Aftershow News: 6th March 2003

Music Week Awards at Le Meridien - Grosvenor House Hotel , Park Lane , London W.1. 7pm to 2am. Well it is very nice in here . I have never seen so many people sitting down having a meal .There are 120 tables with 10 people on each .1200 guests from the music biz such as all the main record companies , pr companies , music retailers all here to win one of the 24 awards on offer . The awards are for retailer of the year and best marketing campaign etc but there were a few that stood out for me.XFM won best radio station which i fully agree with . The Complete Jam won best DVD.Also well deserved was The Strat achievement award to Rod Smallwood and Andy Taylor for over 30 years in the music business .They have of course been the managers of rock giants Iron Maiden since 1979 and have turned Sanctuary into a record company , publishing ,recording studios and artist management empire .Three members of Iron Maiden were here tonight Bruce Dickinson, Yanick Gers and Adrian Smith .We had a great chat with Bruce about his love of planes . As some of you know he is a pilot and flies passengers as much as he can in between Iron Maiden duties . Tickets for this event were £200 so the record industry is not in such a bad way after all . Thanks to Judith for my invitations. We all had a full 3 course meal with as much booze as you could drink thrown in . Angus Deayton gave out the awards . It was great fun watching record company staff as they went mental when their company won someting but if a rival won anything they would not even get a clap . The DJ started up at 11pm and we stumbled out at 2am . A much better night than expected .

Posted 6th March 2003