The Awards 1993 (Polygram TV, 1993)

Review
The 1993 Brit Awards were the 13th edition of the biggest UK pop ceremony and took place on 16 February at London’s Alexandra Palace. The host was Richard O’Brien. The accompanying album contained 34 tracks and was the fifth in the series.

Best Soundtrack / Cast Recording: Now That’s What I Call Music 21 did it, Greatest Hits ’92 also did it and now we’re here again as The Awards 1993 leads with Bohemian Rhapsody. The use of the Queen track in the film version of Wayne’s World propelled the song to #2 in Billboard singles charts. The studio wanted to use a Guns N’ Roses track for the scene but Mike Myers fought like a dog to feature Bohemian Rhapsody, even threatening to quit the production unless it got in. Respect.

Best British Group: Drowning In My Own Tears saw Simply Red cover the 1951 number by Henry Glover. It featured on their Montreaux EP. Blues power. And there’s one more trip to the land of Abba-esque with the original lead track, Lay All Your Love On Me. Resigned fear mixed with bubbly synths makes for an impassioned plea. Erasure: a crucial piece of the 1992 jigsaw. Another slot is filled by The Cure and Friday I’m In Love. It was a particularly bright and cloud-free summer. Memorable walks home on Cherry’s Road. The warm night air and the Red Bridge gleaming in the distance at 1.00am. Lost wishes.

Best International Group: U2 had a memorable year in 1992 with Achtung Baby yielding four more singles and the unforgettable Zoo TV tour. Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses was the fifth 45 from the LP and is represented here by the Temple Bar Edit. Equally massive were R.E.M. whose magnificently morose Drive was the opening track and lead single from the thrillingly miserable Automatic For The People. Other nominees included En Vogue with the edgy funk of Free Your Mind with Crowded House as the asses who will follow bellowing Weather With You.

Best International Artist: The evergreen Prince with The New Power Generation and the Symbol LP. Sexy MF. 5:25, stay jive. Tori Amos and Little Earthquakes’ searing Crucify. KD Lang’s reedy Constant Craving. Throwing back the apple to 1987 was Enya with The Celts. Sung entirely in Irish, it was the theme song to the 1986 BBC documentary The Celts. The haunting video of the song was filmed at Bodiam Castle. The LP was re-issued in ’92 and The Celts reached #29. The B-side of the single, Eclipse, is the song Deireadh An Tuath (found on The Celts album), played backwards. Weird.

Best British Album: It’s a fight to the death. On one side of the board are The Orb. UF Orb is their game. Blue Room was a 40 minute single released during the summer of ’92. We get yet another variant of the single edit. This one runs for 3:48. Play Towers Of Dub and watch the speakers shudder. Right Said Fred’s marching pop ain’t no competition.

Best British Male Artist: Singing out of tune is Joe Cocker on Feels Like Forever. Hot on his heels is Eric Clapton’s moody Bad Love and Elton John’s epic tale The One. It was a very good year for George Michael who reached #4 with Too Funky and topped the charts with Elton on Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me.

Best British Female Artist: Voice of an angel – Annie Lennox’s immense Walking On Broken Glass with its mini-movie promotional video. Neatly sequenced after Elton John is Kate Bush with her spooky and kooky cover of Rocket Man. Lisa Stansfield had already won three previous awards, Best British Newcomer in 1990 and this category for 1991 and 1992. Time To Make You Mine was another classy dance pop tune from the Northern lass with the intimate and breathless voice.

Best British Newcomer: Willie Young scored on his debut for Nottingham Forest in 1981. John Motson said “he’s scored on his debut” when commentating on Match Of The Day. Young left the game completely after his retirement, and after running a pub near Nottingham, he now owns kennels in Bottesford, Leicestershire. Tasmin Archer’s Sleeping Satellite was her atmospheric first single and like Sly Fox, went all the way. Meanwhile we get treated to decade-defining anthems like KWS’s Please Don’t Go and Undercover’s Baker Street while Dina Carroll’s special love song Ain’t No Man packs a decent punch. Otherwise it’s a party all year round for Take That as A Million Love Songs takes its place as one of 1992’s best ballads.

Best International Newcomer: This category sees a battle between Boyz II Men, Arrested Development and Curtis Stigers. The Boyz hit #1 on the UK charts with the easy soul ballad End Of The Road. Over in the US, it stayed at the top for a staggering 15 weeks. Meanwhile Arrested Development paid homage to Sly and The Family Stone with the twisted beats of Everyday People. I Wonder Why too.

Best British Music Video: The deserving winner here is Stay by Shakespear’s Sister. Directed by Sophie Muller and inspired by the film Cat Women of the Moon, the video featured Marcella Detroit and Siobhan Fahey fighting over a comatose man (played by Dave Evans, former boyfriend of Fahey’s Bananarama bandmate Keren Woodward). French and Sauders subsequently made a spoof sketch of it. Another contender was Peter Gabriel and the evergrowing pulsating groover Digging In The Dirt. Shades of 4AD’s His Name Is Alive and their Dirt-Eaters EP.

Best British Producer: Lining up here are Trevor Horn who was behind Rod Stewart’s likeable Rhythm Of My Heart and the two-man team of Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne who looked after Deacon Blue’s Your Town. The latter sees Ricky Ross and company move in a grittier direction with a pounding urban feel – not unlike Doves.

The Shamen – Boss Drum: The title track of their most successful LP. I don’t really know where it fits in here but it’s an ace tune. Rhythm eternal for tomorrow’s tribe.

“I eat all the dirt”.

Favourite tracks
Erasure – Lay All Your Love On Me

Lisa Stansfield – Time To Make You Mine

Enya – The Celts

U2 – Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses

Lest we forget
Deacon Blue – Your Town