It's judgment day, or rather judgment week, in the world of music. Both the Mercury prize and the Mobo (Music of Black Origin) awards gear up for their annual bash over the next seven days, hot on the heels of last week's Q awards.
Of course, it's not just the music being judged at these events – the shows themselves come under scrutiny as the public cast opinion as to how each event has handled itself this year. Did the prizes go to the right artists? Did the ceremony pull in enough A-list names? And was a random drummer behaving appallingly enough to secure vital column inches in the tabloids?
This year's Mercury prize, which celebrates its 20th year at Thursday's ceremony, has already come in for a rough ride – less to do with the artists nominated and more for the ones who have been omitted. An award show that has, in the past, recognised talent as diverse as Portishead, Roni Size and Tavlin Singh this year failed to include any electronic artists. Instead, in a year where indie rock has been a non-story, there are nominations for the Maccabees, Field Music, Django Django and favourites Alt-J – all indie rock acts. Arguably only Plan B offers a record that sounds like it was made in 2012.
Of course, the Mercury prize's primary aim is to get a debate going about music. In this sense it's already succeeded, although that will be scant consolation for the likes of would-be nominees Rustie, Wiley and Coolly G.
Jude Rogers, who has been a Mercury judge for six years, says things can get especially fraught towards the end of the judging process. "There have been times where three, maybe four, records have all stood a good chance right up until the final minutes before the announcement. One year a judge was so incensed they didn't hang around for the do afterwards. Another year I came very close to throwing a bread roll at a fellow judge."
Rogers says much of the debate revolves around what best album actually means: does the winner have to be innovative? Should it sum up a movement? Should it be treated differently on the grounds of how many copies it has sold?
The Mobos, which take place two days later, are a whole different affair. They don't rely on a judging panel, instead letting fans vote online for a whole range of categories, from best jazz and reggae artist to hip hop/grime. That's not to say that debate around the point of the Mobos is any less intense. Labrinth, the singer-producer up for four awards, questioned the inclusion of pop artists on this year's list.
He told the Daily Star: "I think it is a bit weird because Ed Sheeran doesn't make black music, and neither does Conor Maynard – he makes commercial pop. Even I'm not making black music. It's commercial music, but at least it is more related to hip-hop so it makes more sense. I don't think it should be called the Music Of Black Origin anymore. It should be Music Of Urban Origin, or just Music awards."
This is hardly a new debate, of course – only last year the same arguments were brought up when Jessie J won four awards – but it's one the awards increasingly have to address as musical genres coalesce.
In 2009, the Mobos were held outside London for the first time with the ceremony in Glasgow. They have remained outside the M25 ever since, and this year they make their second visit to Liverpool.
For awards organisers, some of whom spend the best part of a year dedicated to making sure this one night runs smoothly, such ceremonies can be a logistical nightmare. Artists unable – or unwilling – to turn up may find their award going to another band, whereas it's not uncommon to invent a category just to lure a big name artist there. If the event is on TV, then expect the channel to have its own idea as to who should win which awards. And of course, no amount of expert planning can prepare you for what will happen on the day.
Q editor Andrew Harrison, whose own awards honoured the likes of Blur, Pulp and Johnny Marr last week, knows how it feels to fly by the seat of your pants: "The star of our show was Danny Boyle, who did this lovely speech about the Olympics opening ceremony and how Underworld [who won the Q Innovation in Sound award] were instrumental in this. He got a standing ovation.
"But he almost didn't make it at all. He ran through the doors, and up on to the stage at the last possible moment. We were one minute away from [host] Al Murray getting me up on stage to say 'Here you are Underworld, here's your award'."
Harrison happily admits that much of the point of these events is that they serve as a place for a bunch of musicians to hang out together.
After all, this isn't the Nobel prize – it's an awards show about pop music. It's supposed to be fun. You can pontificate about the meaning of awards all you want, and spend aeons discussing the fairest voting procedures. But if the end result is that a load of musicians get together in a room, get drunk on free wine and have a laugh … then that's pretty much half the job done.
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