After walking home empty handed despite a swag of nominations in 2017, West Thebarton moved out of the shadows at this year’s SAM Awards, held at the Adelaide Town Hall (8 November), winning four awards.
The Adelaide Town Hall is arguably the most acoustically immaculate and aesthetically enchanting music venues in Adelaide; it has hosted elite musicians from almost every genre, including The Beatles, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, State Opera of South Australia.
What better place, then, to celebrate the abundance and diversity of the South Australian music scene?
This year’s SAM Awards, presided over with precision and panache by Double J’s Zan Rowe, was perhaps the first award ceremony in history to run ahead of schedule. After the obligatory bureaucratic preliminaries, victory speeches were brief, humble and full of love for the burgeoning and embracing local scene.
Several impassioned speeches, though, demonstrated the transformative capacity of music: Ryan Freeman Live Music Achievement Award winner Max Savage championed the grass roots, Best New Artist Adrian Eagle spoke of how his art saved him from dark times spent living in a housing trust home, while A.B. Original’s Trials and West Thebarton’s Ray Dalfsen both spoke about using their music to overcome injustice.
West Thebarton, Best Solo Artist winner MANE and most popular pop artists Heaps Good Friends all demonstrated with their live performances why they have been on heavy rotation on Triple J for the past year.
While the soulful Adrian English and Most Popular Blues and Roots artist Ollie English both displayed the capacity to similarly dominate the national and international airwaves some time soon.
With the State Government announcing over half a million dollars of investment into the SA live music scene, the industry looks set to continue to boost the state’s economy while simultaneously transforming the lives of artists and punters like never before.
Click here to read the complete list of 2018 SAM Awards winners.
