As the working week rolled to an end on a sunny Friday afternoon (22 November) in Adelaide, hundreds of musos, producers, artist managers, venue owners and staff, community radio hosts, music writers, photographers, politicians and music lovers congregated for the 2019 South Australian Music (SAM) Awards outside Adelaide University’s gothic “great hall”, Bonython Hall and nibbled on vegan sausage rolls and samosas, and smashed avo on rice crackers while being serenaded by Kelly Menhennett, whose tunes went down as smoothly as the cans of Young Henry’s and plastic cups of Yalumba wine.
Once the red carpet had been graced, attendees were greeted by long tables decked out with an assortment of fresh and dried fruit, passionfruit halves, blueberries nestled in rockmelon slice bowls, pretzels and hunks of crusty bread.The scene’s similarity to Hogwarts’ dining hall became a running joke of the evening, with Electric Fields’ Michael Ross proudly proclaiming his allegiance to Slytherin during their epic two-song closing set; yes, with Electric Fields a duo of songs can become epic.
2019 SAM Awards at Bonython Hall - image © Dave Court
While Electric Fields have been rising up in the Adelaide scene for a few years now, as have fellow performers and major award winners Horror My Friend, the South Australian Music Awards were again a reminder of how new stars are being born in South Australia every year.
Stellie, when speaking to MC (and triple j Home & Hosed host) Declan Byrne after her vibrant performance of ‘Let’s Forget We Were In Love’, stated that 2019 marked her first live performance, yet she still dazzled the industry during her four Bigsound showcases.
Likewise, Best New Artist winner Jess Day, after performing her new single ‘Affection’, spoke about her landmark 2019 in which she played the Enmore (Sydney) and The Forum (Melbourne) on her first ever tour alongside a little known Aussie band named Boy & Bear, and her first addition to the triple j rotation.
Jess Day - image © Dave Court
For South Aussie musos, taking on the eastern states and then the world has been normalised; triple award winners Horror My Friend, two thirds of whom also play in West Thebarton, broke through this year with their scorching single ‘Turned Loose’, which is on the cusp of 200,000 Spotify plays; lead singer Josh Battersby has an ineffable punk stage presence that’s a little bit Johnny Rotten or 'The Bends' era Thom Yorke.
While the trio were taciturnly laidback in their acceptance speeches, TOWNS’ Dan Steinert won best acceptance speech for the second year in a row (he is also the drummer of 2018 SAM Award winners Heaps Good Friends), as he Facetimed lead singer Aston Valladares, who was sitting on the dunny at work, when accepting their Most Popular Rock Artist awards.
Meanwhile, two members of Emily Burrows Award winners Dead Roo took a break from waiting tables to accept their $5,000 prize, which demonstrated that while the music industry in SA is booming, making ends meet as a musician is still a grind.
Community celebrations like the SAMs, though, make that grind that much easier to bear.
Click here to read the complete list of 2019 South Australian Music Awards winners.
