Yes it’s that time of year again. The Choice Music Prize sponsored by Meteor this year will be zoning in on the top Irish album from 2011 and today on the Tony Fenton show the details were released about the shortlist and the identity of the judges who made these decisions.
Cue lots of abuse to them for missing out on this and that but being a Choice Judge last year everyone of the judges had someone they had thought would make the list and didn’t. However the top 10 were still of an unbelievable quality and undoubtedly it is the same this year. There were 202 albums on the long list of albums released in 2011 and the judges had the immensely tough decisions to whittle that down to just ten.
Last year the majority of the ten shortlisted bands played on the night in Vicar Street and we will hopefully see the shortlist at The Olympia Theatre on Thursday 8th March 2012. Tickets for that show go on sale Friday 13th January costing €22.50 inclusive of booking fee available from Ticketmaster.ie. The bands will be fighting it out for the €10,000 prize fund.
The ten judges joining chair Tony Clayton Lee are Brian Adams (Today FM), John Barker (98FM), Stuart Clark (Hot Press), Siobhan Maguire (Sunday Times), Naomi McArdle (Harmless Noise), Lauren Murphy (The Irish Times), Nadine O’Regan (RTE/Phantom FM/Sunday Business Post), Colm O’Sullivan (Red FM), Ed Power (Irish Independent/Irish Examiner/Metro Herald), Rigsy (BBC 1 Northern Ireland), Penny Rose-Hart (RTE Radio 1).
and most importantly the ten nominated albums are….
CHOICE MUSIC PRIZE SHORTLIST 2011
And So I Watch You From Afar – GANGS
Bell X1 – BLOODLESS COUP
Cashier No9 – TO THE DEATH OF FUN
Lisa Hannigan – PASSENGER
Japanese Popstars – CONTROLLING YOUR ALLEGIANCE
Jape – Oceans Of Frequency
Patrick Kelleher And His Cold Dead Hands – Golden Syrup
Pugwash – The Olympus Sound
Tieranniesaur – Tieranniesaur
We Cut Corners – Today I Realised I Could Go Home Backwards