The Kerrang! Awards are an annual music awards show in the United Kingdom, founded by the music magazine ''

Kerrang! ''Kerrang!'' is a British weekly magazine devoted to rock, punk and heavy metal music, currently published by Wasted Talent (the same company that owns electronic music publication '' Mixmag''). It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a on ...

'' and focusing primarily on rock music. The annual awards features performances by prominent artists, and some of the awards of more popular interest are presented in a televised ceremony. Unlike many major music awards shows, the nominees and winners of the Kerrang! Awards are determined by fan votes.

History

Since they began in 1994, the Kerrang! Awards became one of Britain's most recognised award events by the now-defunct '' Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums'', often listing some of the winners in their annual round-up of the previous year. The event is presented by major music celebrities, with many others outside the industry who attend the event, sometimes presenting the awards with one example being Jodie Marsh in 2003 presenting Feeder with their Best British Band award. Perhaps one of the notable events of recent years was the ceremony of 2000, in which Slipknot set fire to their table after winning Best Band in the World.

Lostprophets Lostprophets (stylised as lostprophets) were a Welsh Rock music, rock band from Pontypridd, formed in 1997 by singer and lyricist Ian Watkins (Lostprophets singer), Ian Watkins and guitarist Lee Gaze. The band was founded after their former band ...

nearly became the first act to win three times in succession the Best British Band award, but lost to Bullet for My Valentine in 2008, who later achieved the succession in 2010. It has since been suggested, that since Ian Watkins conviction, Lostprophets awards should be rescinded.

Thirty Seconds to Mars Thirty Seconds to Mars (commonly stylized as 30 Seconds to Mars) is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1998. The band consists of brothers Jared Leto (lead vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards) and Shannon Leto (drums, ...

holds the record for most Best Single wins at three. The band is also the first artist to win Best Single in two consecutive years at the Kerrang! Awards 2007 and Kerrang! Awards 2008. Many international companies, including

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anothe ...

Orange Music Electronic Company Orange Music Electronic Company is an English amplifier manufacturing company. The amplifiers have a distinctive sound and bright orange Tolex-like covering their heads and speaker cabinets. History 1960s Orange was founded in 1968 by mu ...

and

Marshall Amplification Marshall is a British company that designs and manufactures music amplifiers, speaker cabinets A loudspeaker enclosure or loudspeaker cabinet is an enclosure (often rectangular box-shaped) in which speaker drivers (e.g., loudspeakers and ...

, are involved in the sponsorship of the various award categories. It has been noted that the awards sometimes do not adhere to a strict "biggest is best" code, as some of the winners and nominees for the newer awards, such as Best International Newcomer, have been awarded to bands with either minor exposure or a strong live reputation, such as 2010 Best International Newcomer winners

Trash Talk Trash talk is a form of insult usually found in sports events, although it is not exclusive to sports or similarly characterized events. It is often used to intimidate the opposition and/or make them less confident in their abilities as to win ...

. There have also been controversial winners of these awards. An example of this being the winners of Best British Newcomer and Best International Newcomer, from the 2006 event (

Bring Me the Horizon Bring Me the Horizon (often abbreviated as BMTH) are a British rock band formed in Sheffield in 2004. The group consists of lead vocalist Oliver Sykes, guitarist Lee Malia, bassist Matt Kean, drummer Matt Nicholls and keyboardist Jordan Fis ...

and

Aiden Aiden was an American horror punk band from Seattle, Washington that formed in the spring of 2003. They achieved underground success during the mid to late 2000s with their classic lineup, featuring vocalist William Francis, guitarists Angel Ib ...

). However, most of the categories ever since the first ceremony in 1993 have honored artists who have experienced notable commercial chart success at the time of winning their award, with Best British Band, Best International Band and Hall of Fame being examples. Winning an award has been seen as an important achievement and event of an artist career, with Feeder's frontman Grant Nicholas saying that their 2003 accolade, was the award their late drummer Jon Lee had always wanted the band to win, with Nicholas dedicating the award to him. That same year,

Justin Hawkins Justin David Hawkins (born 17 March 1975) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and YouTube personality best known for being the founder, lead singer, and lead guitarist of The Darkness. He was influenced by rock bands of the 1970s and ...

of The Darkness expressed his disappointment at not winning Best British Newcomer, as it would have meant the band winning every award they were nominated for, only to have this denied by

Funeral For a Friend Funeral for a Friend are a Welsh post-hardcore band from Bridgend, formed in 2001 and currently consists of Matthew Davies-Kreye (lead vocals), Kris Coombs-Roberts (guitar, backing vocals), Gavin Burrough (guitar, backing vocals), Darran Smi ...

. The 23rd Kerrang! Awards were held on 13 June 2014, at the Troxy in

Stepney Stepney is a district in the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The district is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name appli ...

, in the

East End The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

borough of

Tower Hamlets The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London borough covering much of the traditional East End. It was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former metropolitan boroughs of Stepney, Poplar, and Bethnal Green. 'Tower Hamlets' was originally ...

. The awards ceremony did not take place in 2017, but returned in June 2018 with the likes of

Neck Deep Neck Deep are a Welsh pop punk band from Wrexham, Wales formed in 2012. Founded after vocalist Ben Barlow met former lead guitarist Lloyd Roberts, the pair posted a song ("What Did You Expect?") online under the name Neck Deep. The song soon ga ...

Enter Shikari Enter Shikari (stylised as enter: shikari and occasionally as ΣΠΤΣ℞ SΗΦΚ∆℞Φ) are a British rock band formed in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England in 1999 by bassist Chris Batten, lead vocalist and keyboardist Rou Reynolds, and dr ...

, Code Orange and

Foo Fighters Foo Fighters are an American rock band formed in Seattle in 1994. Foo Fighters was initially formed as a one-man project by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl. Following the success of the eponymous debut album, Grohl (lead vocals, guitar) ...

collecting awards, while the event also featured several special guests including

Johnny Depp John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Johnny Depp, multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Awa ...

and

. The event was not broadcast on TV but several acceptance speeches and interviews were uploaded to Kerrang's YouTube channel, and the ceremony naturally received heavy coverage in the following week's edition of the magazine. The

Kerrang! Awards 2019 The 2019 edition of the Kerrang! Awards, a ceremony recognising achievements in rock music over the preceding twelve months, took place on June 19, 2019.''Kerrang!'', issue 1774, 25 May 2019, page 8. As has long been the case for the Kerrang! Aw ...

took place on 19 June 2019. They did not take place in 2020 or 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, but the ceremony is due to return in June 2022, with the reader nominations period beginning in April 2022.

Television broadcasts

The first time the awards were televised, was in 2001 via a recording on Channel 5 in the UK, with

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

also showing a recording at late-nights until 2004. The 2007 awards were televised on the now-defunct Hits music channel, and the 2008 awards were televised on the new

4Music 4Music is a British music television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. The original incarnation was launched on 15 August 2008, and until 29 June 2022, showed a mix of music and entertainment programming. I ...

music channel, owned by

. In the award's early days,

MTV UK MTV is a British pay television channel focusing on reality TV and music programming operated by Paramount Networks UK & Australia. The channel launched as part of MTV Networks Europe localisation strategy in 1997. MTV UK (previously MTV UK & ...

and

MTV Europe MTV Global (formerly as MTV Europe) is the international version of the American TV channel MTV, a 24-hour music and entertainment TV channel that began broadcasting on August 1, 1987, as part of the worldwide MTV network. Initially, MTV serv ...

would show the award winners collect their award alongside an interview. Since 2001, the award ceremonies have been televised on Kerrang! TV. However, the 2018 ceremony did not air on TV. More recently, the ceremony has been streamed live on YouTube, with highlights later being uploaded to Kerrang's channel.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kerrang! Awards 1993 establishments in England 20th-century awards 21st-century awards Annual events in London Awards established in 1993 British music awards Music in London

History

Categories

Television broadcasts

See also

References

External links