Salisbury music scene celebrated at Salisbury Music Awards

Members of the Salisbury music community came together on Saturday for their ‘office party’ to celebrate the diverse and incredible musical talent in the City.

The Salisbury Music Award team, made up of the Thom Belk Community Fund, Salisbury Live, Sounds of Salisbury, The Winchester Gate, and Rock The Boat DJs, brought together a fabulous line-up of live music and DJ sets to entertain and highlight acts from different genres and styles within the local scene.

Getting the day off to a fabulous start was the return of the Sunday Sessions vinyl DJ sets, with Sixty V, Lucy & John Burns, Rock the Boat DJs, and the Sounds of Salisbury pulling together some fantastic tunes from their vinyl collections.

The fantastic crowd was then treated to live music on two stages. Elby, Ukulele Vagabond, Tom Ray, and 3MO entertained on the acoustic stage, which was run by BSM StageTec and SGB Signals, with sets from 5 Nights at Adyans, Break Cover, Held Under, and headliners Corridors, all providing spectacular sets in the band stage area.

When the live music was finished, there were more DJ sets from Darren Kidd, Stacy Lucas, and Sam Mouland of the Salisbury DJ Academy, as well as Kev Lawrence.

The Awards, voted for by the public and collated by the team at Wade Digital, were announced over two breaks in the live music schedule, to allow acts and audience to show appreciation and support for winners and nominees.

The Salisbury Music Awards team also paid tribute to Bass Connection, a local initiative that ran through the late 90’s into the 2010s, that would have celebrated its 30th anniversary this year. Bass Connection was a highly influential, long-running youth music project and rehearsal space based at Grosvenor House in Salisbury.

Its influence on the Salisbury Music scene is still very much alive, thanks to acts like Charmtype, Love is Enough, Acrustic Badger Band, and Get Good, who all have members that came through the Bass Connection doors at some stage in their journey.

A video of old photos, gig posters, and news clippings, provided by Keith Gale and curated by Ellen Morgan-Wardrop of Sounds of Salisbury, played throughout the day in the bar area, as a reminder of how important it is to celebrate our past as well as our present musical accomplishments.

Awards:

Lifetime Achievement Award: Kev Lawrence for 25 years at Radio Odstock. (Sponsored by
Wade Digital)

Outstanding Contribution to Music in the Community: Terry Taylor & Simon Dickenson
(Sponsored by Rob Wood)

Best Band: 5 Nights at Adyans (Sponsored by Thom Belk Community Fund)

Best Original Song: Nia Nicholls for her song ‘If You Were A Song’ (Sponsored by Sounds of
Salisbury)

Best Live Act: Break Cover (Sponsored by JS Terry Photography)

Best Solo Act: Ukulele Vagabond (Sponsored by BSM StageTec)

Break Thru Act: 5 Nights at Adyans (Sponsored by Rose Gale Trust)

Best Covers Act: Break Cover (Sponsored by New Inn Salisbury)

Best Venue: Salisbury Arts Centre

Best Vocalist: Lauren Hardy (Sponsored by Underground Studios)

Best Guitarist: Peter Lamb (Sponsored by SGB Signals)

Best Bassist: Nick Gowman & Pete Bartlett (Sponsored by SJ Fitness)

Best Drummer: Rob Newman (Sponsored by Huntsman’s Tavern)

Best Instrumentalist: Andy Brockway (Sponsored by Woodslee Landscaping Ltd)

Best DJ: Disco Dion (Sponsored by Salisbury DJ Community