ARIA Awards 2009

07 December 2009

by Lars Brandle

Twenty awards, ten performances and countless hangovers. The 2009 ARIA Awards are now a footnote in the Australia record industry’s history books. TMN reflects on the highs and lows of the new-look Australian music showpiece.

The 2009 ARIA Awards delivered on many fronts. Robbie Williams brought the superstar-power, and Empire of the Sun glowed as the runaway winner. And in New Zealand-born electro pop artist Ladyhawke, the media was gifted a pre-ARIAs controversy. The tweaks to the ARIAs format ran particularly deep this year.

A new broadcast home, a new date, even the venue underwent a transformation. In many respects, the 23rd ARIA Awards represented a fresh start for Australia’s flagship awards gala. All these combined factors however didn’t produce a ratings bonanza. While EMI Australia-signed Empire of the Sun was on fire with four victories on the night, the response from armchair viewers was cool.
 Only 708,000 Australians tuned-in for the prime-time gala on Channel Nine, some 400,000 viewers less than the 1.09 million who watched the 2008 show on rival broadcaster Network Ten.

To place it in perspective, Channel Nine pulled more than double the viewers when it beamed the TV industry’s 2009 Logie Awards in May.
 “The performances were some of the best ever in the history of the ARIA Awards so it's ironic we had such disappointing ratings,” notes Mark Poston, EMI Australasia Country Chairman and ARIA board member. “It was a stellar line-up and having all those acts on the same show is a big deal wherever you are in the world.”

A handful of reasons may be attributed to the ARIAs lull. The show was held on a Thursday night rather than the usual Sunday night, and Channel Nine draws an older demographic than Ten. And many observers question the decision to trust “Underbelly” actors Gyton Grantley and Kate Ritchie with the important role as hosts of the night. 
 Modular Recordings managing director Steve Pavlovic suggests the event was “diluted by trying to make it a TV spectacle as opposed to an industry award night.”

Organizers certainly can’t be accused of complacency. And with a budget of roughly half the funds of previous years, the decision to stage the show “in the round” was a brave one. It very nearly came off.

Rewind to early 2009, and the ARIA Awards was looming as a proper train wreck. Organizers ARIA waved goodbye to Channel Ten after reaching an impasse on the future direction of the show, and the last major sponsor Motorola dropped out. Channel Nine came on board, and ARIA scrambled to get the show on track. Awards producer Mark Pope remarked in the leadup, “From the front, it’ll look like a marble frontage. Behind, it’ll be held together by chicken-wire and glue.”

Poston remains philosophical about the ratings. “I am cautious, but not panicking,” he admits. “Yes, I would have preferred that 1.5 million people saw it. Perhaps with YouTube and the Internet, we actually reached something approaching that figure.” Poston had more reason to celebrate than most. His wards Empire of the Sun shone brightest with four visits to the winner’s podium (including awards for best group and album of the year) and the act delivered an eye-catching performance.

A little more than two weeks earlier, Luke Steele’s psychedelic newcomers scooped a hat-trick of ARIA Artisan and Fine Arts awards. Question marks remain on Nick Littlemore’s role in Empire of the Sun. As Steele repeatedly beat a path to the stage, his collaborator and the duo’s producer was nowhere to be seen. "I'm here representing Empire," Steele told the audience. "Obviously Nick's disappeared, he's oversees, so tonight he's invisible Nick.” Littlemore is apparently focusing his energies on his other project, Pnau.

Ladyhawke and veteran rockers AC/DC were the only other multiple ARIA recipients, each claiming two of the 20 awards on offer. Pip Brown - aka Ladyhawke – was on hand to take trophies for breakthrough artist-album winner and the breakthrough artist single award for My Delirium (Modular Records/Universal Music Australia) which she performed later in the show.

AC/DC accepted their pair of trophies (best rock album and highest-selling album for Albert Productions/Sony Music set Black Ice) by way of a speech taped in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where the band's massive Black Ice world tour is slowing making its way to these shores. Both Ladyhawke and AC/DC had come under fire from some sectors of the industry who questioned their eligibility to win Australian artist categories.

Jessica Mauboy’s hopes of emulating Gabriella Cilmi’s haul in 2008 got off to a hot start, the former Australian Idol contestant winning the first of her seven nominations for the best-selling single award for her hit Running Back (Sony Music). It proved to be the R&B singer’s only award. And it was another tough night for Paul Dempsey. None of the EMI-signed singer's three nominations resulted in a win, bringing to 16 his all-time tally of ARIA Award nominations without a trophy. No doubt, the lanky singer will be wondering just when his Irish ancestry will bring him some luck.

Onlookers could have been forgiven for thinking the night was simply garnish for a Robbie Williams performance. The Acer Arena spewed lasers and reverberated with a deafening roar as the British pop idol gave a rendition of new single Bodies. The nerves which marred his recent live comeback on Britain’s X Factor TV show didn’t board the singer’s flight Down Under.

The best male artist award went to contemporary soul singer Daniel Merriweather, an ARIA winner back in 2005, while the best female artist honour went to Sarah Blasko. Blasko graced the stage for a “Three Divas” performance with Kate Miller-Heidke and Lisa Mitchell. It proved to be an aural masterstroke.

Adelaide posse Hilltop Hoods won the hip hop award for the chart-topping album, State of the Art (Golden Era/Universal Music Australia) while Liberation Music-signed Troy Cassar-Daley took out the best country album honour. The ARIAs winners circle included the Presets' Talk Like That (Modular), who took the prize for best dance release; Bertie Blackman's Secrets and Lies (Forum 5/MGM) for best independent release; Sia's TV Is My Parent (Monkey Puzzle/Inertia) for best music DVD, Josh Pyke's Chimney's Afire (Ivy League/Universal Music Australia) and C.W. Stoneking's Jungle Blues (King Hokum/Shock Entertainment) for best blues and roots album.

The Australian iTunes digital music store has thrown its support behind the ARIAs. From December 1st, the market-leading download service has stocked downloads of the show’s live performances, proceeds from which will benefit the Youth Beyond Blue charity. At launch, iTunes devoted a sizable chunk of its homepage to celebrate the ARIAs offering.

“The ARIA board will take on board the experiences of this year - good and bad - and it’s a work-in-progress to make next year’s show even better,” notes Poston. “That needs to be the focus – to constantly evolve the awards and recognise artists, then along the way nurture and develop the next new success stories.”

Notes from the night

Spare a thought for Keith Urban. Having collected a prestigious American Music Award just days earlier, the Nashville-based, Australia-raised country star Urban left the ARIAs empty-handed. Well, not exactly. An over-zealous waitress spilled a full beer on Urban, one of the few guest in the arena who wasn’t imbibing. Urban shrugged it all off with a smile.

Where were the Mo Bros? TMN expected to spot a sea of hairy top lips in support of the Movember charity. Honourable mention goes out to the lads from Powderfinger -- Bernard Fanning and Darren Middleton – and Kaos Management’s Russell Thomas.

A later date for the ARIAs this year brought with it a new set of challenges for guests and star-spotters… The heat. Hundreds of VIP guests arrived at the red carpet looking, well, red-faced as summer came a few days early to Sydney.

Judging by the vast quantifies of free alcohol at the aftershow parties, outsiders might assume the record industry was enjoying golden years. The official APRA Awards aftershow in June was a much more prudent affair -- it was a cash-bar.