BBC Music Awards 2016
jamiesimonds.com
In my continued pursuit as 'jack of all trades and master of none' I returned as an Artist Liaison Rep to the 3rd Annual BBC Music awards in London.
For me, it was four days in total, beginning on the Saturday and traveling from Glasgow Central to London Euston on the train. Thankfully I’d booked early enough in advance that I could travel first class on the cheap. When you imagine ‘First Class’ on a train you imagine the Orient Express, silver service, being waited hand on foot, fine wines and perhaps even a murder that's solved buy another passenger that happens to be a Belgian detective.
Arriving into London I journeyed towards Canning Town and to the ExCeL centre. To give you an Idea of the size of this place it’s like an airport with less planes an extra terminal and you can take your pick of coffee from one of the two Costa Coffee’s… and we did.
::BRIEF SIDE NOTE ABOUT THE HOTEL::
I’m not fussy (really I’m not) about hotels. But this place would have made Basil Fawlty blush. The restaurant attached to it was just called ‘PUB’ It was boiling hot and had an open kebab shop in the corner. The smell of grease and chunky chips did not amuse a tired team up early that day. The rooms were tiny and we had two working plugs out of six. The shower was smaller than a matchbox and the water was intermittently hot and cold every few seconds.
But apart from that it was fine. Oh and the towels were weird...
After a day of smooth rehearsals and a night of slagging off the hotel, it was show day…
Slightly later start for us, but the day soon became busy as the stars and request entourage’s began to arrive and press schedules including interviews and pre-records began. Culminating in the red carpet walk and finally, the onstage performance, live on the telly. I think I’m right when I say this was the first time it has been live live, previous years it’s been as-live or time shifted?
After the show we had a bit of a de-rig to do and didn’t get out of the venue till after midnight but not before a team photo.
A photo posted by Cerys Butcher (@ceryselizabethm) on Dec 12, 2016 at 3:44pm PST
A photo posted by Cerys Butcher (@ceryselizabethm) on Dec 20, 2016 at 2:53pm PST
:::::::::::::My own personal highlights include:::::::::::::
The Food. An army marches on it’s stomach (not said by Napoleon) and It takes an army to put on an event like this, thankfully the food supplied by ‘Eat to the Beat’ (Not sure if they’re named after the Blondie album) is superb.
Behind the scenes at #BBCMusicAwards in Artist and Crew Catering! #TeamEatToTheBeatpic.twitter.com/RmSvuwuasI — Eat to the Beat (@Eattothebeat) December 12, 2016
The people. This event is very well ran and it takes a hard working and slick team to achieve that. Everyone was on top form and in good humour.
The constant supply of tea and coffee.
This is an odd one but… twitter? What I mean is, when you’re part of something that's trending online it's a cool feeling. I still have to explain what it is to my gran though.
Ending up on the telly…well we were asked:
