London Awards Event Photos

Ray Davies: BMI Icon Feature Story

London Awards Song List

Davies is co-founder, lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the Kinks, one of the most long-lived and influential rock groups of the British Invasion. As the band's chief songwriter, he is the pen behind such Kinks classics as "You Really Got Me," "All Day and All of the Night," "A Well Respected Man," "Waterloo Sunset," "Tired of Waiting For You," "Sunny Afternoon," "Lola" and "Come Dancing."

In a written tribute to Davies that was read at the event, Who guitarist Pete Townshend called Davies "the true laureate of British popular music." In addition to Townshend, who credits his sound to the 40-plus year music vet, artists as diverse as Morrissey, Blur and Oasis also claim Davies as their main influence.

"Listen to Your Heart," written by Per Gessle and Mats Persson, and published by Jimmy Fun Music (all STIM), was named Song of the Year and received one of the organization's highest accolades, the Robert S. Musel Award. Recorded by Belgium-based duo D.H.T., the song was originally a No. 1 hit for Roxette in 1989 and received the BMI Dance Award at last year's ceremony.

"Feel Good Inc.," co-written by Gorillaz members Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett (both PRS), along with De La Soul's David Jolicoeur, was named BMI's College Song of the Year for tallying the most performances on American college radio. The Grammy Award-winning hit is from the Gorillaz' Demon Days CD, which went double platinum in the U.S. and triple platinum in the U.K.

The BMI Dance Award went to "Everytime We Touch," written by Stuart MacKillop, Maggie Reilly (both PRS) and Peter Risavy (GEMA), and published by Mambo/Sony/ATV Music Publishing Germany (GEMA). The infectious tune by Euro-dance trio Cascada was a worldwide smash, including in America, where it topped the dance charts and made it into the Top Ten of the pop charts.

"Million-Air" certificates were also presented throughout the evening in recognition of those songs that have achieved over three million U.S. radio and television performances - or the equivalent of more than 17 years of continuous airplay. Topping the list was the theme to Mondo Cane, "More," which earned a seven million performance award for songwriters Marcello Ciorciolini (SIAE), Norman Newell (PRS), Nino Oliviero (SIAE) and Riz Ortolani (SIAE). "You're Still the One," written and recorded by 2004 BMI London Awards Song of the Year winner Shania Twain (PRS), reached the six million performance plateau. Other "Million-Air" recipients included Sir Elton John, Eric Clapton, the Bee Gees, Sting, Seal, Pink Floyd's Roger Waters, Peter Gabriel and Paul Rodgers of Free (all PRS).]]> 2006-10-03T05:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/musicworld/entry/533481 Artists, Davis, Miles, Francis, Pete, Morrison, Van, Pink Floyd, Musicworld, On The Scene Pete Francis, an experienced musician, honed his skills and technique as a key member (vocals, guitar, bass) of the band Dispatch, which in the 1990s grew from northeast college phenomenon to national grassroots attraction, touring widely and selling out shows from New York City’s Roseland Ballroom to San Francisco’s Filmore West.

In June of 2004, Pete Francis and his fellow members of Dispatch got together at the Hatch Shell Amphitheater in Boston, Mass., for their final gig. “After being apart almost two years working on our own individual projects, it was exciting and refreshing to perform together again,” commented Francis. “The fans gave so much love; it was a wonderful and emotional farewell for all of us.” The final concert drew 110,000 people where Dispatch played a four-hour show.

An adventurer and searcher, this singer songwriter / guitarist / vocalist covers considerable ground in his narratives—from the year he spent studying the great poets in Ireland ("Burning the River") of the album Untold. “I was interested in making an actual album with songs that relate to each other and have fluidity from track to track,” he says.

In that spirit, “Burning the River” is a song about Francis’s own process of discovery, inspired by his journey to Galway, Ireland. After a rocky first day—with his host’s wife deciding she didn’t want a houseguest after all—Francis managed to stay on to study poetry and absorb the Irish way of life. “There was great a bookstore there, with a room full of poetry,” he says. “And at night I’d hang out in pubs where people were speaking Gaelic. They’d close the doors after hours and play music—squeezebox, fiddle and guitar. Everyone would sit in a circle and people would start dancing. Then they’d pass the fiddle into the crowd and someone else would start playing. It was amazing.”

His album Good To Finally Know was written during the touring and promotion of Untold. Good to Finally Know is a collection of observations and experiences that Pete Francis encountered on his journey with Untold, which included being signed to Hollywood Records. Francis had originally set out to record four tracks; that notion was quickly scrapped as song after song made themselves known.

His current album Everything Is One has been released on Francis’ own label, Scrapper Records, a collaboration between himself and fellow New York musician and friend, Craig Dreyer. Francis’ work with Dreyer on Everything Is One emanated from his desire to bring together interesting musicians to create music that does not fit into a particular framework or within specific boundaries. “I like to be involved in the discovery of unique musical forms created by improvisation.”

A passionate student of music, literature and art, Francis draws inspiration from many sources, including the music of Van Morrison, Pink Floyd and Miles Davis, first heard on records borrowed from his older siblings; the writings of Wallace Stevens, James Joyce and William Butler Yeats; and the surrealist school of painters and filmmakers.

“An abstract painting represents a moment of clarity with the chaos,” Francis says. “I’m interested in how that can relate to writing, that within a literal and figurative work you can also touch on the abstract, the surreal. I like that someone can understand the literal meaning and then explore from that.”

Francis applies that sense of exploration to his own writing and recording process, sometimes improvising lyrics as the tape rolls. “Some songs reveal themselves over time,” he says. “I’d get ideas in the moment and just trust the words that come.”

Francis’s intention is that his music be something special to those who hear it. “Negativity is being shoved down our throats—you turn on the TV and see ‘terror’ on the screen,” Francis says. “I want my songs to combat negativity, to be positive, beautiful, thoughtful background to your life. Music is our language, the language of the world. I want to make music that brings people together.”

Pictured at the Silver Clef Awards are BMI's Brandon Bakshi, Eagles' bassist Timothy B. Schmit, BMI's Tabitha Capaldi and Eagles' guitarist Joe Walsh.

The California-based quartet, whose hits include such timeless classics as "Hotel California," "Take It Easy," "Desperado" and "Peaceful Easy Feeling," received the Silver Clef's Lifetime Achievement Award.

Other BMI honorees included Foo Fighters, who picked up the International Award.

The celebrity-packed luncheon also included a charity auction with prizes including a signed Pink Floyd Fender Stratocaster and a VIP trip to the Grammys in Los Angeles. Last year's auction raised more than £700,000 for Nordoff-Robbins.]]> 2006-06-20T18:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/233904 Bowie, David, Clapton, Eric, Coldplay, Kamen, Michael, Pink, Pink Floyd, Preston, Frances, Wide Range, Blues, Classical, Film-TV, Pop, Rock, BMI Pop Awards Michael Kamen died yesterday (11/18) of an apparent heart attack at his home in London. He was 55.

Kamen, who was considered a visionary for skillfully fusing classical music with rock and roll, did orchestrations for a wide range of artists including Aerosmith, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Queen, Alice in Chains and David Sanborn. Among his most famous collaborations was the orchestral arrangements on Pink Floyd's 1979 classic album The Wall. He also conducted, orchestrated and arranged the multiplatinum CD, Metallica With The San Francisco Symphony, and won a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for the metal band's song, "The Call of Ktulu."

The versatile composer/arranger/conductor received numerous industry and BMI awards throughout his prolific career, including his first Grammy in 1992 for Best Pop Instrumental Performance for the music to Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The movie's theme song by Bryan Adams, "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You," also earned Kamen three BMI Pop Awards (1991, 1992, 1993), a BMI Film/TV Award in 1992 for Most Performed Song from a Motion Picture and a BMI Million-Air for over four million radio performances. Kamen also won a Grammy in 1996 for Best Instrumental Arrangement with "An American Symphony," which he derived from his work on the Richard Dreyfuss musical drama Mr. Holland's Opus. Inspired by the movie, Kamen established the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation in 1997 to raise money to make musical instruments available to needy children. The movie also earned him a BMI Film/TV Award.

BMI's Doreen Ringer Ross and Frances Preston congratulate Richard Kirk Award winner Michael Kamen at the 1993 BMI Film/TV Awards ceremony

Other BMI Awards include several Film/TV Awards for the music to the Die Hard and Lethal Weapon movies, as well as Pop, Film/TV and Million-Air Awards for "All For Love" from The Three Musketeers and "Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman" from Don Juan De Marco. In addition, Kamen was honored by BMI in 1993 with the Richard Kirk Award for Outstanding Career Achievement. Named after past BMI Vice President Richard Kirk, the prestigious award is given annually to the composer who has made significant contributions to film and TV music. He also received the Sterling Circle Award that year for having been with the performing rights organization for 25 years.

Born in New York in 1948, Kamen began playing piano at the age of two. He got his start as a folk/blues singer in a jug band and went on to study oboe at the Juilliard School of Music before turning to composition. He toured with David Bowie in the early 70's and scored his first film, The Next Man (starring Sean Connery), in 1976. Kamen wrote the music to more than 80 films and TV shows and received multiple Oscar, Golden Globe and Emmy nominations.

Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis six years ago, he did not go public with his illness until this past September when he was honored with the Dorothy Corwin Spirit of Life Award by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Kamen's illness did not slow him down, however. In recent years, he wrote and directed music for the opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics and performed at the Grammy Awards with Coldplay and the New York Philharmonic. Last year, Kamen served as musical director for the Queen's Golden Jubilee at Buckingham Palace.

Kamen is survived by his wife, two daughters, three brothers and his father.

Michael Kamen's BMI Awards:

Lethal Weapon
1988 Film/TV Award

Die Hard
1989 Film/TV Award

Lethal Weapon II
1990 Film/TV Award

Die Hard 2: Die Harder
1991 Film/TV Award

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
1992 Film/TV Award

"(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" (from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves)
1991, 1992, 1993 Pop Award
1992 Film/TV Award for Most Performed Song from a Film

Lethal Weapon 3
1993 Film/TV Award

"All For Love" (from The Three Musketeers)
1994 Pop Award
1995 Film/TV Award for Most Performed Song from a Film

Die Hard with a Vengeance
1996 Film/TV Award

Mr. Holland's Opus
1996 Film/TV Award

"Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman" (from Don Juan De Marco)
1995, 1996 Pop Award
1996 Film/TV Award for Most Performed Song from a Film

101 Dalmatians
1997 Film/TV Award

Lethal Weapon 4
1999 Film/TV Award

X-Men
2001 Film/TV Award

Band of Brothers
2002 Cable Award

Special Awards
1993
Richard Kirk Award
Sterling Circle Award

1996
BMI Salute to our Olympians

2002
BMI Olympic Flame Award]]> 2003-11-18T17:00:01-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/musicworld/entry/233339 Artists, Dirty Vegas, Happy Mondays, Pink, Pink Floyd, Smith, Steve, Musical Styles, Dance, Pop, Rock, Musicworld, Hitmaker, Type, International Dirty Vegas should name themselves after America's glitzy gaming capitol. After all, the British trio has gambled on an electronic club sound that combines pulsating dance rhythms with folky singer/songwriter melodies. But the band's crapshoot has paid off handsomely, having resulted in a massive international hit single and album.

Dirty Vegas's musical wager began in 2001. That's when the group completed writing and recording their breakthrough single, "Days Go By," in half a day. Three days later, influential BBC deejay Pete Tong was spinning the disc on his show, transforming the just-recorded song into a major British hit.

Within months, Dirty Vegas fever migrated to the States. In early 2002, Mitsubishi launched a U.S. television ad campaign featuring dancers grooving to "Days Go By." By early spring, the single was a U.S. hit fueled by an MTV/VH1 video. Dirty Vegas's self-titled debut album was the highest-charting album on Billboard's Top 200, landing in the Top 10 and quickly winning "gold" sales certification.

Critical acclaim has made Dirty Vegas's success all the sweeter. Rolling Stone raved about the band's "electrofolk" sound, while USA Today described the group as "a collective of sonically savvy upstarts intent on proving that electronic dance music and singer/songwriter pop can blend in perfect harmony." A similarly impressed Los Angeles Times wrote: "Inspired as much by Pink Floyd and the late-'80s Manchester scene (Happy Mondays) as the dance world, 'Dirty Vegas' is a promising debut."

The members of Dirty Vegas - which features singer/multi-instrumentalist Steve Smith, producer/multi-instrumentalist Ben Harris and producer/keyboardist/deejay Paul Harris (no relation) - are all veterans of Britain's bustling club scene. The trio formed in 2001.

Resisting the temptation to replicate their hit single, Dirty Vegas instead created an eclectic album that has made them one of the world's most auspicious new bands. "We just remembered the great vibe you used to hear [in clubs]," Ben Harris recently told Rolling Stone. "Back when you could hear four-on-the-floor dance music mixed with Primal Scream mixed with Spanish guitar mixed with hip-hop. That's been lost in club culture today. So we thought, it we're not hearing it, let's make it ourselves."

Since her late '80s emergence, Enya has never wavered from her churchly musical path. The singer-songwriter's 1988 breakthrough album Watermark was a blend of prayer-like Gaelic melodies and madrigal vocals underscored by epic instrumental arrangements. Subsequent recordings like Shepherd Moons, The Memory of Trees and Paint the Sky with Stars revealed an artist whose musical spirit was closer to Bach than The Beatles. But fans worldwide have rewarded Enya for her vision and artistic conviction. Each of Enya's five albums has sold in excess of eight million copies - an impressive feat for a soft-spoken singer and composer who rarely breaks cover.

Enya's new recording, A Day Without Rain, may prove to be her most popular yet. Released in November 2000, A Day Without Rain has sold over a million copies in the U.S., Canada, Japan, the U.K. and countless other countries, and is multi-platinum in Australia, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Taiwan. The disc has achieved platinum or multi-platinum status in 15 countries, affirming Enya's status as a global superstar.

Enya's story reads like a spectacular resume. Her music first came to prominence after it appeared in the major British television series, The Celts. When Watermark resulted in the international hit single "Orinoco Flow," the proverbial floodgates opened. To date, Enya has sold over 44 million albums (that's more than 10,000 albums sold per day). What's more, The Celts series proved to be the first of many filmic involvements. Her music has been featured in a plethora of films, including The Frog Prince, L.A. Story, Green Card, Martin Scorcese's Age of Innocence and the Tom Cruise/Nicole Kidman period piece, Far and Away. Her most recent single, "Only Time," was featured in Sweet November, a romance featuring Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron.

She has been nominated for four Grammy Awards, winning the Best New Age Album for Shepherd Moons in 1992 and for The Memory of Trees in 1996. She ranks alongside Madonna, Cher, Tina Turner, Whitney Houston and Britney Spears in terms of record sales, an achievement that makes Enya the best-selling Irish solo artist ever.

Though Enya is an internationally recognized sensation, the singer generously points out that the music released under her name is the result of a collaboration among herself, producer Nicky Ryan and lyricist Roma Ryan. Enya has emphatically stated that without any one of these trusted partners, "Enya" could not exist.

Enya and her collaborators have obviously created an enduring sound. Their "best of" compilation, Paint the Sky with Stars, perennially ranks among the top 100 catalog recordings in the U.S., a statistic that puts Enya in the company of such timelessly appealing acts as The Beatles, Elton John and Pink Floyd.

The group’s latest Epic Records album, The Man Who, was certified double-platinum in the U.K., where it has remained in the Top 20 since May. Far removed from the bombast sounds of American alterna-rock, , The Man Whois a soulful, dreamy recording reminiscent of Pink Floyd and The Smiths. The disc has catapulted Travis into the pantheon of contemporary U.K. rock icons that includes Oasis, Radiohead and Blur.

Now pundits are wondering if Travis can replicate their U.K. success in America. Epic Records has bumped the stateside release of The Man Who to April 2000, reportedly to give the band and the label more time to prepare a promotional blitz.

If advance critical response is any indication, then , The Man Who stands a good chance of being a breakthrough recording. In its Jan./Feb. issue, Gear magazine named the album “Record of the Month,” describing the band as “the last lonely romantics in town.” The magazine went on to praise singer Fran Healy and his “warming, seductive songwriting and vocals.”

Healy, guitarist Andy Dunlop and bassist Dougie Payne formed around Glasgow’s Horseshoe Bar, where drummer Neil Primrose worked and the others drank. The quartet scored a publishing deal with Sony in 1996 and relocated south of London. The band’s 1997 debut album, Good Feeling, shot straight to the U.K. Top 10, resulting opening tour slots for Oasis and Catatonia.

Though the band recently performed benefits for the Kosovo relief effort and the U.K.-based Campaign for a Living Wage, Travis show no interest in becoming proselytizing rock stars. “Selling 100,000 records, in my opinion, gives you a very small soapbox to stand on,” Healy told England’s Melody Maker magazine. “To be honest, when bands start talking about issues I always feel patronized. I don’t want to patronize anyone.”