Official BRITs Announcement: Blur receives Outstanding Contribution To Music AwardThe BRIT Awards 2012 with MasterCard. The UK’s premier music awards announce the return of the Outstanding Contribution to Music award. Twenty-one years since the release of their debut album ‘Leisure’, British music icons Blur are named as winners of one of music’s most coveted awards. As the countdown begins to the most celebrated event in the British music calendar, The BRIT Awards with MasterCard announce today that Blur will be the 2012 winners of the Outstanding Contribution to Music award. Speaking about this award, Blur said: "Being in a band this long is like a kind of time travel. We’re the same gang we ever were, we’ve just landed in a different era. Or possibly we’re a totally different Blur still playing the old tunes in 1991… forever. I haven’t decided. But it’s always nice to get a BRIT Award." - Graham Coxon On the reintroduction of the award, BRITs Chairman David Joseph said: BPI Chairman Tony Wadsworth, former MD of Parlophone and CEO and Chairman of EMI Music, who has worked with Blur throughout their career, commented: Since forming in the late Eighties, the band have been one of the most influential and inventive acts of the last two decades, feted both for their glorious songwriting and musicianship and an ability to crystallise the moment in a song. Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree changed the face of British music in the Nineties when they were championed as the kings of Britpop but have always refused to stand still, constantly pushing boundaries and inspiring countless bands after them. Their debut album ‘Leisure’ was released in 1991, the first of seven studio albums. In 2009 the original line up reformed to play a number of concerts including two dates at Hyde Park, which sold out in minutes, and a headline performance at the Glastonbury Festival, which was hailed by critics as one of the festival’s defining moments. The band, who have won countless awards in their career, won their first BRIT Award in 1995, clearing up that year with four awards for Best Band, Best Video, Best Album (Parklife) and Best Single (Parklife). In total they have received an incredible 15 BRIT Award nominations. Like all winners on the night, Blur will be presented with an exclusive trophy designed for this year only by Sir Peter Blake. This is the second year the BRITs have asked a leading British creative icon to style the ‘blank canvas’ trophy, following Dame Vivienne Westwood’s success last year. Sir Peter is responsible for some of the most iconic album sleeves of all time including The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ and Paul Weller’s ‘Stanley Road’ as well as the single sleeve for Band Aid’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ The BRIT Awards 2012 with MasterCard will be presented by James Corden on the 21st February and will once more return to The O2, the location for last year’s much-talked-about ceremony which featured performances from Mumford & Sons, Take That, Rihanna, Arcade Fire, Tinie Tempah, Cee Lo Green, Plan B and Adele. The awards will be broadcast live on ITV1. More details of the 2012 Awards will be announced soon. The BRITs 2012 Nominations Launch event will be held on Thursday 12th January from 5pm at The Savoy Hotel from 5pm.
December 8, 2011 7:00am ET by Dawbell
Comments (0) |