The Classic Rock Society Awards

There has been a fair bit of discussion on Twitter regarding the Classic Rock Society’s annual awards. Despite it’s name, the CRS is mainly concerned with the progressive rock scene, with a membership heavily centred in South Yorkshire, where the vast majority of their gigs take place. They sponsor one of the stages of the Cambridge Rock Festival, which last year featured the likes of Morpheus Rising, Also Eden and the magnificent Kyrbgrinder.

But when it comes to their awards from the annual shindig at that Mecca of Prog, Wath-upon-Dearne, then questions start being asked about how representative of the wider progressive rock scene these awards really are, and what these awards actually achieve.

Don’t get me wrong. IQ, Mostly Autumn and Magenta are all great bands, and I probably ought to declare an interest in that I’m on first name terms with the members of one of those three. Although I’m personally not that big a fan of Pendragon, who picked up no fewer than four awards this year. But when it’s the same half-dozen bands that win year after year, you do begin to wonder exactly what purpose these awards serve. One bass player I won’t name thanked his fans online for his nomination for “Best John Jowitt Award”, which really says it all. The progressive rock scene has got far broader and far more diverse over the past decade, and the CRS awards completely fail to reflect this.

On one hand, if many of the members are diehard fans of particular bands, what’s to stop them voting for their favourites. On the other hand, the conservatism and parochialism of the awards is starting to get embarrassing. It’s getting to be the NME of Prog, and that can’t be a particularly good thing. It can even end up reflecting badly of some of the bands that win awards, in that it opens up their fanbases to accusations of being stuck in an 80s neo-prog time warp, unwilling to listen to anything new or different.

Although perhaps the real problem is simply that some people take the awards too seriously. To be voted best female vocalists by readers of a widely distributed newstand magazine that’s featured Kate Bush on the cover actually counts for something. To get the award for best album and best song on the votes of a relatively small and largely self-selecting group of people from South Yorkshire counts for rather less.

The CRS does a lot of good work in promoting progressive rock, and the leadership does appear rather more clued-in than some of the membership. But perhaps the way they do the awards need a rethink?