QTheMusic.com

THIS WEEK we have mostly been counting up your votes. In days gone by, of course, we could lay claim to having sorted through mountainous piles of mail, the floor sagging beneath its weight. Today, we have been totting up page impressions online, and the like. It’s faster, less messy, but no less invulnerable to friends, family and employees of bands and artists attempting to corrupt the system. Shame on you all.

And, no, I didn’t believe the people as a whole had spoken when Placebo or Ocean Colour Scene or whomever registered great deluges of votes in the past, not least because each one carried the same postmark. Nor will similar vote-rigging tactics work now (I like the Manic Street Preachers, I do, but not even Nicky Wire believes his solo record I Killed The Zeitgeist – did you blink? Then you missed it – was the year’s Best Album, especially since it was released in 2006).

As for the honest-to-goodness polling, there are some clear favourites emerging, one or two categories already look a shoe-in, and as predicted by myself with weary certainty way back when we started all of this, Greg Dulli will assuredly remain unfairly unrecognised once more by you, the Q massive. Once more, shame on you all. Oh, and of course I’m not going to tell you who’s winning, that would spoil the fun. But, as perhaps anticipated, some young men from Sheffield are proving enduringly popular… No, stand down Def Leppard.

When not peeking at the voting figures, we are in something of a calm period – the eye of the hurricane, if you will. All the people we want to invite, have been invited. The Q Awards Launch Gig – at the O2’s perfectly appointed Indigo venue on 12 September, should you need reminding – has taken shape and, the odd cheek-clenching diversion aside, needs little more than tender shepherding towards its big night. And Dave Henderson, the man who has been grand fromage of the Q Awards since the year dot and has the face foliage to prove it (put it this way, if he sat next to you on the bus, you’d move), has been off on his annual holiday, so there’s no one to moan to. Hence, there’s little to do but twiddle one’s thumbs and whistle dixie…

…And plan how we intend to cover the Q Awards both in the magazine and online this year. Hard as it may be to believe, we do indeed spend a time considering such things (months, in fact). The starting point being: how to better what we did last year. This is key, since whenever the Q reader speaks (which they/you do, often and always articulately, it should be said) with regard to the Q Awards, it’s usually with a heavy sigh and a sense of, ‘Haven’t you lot got anything better to do?’. Such folk, one suspects, will not be reading this far, but then my Mother is something of an awards afficianado. And yet, and yet… The issue featuring our Q Awards coverage usually (three hail Marys and a four-leaved clover) sells especially well, and many, many folk visit our website through the duration.

What a conundrum it is, and what should we deduce from it? Who knows, who cares, besides the thought that since people are interested enough to read about the thing – albeit reluctantly – each and every year, we must ensure that our coverage amounts to an ever-changing feast, albeit one that retains the stuff people like about it, even though they don’t admit to doing so.

You see how tricky it all is? Anyway, after weeks of heated debate and fiendishly detailed planning, and by way of a bit of advance publicity, I can tell you that the Awards issue of Q, on sale 1 November at all reputable retailers, and no doubt some that aren’t, will feature the Q Awards, but in a manner designed to appeal both to those utterly enraptured with the whole event (hello, Mrs Henderson) and those who couldn’t give a fig who won what. By means of featuring in-depth interviews with those folk who have won awards (some of whom are iconic, nay legendary figures in the field of musical entertainment) that don’t actually require a knowledge, or indeed appreciation of the whole awards caboodle to be interesting, diverting and hugely titillating. Hopefully. Got that? Good.

Said issue will also feature the return of what was, until last year, an annual Q event. Something that gives you, dear reader, the best music of 2007, for free, in compact disc form. Although we are forbade from talking about that just yet.

By contrast, online we will present you with a veritable feast of Q Awards action – from a live blog from the event to an exclusive photo gallery, from details of the tableplan to exclusive Qcam (it’s trademarked) footage from inside the Q Awards photo room, where everybody who’s anybody will pass through on the day. There’ll also be speeches and chit-chat and a procession of musicians saying things they’ll likely regret. Be here from 8 October, then. Or, should you be mid-sigh already, don’t. Either way, and in all seriousness, please do let us know what you think of the Q Awards and our coverage of them this year, both the good and the bad.

And so – ta-raa! – we come to the final category that you, the people, will determine on the day, the award for Best Track. This is one of those categories custom-built for heated debate and fierce competition, since there are always so many likely contenders for it. Not counting last year, that is, when no one voted for anything else other than Gnarls Barkley’s splendid Crazy.

Back to normal this year, methinks. At least two Arctic Monkeys tracks will surely be in contention, as will a potential brace of Amy Winehouse tunes. With or without the input of Nicky Wire’s biggest fan, Manic Street Preachers’ Your Love Alone Is Not Enough is a good bet. Ditto Muse’s magnificently ludicrous Knights Of Cydonia. Not to mention chart-bother tuneage from the likes of Kaiser Chiefs, The Killers and many, many more. Mika’s Grace Kelly and that bloody Umbrella song may also have weight of numbers on their side.

Were it anything to do with me – which, again, it isn’t – I would make a case so strong for either The Hold Steady’s Chips Ahoy!, The Shins’ Black Wave or The National’s Fake Empire that they’d already be engraving one of their names on the golden Q. Since we’ve established this isn’t anything to do with me, a win for one of these three is, alas, as expected as an alien visitation during the ceremony itself.

That’s all for the voted-for awards, then. But join me next time, if you will, for… Well, something awards-related that doesn’t feature specific awards. An offer you can’t refuse, I suspect.

Paul Rees – Q, Editor

8:00 AM | 16/08/2007