The Xfm New Music Award 2009 - The Judges
Who's going to be picking the ultimate winner from our shortlist of ten, to name the Best British Debut Album of the last twelve months? Find out more about our panel of judges here.
Carl Barat
Former Libertine, former Dirty Pretty Thing and current solo troubadour, Carl Barat has cut an impressive dash on the UK music scene since meeting Pete Doherty at the start of the noughties. Expect this handsome devil to opt for the more literate artists on our short-list.
Clint Boon
Boon army! Boon army! Former Inspiral Carpet turned broadcasting God gets all of Manchester home safely with the greatest drivetime radio show to hit the Pennines. Rest assured that Xfm’s Clint Boon will be voicing his well-versed opinion come judgement day.
Ian Camfield
Xfm’s God of Rock. Camfield will be talking very authoratively and will expect the other judges to listen up and take notice. He’s disappointed to hear the new Saxon album didn’t make the cut, but we’re almost certain he’ll be lobbying for the more rocking end of the scale.
Natassia Caffery
Natassia - or "Nat" as we're going to call her without even asking first - is the voice of you, the Xfm bretheren. She was picked randomly from the thousands of votes that were cast for the New Music Award shortlist and will be joining the judging panel on February 2, here at Xfm Central. Who will she root for? And more to the point, what free drinks and food will she be served?
Ben Cardew
Ben Cardew is the news editor of industry bible, Music Week. Ben’s finger is on music’s pulse daily and what he doesn’t know isn’t worth knowing about. A solid industry perspective and a championing of the brand new is what we’re expecting here.
Tom Clarke
The Enemy’s frontman is a dab hand at Xfm’s New Music Award. The band’s jaw-dropping debut scooped last year’s gong and there’s been no stopping them since. We’re no idea how Tom will vote this year, but we’re expecting him to be impressed by the up-tempo, lyrically aware faction on this year’s shortlist.
Peter Hook
New Order and Joy Division’s resident bass God, Hooky will no doubt be favouring bands with stooping bass players and unfeasibly high-pitched bass lines. As well as forming two of the UK’s most influential bands, Hooky has also lent his considerable talents to his two offshoot projects, Revenge and Monaco.
Mat Horne
The Gavin And Stacey star and this year’s Brits host is a committed indie fan. He loves it so much, he’s even set up a club night with Xfm, promising to “blow the roof off with some indie bangers”. His favourites Biffy Clyro aren’t on the list, but you can bet he’ll have an opinion on the rest. That, is what we bet, will be occurring.
John Kennedy
‘New Music’ is practically John’s second and third name. Every night on Xposure, Xfm’s Godfather of the Great brings four minutes of up-to-the-minute, soon-to-be classics. He is an oracle of great music. Listen up, folks!
John Leckie
Knob-twiddler extraordinaire, Leckie has produced some of the UK’s biggest, best, most seminal albums. The Verve’s ‘A Storm In Heaven’, Radiohead’s ‘The Bends’ and The Stone Roses’ eponymous debut album. Think he might now a thing or two about music? You thought correctly.
Gary Lightbody
The Snow Patrol frontman has taken his band from a minor indie concern to a gazillion-selling, globe-straddling colossus. Anyone who listened to the band’s recent Xfm Residency, however, will know that this indie-kid-at-heart knows everything about new music. Expect an informed opinion and the greatest Northern Irish accent in the world.
Chris Price
New Music? Chris Price programmes it every single day in his role as MTV Networks Music Director. Chris has, quite literally, seen it all and we’re expecting him to bring a load of knowledge, taxi driver-style, to the table.
Gordon Smart
See that dapper chap poking out from The Sun’s middle section every day? That’s Gordon Smart, and he also knows his onions when it comes to new music. Gordon is the one you can thank for squeezing Animal Collective, and indie news titbits in-between stories of Amy Winehouse’s latest meltdown. Bands with a ‘colourful’ history may sway his opinion.
Mike Walsh
Xfm’s head of music and closet Cinderella (look them up on Wikipedia) fan. Mike programmes the greatest station in the world’s great music. He chairs the weekly playlist meeting and knows an encyclopaedic amount about new music. He’ll be reasonable, he’ll be fair, but he’ll know what he’s talking about. And that’s a guarantee.
Tagged as Awards, Xfm New Music Award
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