Mojo - The Music Magazine

“IN THIS BUILDING there’s the future, the past, the present, there’s everything!” enthused James Brown, as he picked up the MOJO Lifetime Achievement Award at the inaugural MOJO Honours List on June 22, 2004.

Indeed, the Godfather Of Soul’s attendance at our very first MOJO gong show was one of the highlights of a quite remarkable afternoon which, within the first two awards alone, saw members of The Clash, The Who and The Kinks grace the stage of Whitehall Palace’s opulent Banqueting House.

After Roger Daltrey presented the first award to Mick Jones, and Beth Orton the second to Ray Davies, the cavalcade of talent continued to read like a ‘Who’s Who’ of modern music. Jimmy Page, Love’s Arthur Lee, Roger McGuinn, The Shadows, Television, Morrissey, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sting, Rough Trade founder Geoff Travis, photographer Bob Gruen and the crew from Trojan Records all saw their achievements acknowledged in front of an incredulous 400-strong audience that included the likes of Noel Gallagher, Lemmy, Green Gartside, The Libertines, the Black Eyed Peas, the Manics, Marianne Faithfull, Arthur Brown and more.

Of course, the simple re-telling of this story could easily be construed as self-congratulatory hogwash. In all honesty, however, the MOJO Honours List was devised for a very simple reason: to celebrate the cultural contributions of musicians whose careers had genuinely helped soundtrack our lives.

In many respects, it was a reaction to the short-term view that appeared to be affecting the pop-obsessed music industry in 2004, typified by the prominence of Will Young, Rachel Stevens and Busted at that year’s Brits. We wanted to remind people that the very best music is built to last, transcending time, place and context.

“We wanted to remind people that the very best music is built to last, transcending time, place and context.”

More than anything, we wanted to remind people that, in an age when CDs were bought and sold in supermarkets with the same care and attention as soap powder, music itself was not just another commodity to be stacked high and sold cheap. MOJO believes that music is the pre-eminent cultural force of the last 60 years, almost incalculable in terms of impact and worth.

Maybe that’s what gave us the nerve to host MOJO’s first ever awards ceremony in a royal palace.

In fact, it was The Clash’s Mick Jones – rock royalty if ever there was – who managed to crystallise our nebulous notions of music’s nobility into something that resonated across the floor of the Banqueting House. Having thanked both fans and bandmates, he added: “I’d like to say something about all the bands who inspired us and gave us the idea that this was a life, which it is, and standing here under this Rubens ceiling we know you were right. Thank you.”

In all honesty, this simple summation of time, place and history set the tone for the entire ceremony. In many respects it has also helped define everything that we have tried to do since.

Since that fateful afternoon in June 2004, we have added a series of contemporary categories to sit alongside the career-spanning merit awards that define the MOJO Honours List. Hopefully they serve to prove that music continues to be made that can hold its own with the masterpieces of the past.

Now in its fifth year, the MOJO Honours List continues to reward the great and the good for the only thing *they think matters: the music they have made. We ask you to help us do that by voting. Voting also means you stand a chance of winning tickets to this year’s ceremony on June 16. Trust me, it really should be quite something…

Phil Alexander
Editor-In-Chief
MOJO

Let me have my say!

Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 12:08 PM GMT 31/03/2008