THE BEST OF MANCHESTER MUSIC AWARD 

Like all of our categories, the music award is hotly contested, attracting the best bands, DJs, sound artists, singers, songwriters, labels, producers and composers the city has to offer. What's the big deal? Well, apart from £2,000 and the to-die for publicity that a major exhibition at Urbis brings, it's also a chance to make the kinds of industry contacts you'd kill for: the head of A&R at Universal, for example, or the deputy editor of the Observer Music Monthly, or even the woman behind In The City, Britain's biggest music industry event (you know, the one that first broke Coldplay, the Chemical Brothers and Oasis...).

With so much good music in Manchester right now, across just about every genre you can think of, this is your chance to rise above the crowd and get your sounds heard.

enter online 

The awards are now open for entries

music judges

Because we're entirely open as to the kind of work that is entered into the music category, we have built a panel of judges with diverse personal and professional interests and experiences. They are:

Luke Bainbridge, Deputy Editor of the Observer Music Monthly; Justin Crawford, DJ, producer and Director of Electriks Ltd.; Caroline Elleray, Head of A&R at Universal Music Publishing; Yvette Livesey, Chief Executive of In The City; Dan Parrott, Senior Music Producer at Channel M Television; writer and broadcaster Miranda Sawyer; DJ Semtex of BBC Radio 1Xtra; and Tim Thomas, producer, engineer, musician and songwriter and Director of Blueprint Studios.

Read more about our judges below:

Luke Bainbridge is deputy editor of the Observer Music Monthly, the UK’s biggest music magazine. He joined The Observer to launch the magazine in September 2003. He has interviewed everyone from members of The Beatles and The Stones to every Manchester band of note (and many of not much note) from the last two decades. He has shadowed pop stars around the world and wasted months of his life waiting for them. Luke was previously Editorial Director of City Life magazine, where he worked from 1995-2003. He has written about music and Manchester for the last 15 years for everyone from the Guardian to Arena, and contributed to TV and radio programmes nationally and internationally. He was also a guest lecturer in journalism at Manchester University from 1999-2003.

Justin Crawford is a DJ and producer, and is a director of Electriks Ltd. He began his career in music as the bass player in Manchester's New FADS (New Fast Automatic Daffodils). He then released two solo albums as Only Child on Grand Central Records and has recorded and produced international artists such as Amp Fiddler. He started Manchester’s legendary club Electric Chair, which ran for 13 years, and is one half of the DJ unit the Unabombers, notching up 5 compilation albums and releasing music under the alias Elektrons, released on Wall of Sound Recordings. In addition, he is the director of Electriks Ltd., a music promotions company based in Manchester responsible for the Electric Chair, the Electric Souls events, Nish Nash Nosh at the Mint Club and the forthcoming Electric Elephant Festival in Croatia.

Caroline Elleray is Head of A&R at Universal Music Publishing. Caroline started her musical career managing Strawberry Recording Studios in Stockport, where bands such as the Happy Mondays, New Order, The Smiths and The Stone Roses recorded. She then went on to start up her own artist management company, Caromac, which represented acts including World Of Twist and Intastella, both of which went on to sign major record and publishing deals.  After this, Caroline started up a small Manchester based record label, Big Round Records, and signed Milltown Brothers who later went on to sign with A & M Records. In 1997, Caroline joined BMG Music Publishing (now Universal Music Publishing) as A&R consultant and since then has risen up the ranks to her current position as Head of A&R.  Bands and songwriters that she has signed here include Coldplay, Keane, Lesley Feist, Mark Owen and Massive Attack. In 2005 Caroline was awarded both the “A&R Award” at the Music Week Awards and also a “Woman of the Year” award. When Universal Music Publishing bought BMG Music Publishing in 2007, Caroline was appointed UK Head of A&R for the two merged companies.

Yvette Livesey is Chief Executive of In The City, the UK’s biggest music industry convention and widely considered to be the world’s premier new music event. Yvette hails from Whalley in the Ribble Valley in North East Lancashire. She began a modelling career at 15, which took her to the catwalks of Milan and Paris working for Chanel and Givenchy. In 1987 she became Miss United Kingdom, going on to represent the UK at the Miss Universe finals at Singapore in 1988. For reasons too complex to explain, Yvette also did eleven months as Miss England. In the early 90’s she worked as a feature journalist for Piccadilly Radio in Manchester and presented some children’s TV programme for Granada Television. She was the driving force behind the creation of ‘In The City’ in 1992, which has established itself as the annual UK music industry convention and has the reputation as the world’s premier new music event. In the mid 90s she was a founder partner of Musis33.com, a visionary website at it’s time and the first music download site with fully operational encryption and micro payments. With her partner, Anthony Wilson, she created a number of businesses centred on their core operation, Livesey-Wilson Associates Ideas Management, including a contract to create a radical program of cultural, social and infrastructure proposals for Elevate, the government initiative to regenerate East Lancashire. Yvette has continued on with the work of marketing and promoting this region. Her new solo business, Art & Freight Ltd, represents top young designers and artists, from the North West particularly, and aims to take their work into different commercial fields and away form the gallery ghetto. She is also presently setting up a music publishing company, Vinteuil Music. She was a founder member of the Necessary Group, a cross-party collection of individuals fighting for a referendum and an elected Regional assembly for the North West. In 2003 she did a few months as a columnist for the Manchester Evening News but that job seemed to end when she refused to dish the dirt on her partner’s alleged use of the ‘f’ word during a Granada News Bulletin. She decided not to return to journalism. She held a position for eight years on the board of the Royal Northern College of Music and continues to serve on the board of Manchester International Arts. She splits her time between her loft in Central Manchester and a village in the heart of the Ribble Valley, with her cat Lucy.

Dan Parrott is Senior Music Producer at the Guardian-owned Channel M Television. Originally joining as a cameraman in 2004, Dan recognised the potential for a Manchester-based television station that reflected the local music-scene. He subsequently pitched and won a commission to launch 'Channel M Music' in 2006. Dan has since produced over 400 hours of studio and location based music programming, winning support from both local and national music communities. With demos arriving by the truckload everyday, slots on Channel M’s music shows are fiercely contested and now a regular port of call for major record labels looking to break new bands. Television debuts include The Enemy, Amy McDonald and The Ting-Tings, with Channel M Music recognised by the Royal Television Society and compared to Granada Television in its 70's heyday.

Miranda Sawyer is a writer and broadcaster who grew up in Wilmslow, home to Manchester's footballers wives. She started her career on Smash Hits before moving to Select magazine where, in 1993, she won the PPA award for Magazine Feature Writer, the youngest person ever to do so. She won the In The City music-writing award for her profiles on Oasis and Paul Weller. A contracted feature writer for The Observer for 15 years, she is the paper's radio critic and writes the lead column for The Observer Music Monthly.

DJ Semtex: Recently named the Most Influential Radio DJ in the New Nation Power 100, Semtex has played an instrumental part in Dizzee Rascal’s continued success and hosts two primetime Hip-Hop shows on the BBC’s digital station, 1Xtra. He regularly interviews the biggest names in Hip-Hop as well as breaks exclusives on a regular basis, and his blog is one of the most popular sites within the Hip-Hop world. Semtex has made it his mission to bridge the gap between Hip-Hop's starting point, the US, and one of its hottest battlegrounds, the UK. His company, Semtex Media worked the promotional campaign for Dizzee Rascal’s Certified Gold Maths + English album, as well as the Single “Dance With Me”, which resided at the Number One spot on the charts for four weeks. Semtex Media consults with blue-chip corporations, global brands and continues to market some of Hip-Hop/R&B’s highest selling acts including Kanye West, Jay-Z and Rihanna. Throughout his career, Semtex has been standing at the forefront of technology. While wax manipulation has morphed into CDs and Serato, Semtex maintains the purity of the craft while allowing innovation to surround it. A lucrative partnership with Pioneer enabled him to get his hands on the latest DVD/ DJ technology, from which he created the first ever visual mix for commercial release via Universal. Semtex brings to light the dream that many involved in Hip-Hop hope to achieve someday - the title of Hip-Hop entrepreneur. It isn’t everyday that people like Kanye West say, “DJ Semtex helped me launch my career and Semtex is proof that focus and love of the craft can travel a long way”.

Tim Thomas is a producer, engineer, musician and songwriter and represents Blueprint Studios as part of their continuing commitment to championing new talent in Manchester. He has worked with Duran Duran, Smokey Robinson, Justin Timberlake, John Leckie, Stephen Fretwell, The Noisettes and The Durutti Column as well as producing recordings for much of Manchester’s unsigned talent. Blueprint Studios opened in May 2003 with The Cooper Temple Clause and a large quantity of Jack Daniels. This innovative, high spec space is Manchester’s first world-class recording studios. Acts such as 50 Cent, The Streets, Orson, Russell Watson, The Charlatans, Johnny Marr and New Order have all used the studios, and the now infamous 'Big Room' has hosted special events featuring Elbow, Orson, The Rakes, The Earlies and more recently Channel 4 Radio’s version of 80’s cult music show, ‘The Tube’.