Many thanks to everyone who sent in nominations for this year’s Spill Awards: you’ll be delighted to hear that we remain as bizarrely eclectic and disparate as ever – over 100 different albums nominated for Album of the Year, for example, so that the shortlist consists, as has become traditional, of all the records that two people (and very occasionally three!) mentioned – and with the usual minimal overlap with end-of-year lists in the mainstream music press. We now come to the next stage, the voting. Full instructions below – but first, an announcement about the award ceremony.
I’ve decided unilaterally that we ought to be a bit more democratic this year.* So, we’re going to be going out live once again, from a secret venue and with a glittering array of surprise guest stars – but we’re going to be doing this in the comments, and everyone is invited to get involved. If you’ll be free between 8 and 9 pm UK time on Friday 28th December, please email me at abahachi(at)hotmail.co.uk within the next week. I’ll send you one email to tell you which award you’ll be announcing, roughly when you’ll be on, and whom you’ll then be introducing to hand over the next award, and another email telling you the result (it’s up to you whether you look at this in advance to prepare a suitable speech, or open it on the night). It’ll then be a matter of you keeping the comments updated, waiting for your cue. Provided no one posts any YouTube links, I think the system can cope, so what can possibly go wrong? Who am I kidding, actually this is an attempt at orchestrating chaos to match the famous Sam Fox – Mick Fleetwood Brit Awards. Alcohol more or less compulsory…
So, on to the voting. For Album of the Year, you have three votes, equally weighted (‘cos I can’t get the system to do single transferable vote or first preference); for all the other categories, you have just one vote. Get stuffing those ballot boxes! Voting closes at midnight on Boxing Day.
*Scholars of the ancient Greek historian Thucydides will of course recognise this as an allusion to his characterisation of Pericles’ leadership in Athens.
Dear Father Christmas [I refuse to be Santa-ized],
Please can I have seven extra Spill votes to use on Villain Of The Year, mmm? I promise I have been as good as those scumbags have all been bad!
Yours,
DsD
Whilst you at it Santa, I could do with 3 votes for Villains too, and it would have been 4 if I had got my nom for Bashar al-Assad in on time!
Deadline is…?
Good point. End of Boxing Day. Will edit post accordingly.
Good job, Aba. Don’t forget to take your gold lame DJ to the dry cleaners this week.
I have voted, to be honest though, I am not surprised that the choice of albums offered up was so large. We are a pretty eclectic bunch.
Have rushed into voting and submitted only one album vote. Will system let me register two more, or did I waste two with my premature acclamation?
Youngest’s 18th on the 27th, so regrets for acting as host. Love the format idea, though.
voted!
gutted I’ll miss the live show (will be 4am over here) but look forward to the after show carnage…!
I have voted too, looking forward to the awards ceremony, but unable to appear in person, I’m afraid.
I should be able to volunteer, but let me check the calendar this evening before I commit, please, Abahachi.
Under villain of the year there should probably be an ” all of the above ” option
i’m in with the in crowd, hep cat, coolest of the cool, still wear socks with sandals and have heard none of the albums or artists in the list but suspect godspeed may be the noisiest .. spoilt paper .. spidermez likes american sit-coms and recognised the romantic lead in the muppets .. sheldon and dave grohl’s house band were my highlights … spidermez may be seriously miffed about Brave not making the film list .. but you are forgiven for making such a great effort to get it all together .. top stuff Aba
Got round to voting at least (and what a smooth process – not a depressed chad in sight) having frittered away the time I had to nominate for this or the Spill Festives. Not sure my noms would have changed the line-ups much other than maybe given me one album that I’ve heard all the way through to vote for (and it would have been the Bobby Womack, in case anyone’s interested in kicking off a Not The Spill Award list), so I voted for the one that I’ve heard any of at all. And I think more votes must have been cast here than for the Police Commissioner elections so democracy rules.
PS For villain of the year I went for someone who’s fucking our futures instead of our pasts, but would the academy consider a special lifetime achievement in villainy award for Sir Jimmy OBE?
That is a good call re the Lifetime Villain award.
Lots of good stuff. When I had my Mark Lanegan nomination rejected because someone had already nommed it, I knew it was going be Beth’s nom.
I know it’s too late (in ALL senses of the word), but as the parent of a 7-year-old myself, I have a late nomination for Hero Of The Year. The Sandy Hook shootings are one of the rare events that manage to pierce the mental armour we all need to wear to protect ourselves in this ever-shittier world. Even so, we still mostly tend to keep ourselves under control as we read of yet another horror.
However, a short follow-up video piece on this morning’s G-site has drawn DsD tears, as the realisation dawned that * AT THE EXACT TIME THE DREADFUL EVENTS IN NEWTOWN WERE UNFOLDING * I was hosting Darcey’s birthday party with forty of her 6 & 7-y.o. friends running round like the happy-go-lucky little mad bundles of life all kids that age should be.
I give you Victoria Soto; teacher, calm & quick-thinking heroine, and the breathtakingly brave, selfless saviour of several children’s lives.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/dec/17/sandy-hook-shooting-teacher-hid-pupils-video
Herr Dr. Prof. Hachi, I hope you’ve got a team of volunteers together by now. I feel bad about not signing up for this, but my internet connection is intermittent of late (on a good day).
Frohe Weihnachten!
Just drop in if you can…
Didn’t have time to even drop in this Christmas and look at all the fun I’ve missed. Not that it would have made any difference to the result – I’m afraid under LPs, films and TV shows I wouldn’t have voted for any of those choices. But I did vote for the Paralympics as event of the year as I went twice and it was a highlight of my life to be fair. 2012 – see ya !