QTheMusic.com

A WEEK HAS GONE by already. Doesn't time fly when you're having fun? Or when you're knee-deep in the mire of courting folk of a musical bent for your - even though you do say so yourself - prestigious awards ceremony.

The latter is my particular cross to bear. It is a process that involves many things (the patience and bearing of a saint, the ability to grovel to an Olympian level, skin as thick as that of a 70-year-old rhino), but fun is not chief among them. Or even on the list at all, truth be told. Around this time of year, every year, the date of the Q Awards is slipped into polite or otherwise conversation with any PR, manager or musician who happens to cross one's path.

Musicians will, as one, say, "Great, I'm coming", whilst having no idea at all where they'll be and what they'll be doing on said date, since that is what they employ vast fleets of other people to determine and know. Their PRs, their managers and their other 'people' are more circumspect when it comes to such things. Almost every conversation regarding extant bands/artists who might stand a chance of being shortlisted for the awards voted for by (and here we go...) you, the people goes like this:

Q: "Oh, and while I have you, I can tell you that the Q Awards will be on 8 October this year. Central London. Love your band/artist to come."

PR/Manager: "I'll put it in their diary. Just one thing... They're bound to ask... Are they winning anything?"

Q: "No idea. The votes aren't in yet."

PR/Manager: "No, understood. But, well, are they likely to win anything? It'd make all the difference if you could give me the teeniest hint. I see here now that they're actually booked in to play the Dog & Duck in Bognor on that day, and well, arrangements would need to made..."

And so it goes. If memory serves, I once had an exchange much like the above with regard to Toploader. Or was it Starsailor? Either way, in that instance there was little or no need to strike the Dog & Duck from the itinerary. And many has been the exchange identical to this over the past week. The more that happen, the more one senses that the Q Awards are beginning to loom. These things have developed their own familiar momentum.

Another part of which being that nothing is determined yet. Indeed, no one is confirmed to be at the Q Awards 2007 as of this very second. At all. But, as Corporal Jones had it with tiresome regularity in Dad's Army, don't panic. No one was confirmed last year at this time either. Or till a fortnight before, for that matter. U2 were probably coming, Edge aside, since he would be in Los Angeles and wouldn't want to fly into London for an afternoon and then have to leave for Australia the same night (in the event, God bless him and his woolly hat, he did just that). Oasis was as close to a yes as they ever get (so a sort of, 'Um, maybe'), which transpired to be that Noel and The Other Two lorded it up on the day while Liam went to the zoo instead. And so it went, and so it will go.

What is being discussed and decided upon at the fortnightly Q Awards talent and event meetings (they become weekly by the time August rolls around) that we, the grandly titled Q Awards Committee hold is this: should we have a launch event in conjunction with those lovely people at O2? (yes, details to follow); should we place a live webcam on the red carpet and Q Awards photoroom, both home to a steady procession of famous folk throughout the day? (again yes, but can we please find someone who knows how to use one); and - this one possibly having taken place solely in my own head - should my introductory speech to the event follow a now familiar pattern, whereby truly only the names and dates change, or should I go for something less predictable and more risky? (possibly, with the caveat that no one will be listening anyway). So all's well there.

One other thing that is happening is that your votes are starting to come in. How very exciting. Having been swatted away like some sort of irritating insect by the guardian of the Q Awards poll each time I endeavour to sneak a peak at 'the numbers', I am currently unable to give any reliable indicator as to who's off to the proverbial flyer and who might be advised to cancel that suit/dress-iron interface.

One thing, however, is certain. And that is that the Best Album category is going to be a doozy. It's already open to a field that includes Arctic Monkeys' Favourite Worst Nightmare, Arcade Fire's Neon Bible, Amy Winehouse's Back To Black, The White Stripes's Icky Thump, The Good, The Bad And The Queen and Yours Truly, Angry Mob by the Kaiser Chiefs. Each is a contender, most would make a worthy winner. Personally, I think you have to fancy either the Monkeys or La Winehouse, whilst having a sneaky, but wholly unreliable feeling for the Arcade Fire, whose Glastonbury set was a thing of wonder.

There are also those albums that could so easily win, were enough people aware of their glories. Ladies and gentlemen, I urge you to correct such a state of affairs with all haste by rushing out and buying The National's Boxer, The Hold Steady's Boys And Girls In America, The Shins's Wincing The Night Away, Bright Eyes's Cassadaga, The Crane Wife by The Decemberists and Tones Of Town by Field Music. You'll thank me, really you will.

Just looking at that list of albums suggests how good a year for music 2007 has already been. It occurs to me here that I say this during every Q Awards introductory speech, taking care only to not repeat the wrong year. That's another job taken care of, then.

Paul Rees - Editor, Q

2:37 PM | 16/07/2007