This afternoon at The Basement, a jam-packed venue of artists and music industry professionals gathered to find out who would be taking away the 11th Australian Music Prize (the AMP) after a panel of judges had spent months deliberating over the hundreds of submissions to pour in.
The winner, perhaps unsurprisingly for some, was Courtney Barnett, who took away the title and the PPCA-awarded $30,000 prize for her debut album Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit, after an entertaining keynote address from Henry Rollins. Accepting the award from Rollins, Barnett summed up her win, “It’s an honour to be considered amongst such an amazing bunch of Australian artists.”
Rollins himself, who only yesterday announced a full Australian spoken-word tour for September delivered some amazing stories and anecdotes from his career as a touring musician with the likes of Black Flag and The Rollins Band, not to mention his thoughts on the current state of the music industry and where he perceives the international industry to be headed, regarding independent artists and major labels.
Other shortlisted artists in attendance at the AMPed Up In Conversation event in Sydney included Gold Class, Sarah Blasko, Dan Kelly, and Royal Headache.
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