Below, top row: Production manager James Cobb; PRG’s Mick Jones & Chris Walker; TPi event manager Ben Chadwick. Middle row: Production assistant Lisa Telfer; media operator Adam Power, LD Neil Harvey, lighting operator James Hamilton & show caller Alex Clayton-Black; autocue operator Ashly Lewis. Third row: PRG’s video team with video director Matt Askem (centre)... and essential kit. Bottom: Klaus Rahe & Andre Aspelmeier from PRG’s Hamburg-based audio operation; sound engineer Tom Brown with DiGiCo’s Tim Shaxson and the new ‘Ghost Carp’ console; Brown mixing during rehearsal.

TOUR MANAGER OF THE YEAR: The victorious Craig Duffy receives his award from Matt Purton of sponsor Air Charter Service.

AND THE WINNERS WERE...

PRODUCTION MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Live Nation’s John Probyn collects the absent Neil McDonald’s award, as presented by Gavin Chatfi eld of sponsor Christie Digital.

PRODUCTION CO-ORDINATOR OF THE YEAR: Lisa Ryan from sponsor EFM presents the award to Graham Blake on behalf of his Simply Red touring colleague Debbie Bray.

FAVOURITE VENUE: AEG Live’s Keith Wood accepts the award for the O2 Arena from sponsor Mark Campbell of Showforce.

FAVOURITE INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTION COMPANY: Another appearance from Christie’s Gavin Chatfi eld as Delicate Productions’ Smoother Smyth is awarded.

BACKLINE TECHNICIAN OF THE YEAR: ‘Deptford’ John Armitage makes his way along the catwalk to receive his award from Huey Morgan.

FAVOURITE CATERING COMPANY: Yet another award for Eat To The Beat! Mary Shelley-Smith and Tony Laurenson step up to collect their trophy.

FAVOURITE CREW COMPANY: Showforce celebrates its third consecutive award, as presented by Steve Reynolds of sponsor Showsec.

FOH ENGINEER OF THE YEAR: Huey’s ‘Uncle Paul’ greets Muse’s mix maestro Marc Carolan with the DiGiCo-sponsored award.

MONITOR ENGINEER OF THE YEAR: Jon Lewis was working away, so colleague Pab Boothroyd collected the DiGiCo-sponsored award from ex-Macca PR man Geoff Baker.

FAVOURITE FREIGHT COMPANY: The internationally-renowned Sound Moves team is honoured... and not for the fi rst time!

LIGHTING DESIGNER OF THE YEAR: Mike Walker of sponsor Martin Professional surprises Adlib’s Ian Tomlinson with the prestigious award.

THE VIDEO VISIONARY AWARD: Phil Skins of sponsor Roland Systems Group presents the award to Jon Shrimpton of Depeche Mode, Elbow and Scissor Sisters fame.

SET DESIGNER OF THE YEAR: Take That and Muse designer Es Devlin scores her second TPi award, as presented by Clive Forrester of sponsor All Access Staging & Productions.

RIGGER OF THE YEAR: “Sven Knight? That’s a stage name, right?” enquired our New Yorker host as the winner rose from his seat to accept his trophy.

STAGE MANAGER OF THE YEAR: The absent Chalkii White’s stand-in, Stage Miracles’ Simon Chester collects the award from Paul Young of sponsor PixelRange.

FAVOURITE TRAVEL COMPANY: Tina Waters and her colleagues from Glasgow-based The Tour Company join Mr. Morgan on the B-stage to collect their award.

FAVOURITE TRANSPORT COMPANY: Thirty-seven years after their company was formed, Ollie Kite and Del Roll make their lastwinning appearance under the EST name.

FAVOURITE STAGING COMPANY: Hedwig de Meyer’s Stageco scoops another award following a typically busy year in stadiums and at festivals.

FAVOURITE SET CONSTRUCTION COMPANY: Brilliant Stages’ Tony Bowern accepts the award from Huey on the B-stage.


THE EDITOR’S AWARD: Fairport’s Cropredy Convention is TPi editor-in-chief Mark Cunningham’s choice and festival director Gareth Williams goes up to accept.

THE MY GENERATION AWARD: Sponsored by the University of Bolton, the award is given to Jamie Trant by TPi’s Rachel Esson and last year’s winner, Luke Jackson.

FAVOURITE LIGHTING RENTAL COMPANY: Carl Burnett receives Neg Earth Lights’ award from sponsor Michael Althaus of MA Lighting.

FAVOURITE SOUND RENTAL COMPANY: Karl Christmas from sponsor Yamaha Commercial Audio presents the award to Yan Stile and Spencer Beard from SSE Audio Group.

FAVOURITE RIGGING COMPANY: The company that was Summit Steel but has now been renamed Production Resource Group wins.

FAVOURITE VIDEO SERVICES COMPANY: After celebrating its 10th anniversary, XL Video collects its eighth TPi award. Smiles all around.

FAVOURITE SECURITY/CROWD MANAGEMENT COMPANY: Showsec once again shows it’s not a firm to be messed with.

FAVOURITE REHEARSAL FACILITY: Despite being open for only a few months, LH2 Studios in Park Royal takes first prize. Derek Fudge was on hand to accept.

JOHN PEEL UNSUNG HERO AWARD: Lift Turn Move’s John Jones’ profile within the industry is ceremoniously ‘hoisted’. The PSA’s Andy Lenthall does the honours.

THE ‘CHRONICLE’ LIFETIME CONTRIBUTION AWARD: Jerry Gilbert and Mark Cunningham present the final award of the night to audio maverick Bob Doyle.

“This is the most amazing surprise. We never thought when we started out all those years ago that one day we’d be getting an award like this...”

Simon Nicol, Fairport’s Cropredy Convention


to retain the sophisticated elegance required to contrast with the LED elements. Devon-based S+H Technical Support spread its skills across both the Champagne and Chablis Suites, using products from its hire and sales catalogues. Its easy-to-use Proclick temporary flooring was used to create a walkway between the main and B stages. Chosen in black (although there are over 50 colours available), the Proclick system arrived as modular 305mm square tiles, enabling us to work neatly without disturbing the table plan. S+H also supplied significant amounts of starcloth for the dinner and after-show, as well as using its pipe and drape system to divide off areas, dress the walls and, with its temporary rigging system, enable cloths to be hung in areas where no support rails were available.

SOUNDOn one hand, the audio challenge this year was made more simple by the absence of any live music performance. However, our aim from the start was to prioritise the delivery of the best audio quality ever experienced by the audience at the TPi Awards 2011, and that responsibility was handed to Hamburg-based PRG GmbH project manager, Klaus Rahe, who designed the system. For the main FOH system, he specified 16 Meyer Sound UPA cabinets, spread across the truss, and four Meyer 600-HP subwoofers. Efforts were particularly made on PRG’s part to improve the audio quality for the audience at the back, with a pair of Dynacord-amplified Kling & Freitag CA106 loudspeakers mounted

on nearly every pillar (totalling 16 units). A further four Meyer UPJs — self-powered like the other Meyer elements — were installed around the underside of the B stage ‘ceiling’. Said James Cobb: “I had a conversation with Klaus Rahe who insisted that the only way we could make the rear half and the B stage concept work, audio-wise, would be to install a completely secondary sound system from the middle of the room all the way back, using a complicated matrix. Of course, I absolutely agreed with him!” Processed using XTA DP 226s and Meyer’s proprietary Galileo 616 six-input/16-output digital loudspeaker management system, which provided the matrixing requirements, the PA without doubt met our brief to the letter, with many people commenting on how much better it all sounded. “You need a lot of speakers to make this situation work,” said Rahe. “Fortunately we had plenty of stock available to make that difference.” Sennheiser’s 2000 Series wireless hand held mics and receivers were used by Huey Morgan, myself and other guests, while the Sennheiser ME36 lectern mics were giving us unusually good levels compared to previous years. One can’t mention microphones without referencing Huey’s big gag of the night. On several occasions, he dropped his mic, only to shrug his shoulders and claim, “It’s only a rental”. Although it had many people in fits of laughter, Klaus Rahe wasn’t seeing the funny side. It’s just as well the Sennheiser mics can take a battering!

Piloting the sound on the night was engineer Tom Brown who I personally think did a very good job on the night. “We needed an English-speaking sound engineer and Tom was a fine choice,” said Klaus Rahe. Brown mixed the show on a special guest console that was maintaining a low profile throughout the proceedings. Continuing the fishy theme chosen by DiGiCo’s designer (and keen angler) John Stadius, the ‘Ghost Carp’ is the manufacturer’s latest addition to its SD Series and we were delighted that it was effectively making its live début at the TPi Awards 2011. We won’t give away too much ahead of the console’s official launch at Frankfurt’s ProLight+Sound show in April, but Rahe was particularly impressed. “I’m a big fan of the SD Series and we have many SD8s and SD9s in our inventory,” he said. “And the Ghost Carp really showed itself to be another great DiGiCo console.” No prizes for guessing its official model number.

FEELING THE FORCEWorking on the TPi Awards for the first time, the award-winning ‘Favourite Crew Company’ Showforce took up the mantle as local crew and security supplier, with up to 30 crew assisting with the build, show, strike and load out. Although James Cobb had specific duties lined up for the crew, they were more than happy to help anyone needing back-up. Although the event has usually been ‘self-policing’, there were issues this year that suggested a security presence. We felt it was



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more important than usual to restrict entry into the Champagne Suite before doors opened and a more rigorous crew pass system was introduced, along with an ID pass for the guests which acted as their entry ticket. Headed by Barry Orchard, the Showforce security team looked after Huey Morgan, and as the company’s Jon ‘JD’ Davis explained: “We were also asked to supply four ‘promotions’ girls who helped with the reception drinks and generally made our scruffy industry look like shiny new pennies!” His colleague, MD Mark Campbell, added: “All of our crew were very impressed with the teamwork and comradery shown by the overall production team, which was a testament to the skill and finesse of James Cobb and

the careful choices made when putting these teams together year on year. “The TPi Awards is without doubt the best industry night out of the year and it deserves the best suppliers to do it proud.”

FROM LOAD-IN TO BREAKFASTTwo and a half artic loads arrived over the weekend, care of our regular trucking supplier, EST, completing one of its last gigs as it would turn out. The load-in began at 8.00am on Sunday and by 5.00pm practically all of the production was in position. Sometime in the middle of these two points, the Champagne Suite was literally an unprecedented sea of flight cases, causing the hotel staff to enter a state of shock! The rest of Sunday was spent

lining up the LED wall and fine-tuning the projectors, as well as completing the Chablis Suite set-up. The rule was that everything of a physical nature would be set up by around midnight, so that all of show day would be dedicated to the creative aspects. This meant that from late morning on the Monday, while James Cobb was chairing the PSA’s AGM, I could liaise with Andre Aspelmeier and Tom Brown from the sound crew on the cueing of the walk-up music I’d chosen and edited — mainly ‘mash-ups’ of classic rock and modern anthems. Sharp as ever at midday, Alex Clayton-Black, our showcaller for every single TPi Awards to date, arrived to take my brief and input all the data from the show script in preparation for a 5.00pm on-stage rehearsal with Huey

Morgan, covering all of the key audio, lighting, video content, camera and automation cues, as well as synchronising with James Hamling’s autocue system. Our rehearsal curfew time was 6.00pm — the guests were arriving for the champagne reception, and I had to dash to my room to make myself presentable! During the weekend, the decision was made to move the reception from the Chablis Suite upstairs to the foyer and bar areas in order to minimise the time lag that has often delayed the serving of dinner. The Champagne Suite curfew was always going to be midnight, so while some guests may have felt they were being ushered out rather briskly, the sheer amount of kit required the longest possible period for load-out. It was a long night for James Cobb and the crew, some of whom were still busy as the smell of bacon wafted through from the kitchen. “The TPi Awards is always a very different kind of job for me,” said Cobb, “and I really enjoyed it this year. There was a strong sense of creative collaboration, and I certainly believe we hit a new peak. The last couple of years were OK, but the bar was set much higher this time around.”

FLATTERINGThere were some new and old faces in the production team this year. Stepping into the production assistant position previously filled by Sophie Robinson (now with Mean Fiddler) was the delightful Lisa Telfer who also doubled as the hostess for the B stage, while Mondiale’s own Laura McLaughlin

It was a pleasure to discover that PRG had assigned Luke Jackson to the job of designing the after-show party room in the Chablis Suite. The winner of our first My Generation award last year (presented by the Pet Shop Boys), the young Jackson was almost immediately employed by PRG and has since worked on countless events for the company. “I gave the after-show to Luke as a project and he did a good job,” said Neil Harvey. “He used a grandMA Lite to run Martin MAC

250 Entours and generic lighting for the environment. He also used Martin Mania DC1s to produce a ripple effect across the walls, combined with our GDS battery-powered wireless LED uplighters.” Background music was provided by leading disc jockey, Mr. I. Pod, and fed to a Panasonic Ramsa AT 300 PA, powered by Dynacord LX 3000 amps, also from PRG. S+H Technical Support and Inner Sanctum supplied starcloth draping and furniture respectively.

NEWCOMER JACKSON DESIGNS PARTY ZONE



looked after the main stage. Our ‘king of the risk assessment’ for the past few years, Steve Kearney (now of Gallowglass Health & Safety) once again managed all things relating to H&S. Although PRG and our other suppliers played critical roles at the event, the TPi Awards remains a very in-house driven project. Our events manager, Ben Chadwick was again master of his own world, dealing with the key aspects of venue liaison, event promotion and the dedicated website, table bookings, sponsorship, guest tickets, menu choice and signage. Working alongside our colleagues Joel Perry, Ric Ashton and Rachel Esson on table bookings and general promotion, Ben also looked after the branding and loading of the 1,100 Robe-sponsored USB drives that contained sponsors’ marketing packs and the digital Awards souvenir programme — prepared as an alternative to the usual printed matter. As usual, January was an eight-week month for me because my work on the magazine continued at its usual hectic pace while I generated or directed the

ceremony’s content, from video clips to music as well as designing the new trophy. All the late nights and lost weekends were rewarded by the fl ood of approval that followed the event. It was quite overwhelming. In his column for Sunday newspaper, The Observer, well-known journalist and music critic Paul Morley brought his seething tirade against The BRIT Awards to a close with a surprisingly fl attering comparison. He wrote: “The TPi Awards are the concealed, industrious underside of the fragile, threatened glamour that the BRITs frantically promotes, and despite the overall awkwardness, and the fact that these backstagers of few words clearly prefer staying in the shadows, it deserves as much TV time. “Without these utilitarian award winners, no Gorillaz parade, no Take That cavalcade, no Glee spree, no swanky Kanye punchline, no fi reworks, no show.”TPi

Photography by Richard SkinsLouise Stickland & Mark Cunningham

www.tpiawards.com

THE TPi AWARDS 2011 CATEGORIES WERE KINDLY SPONSORED BY

A BIG TPi THANKS TO OUR ‘AWARDS SUPPORTERS’

“Chris Evans was right when he told me how great this event is...” Huey Morgan

TPi AWARDS 2011 Review

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