News and Reviews: 5th October 2011
04 Oct 2011.7pm to 11.30pm.BMI Awards at The Dorchester Hotel,Park Lane,London W1.Queen honoured at the BMI Awards
Queen, David Arnold, Yoko Ono, Spandau Ballet, Adam Ant and La Roux have been awarded BMI medals.
About 300 seated for a three course dinner and we are part of the 20 odd press folks standing at the back.Free booze all night before during and after the awards from champers and cocktails to any drink you wanted so i overdid it a bit.
At London's Dorchester Hotel, the performing right body honoured a host of songwriters, composers and music publishers of the songs most performed in the US over the past year.
Brian May and Roger Taylor were there in person to collect the Icon Award.Yoko Ono was here to collect on behalf of five Beatles tracks and the John Lennon track "Woman".She got a standing ovation.
Brian May,Roger Taylor,Ben Elton and Yoko Ono all sitting together on the main table.
Brian May said "It means a lot I think especially because it is an american award and although we were married to America for a long time, we never really did much in terms of awards. We're not bursting with Grammys, so it's nice to have that tribute from our peers."
He also revealed that there are two Queen films in the pipeline: "One is about Freddie and one is the movie version of We Will Rock You".
Adding: "Both films are really in the early stages but we have good scripts in each case, it's just a case of putting everything else together."
Brian May discussing another Queen tour
The band might be auditioning youthful Queen impersonators for a tribute tour but that looks to be the only tour on the cards at the moment.
"It's impossible to say whether we'd go out on the road again," May explained. "We talk about it all the time but we have a bit of a singer problem, to put it mildly.
"We did our stuff with Paul Rodgers which I think was fabulous at its best and we are still very good friends with Paul, but I don't think any of us really feel like we want to go down that route again at this point in time. You can never say never but at this point our heads are in different directions."
The BMI gave two TV Music Awards to The Who's Pete Townshend for his work with CSI and CSI New York, while Behind Blue Eyes and Who Are You hit 3 million plays in the US.Pete was not here.
Spandau Ballet's Gary Kemp was there to take home a Multi Million Airplay trophy as "True" hits the 4 million mark, while Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" has topped 10 million.
Other tracks that hit the 4m plays mark inc "Sad Songs","Lay Down Sally","Black Is Black","Tears In Heaven" and "Dont Go Breaking My Heart".
Those that hit the 6m plays mark inc "You Really Got Me" and "Dont Let The Sun Go Down On Me".
Those that hit the 7m plays mark inc "Daniel" and "Layla".
Sounds like a nice pension pot for all those involved.
Other winners on the night included bond theme composer David Arnold, who picked up a Film Music award for his soundtrack to The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Many of the prizes for TV and Radio airplay went to those behind big pop songs from the likes of Usher, Nicki Minaj and Rihanna
which surprise surprise included Ben from Curiousity Killed The Cat who was here to collect.
However, more than two years after its release in 2009, La Roux's Bulletproof from her debut album was one of the past year's most performed works on US radio and television.
They showed 15 mins of great Queen live gig footage and interviews inc the famous Live Aid one.I saw Queen a dozen times live inc Live Aid.
I had a chat with Adam Ant who i met the night before at Tony Bennett.Its fantastic to see him out and about again after his health problems a few years ago.
Brian May and Roger Taylor really enjoyed themselves tonight.By contrast Yoko Ono was the last to turn up so she could avoid most of the photographers and everyone was seated for starters so she has a clear path to her seat.Her personal security and record company escort were making sure nobody got too close.
A really enjoyable evening.