BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards - 7 Feb 2011

I'm not much of a fan of award ceremonies; never seen the Oscars, or the BAFTA's and the last BRIT's I watched was the one hosted my Samantha Fox and Mick Fleetwood (which is probably why I've not seen one for over twenty years) but with live performances by Bellowhead, Kate Rusby and Fisherman's Friends to look forward to I hit the red button.

Bellowhead opened the show with 'New York Girls' which was up for 'Best Traditional Track' losing out to Norma Waterson and Eliza Carthy's 'Wayfaring Stranger' but the did win best live act. Also up for best live act were Fisherman's Friends and 'South Australia' was my highlight of the evening (they did win the Good Tradition Award though). Winners of the Roots Awards, The Levellers closed the show with 'One Way' and 'River Flow'. There were also performances by Laura Marling, co-host Barbara Dickson, Lifetime Achievement Award winner Donavon, and Chris Wood who sang 'Hollowpoint' which won the award for Best Original Song.

Based on the reaction of those tweeting using the hashtag #folkawards there were only two contentious winners. Whilst all thought Chris Wood was the worthy winner of Best Original Song, many thought that, due to his folk song a day project, Jon Boden deserved the award for Folk Singer of the Year and there were plenty who though that Bellowhead were nowhere near the best live act with The Levellers beings the most popular alternative despite not being nominated. The two awards won by Norma Waterson and Eliza Carthy were particularly well received and Carthy's acceptance's were perfect examples of concise, moving speeches.

Fisherman's Friends(above) showed how to make a speech funny without trying too hard - I'd like to "blame" rather than "thank" was simple but effective and, apart from Donavan (who rambled just a bit too long) and one member of Bellowhead (who was a little too keen to get the microphone) all of the winners kept it short and to the point. Unfortunately the same could not be said about those presenting the awards.

Tamsin Greig was the first in a trio of embarrassments. Her "can you guess who it is? I'll give you some clues" routine before presenting the best band died a slow, agonising death and yet was not the worst of the night. Joanna Trollope's lecture before presenting Album of the Year to Eliza Carthy left me wanting to throw something at the television but I muted it instead but worst of all was Frank Skinner who delivered twelve minutes of tedium. Mark Radcliffe also went on longer than needed but was saved by being next up after Joanna Trolloppe. The presenters should just say "The nominees are …" and "the winner is …" in the time saved there could have another two or three live performances.

John Hawes

Fisherman's Friend pic courtesy of Phil Carter