Classic Rock Roll Of Honour 2008 anoints Ozzy Osbourne as Living Legend
The glitterati of the rock world were out in force tonight at London’s Park Lane Hotel to honour the winners of the prestigious Marshall Classic Rock Roll Of Honour Awards in association with Play.com.
ck Roll Of Honour Awards in association with Play.com.
Hosted by Planet Rock DJ Nicky Horne, the event also celebrated the 10th anniversary of Classic Rock Magazine.
Ozzy Osbourne, the true Prince Of Darkness, was named as Living Legend (sponsored by Marshall), and guitar hero Slash was on hand to present him with his award.
Having enjoyed a hugely successful career both as Black Sabbath’s unique frontman, and also as a solo performer, Ozzy’s career in music is truly one to be recognised, and he joins Alice Cooper, Lemmy and Jimmy Page in being honoured as Classic Rock’s Living Legend.
Album Of The Year (sponsored by Universal Music Catalogue/Lost Tunes), always a hotly contended category, went to Whitesnake for Good To Be Bad.
Despite claiming that he wouldn’t return to the UK for another 10 years, Dave Grohl sent in an acceptance speech thanking Classic Rock readers for nominating the Foo Fighters as Band Of The Year (sponsored by Live Nation) at this year’s awards.
Although losing out on Event of the Year (for Download) and Band Of The Year, Kiss’s inimitable rhythm guitarist/vocalist Paul Stanley received the Showman award (sponsored by Guinness).
Australian rockers Airbourne were in jubilant spirits to collect the award for Best New Band (sponsored by Provogue), whilst their heaviest influence, AC/DC, won DVD Of The Year (sponsored by Play.com) for Plug Me In.
Having just announced a UK and European tour, metal titans Metallica won the award for Re-Issue Of The Year (sponsored by Rock Radio) for their first three albums; this was collected on the night by the producer of Kill ‘Em All, Ride The Lightning and Master of Puppets, Flemming Rasmussen.
Led Zeppelin won Event Of The Year (sponsored by Music Live) for their historic return to the live circuit last December for the one-off London 02 show.
Eight further awards were announced tonight, as voted for by a Classic Rock magazine panel.
Jeff Beck was honoured for Outstanding Contribution (sponsored by Monitor Audio) and was presented with his award by fellow guitar legend Ronnie Wood.
Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green picked up Classic Songwriter (sponsored by Guitar Hero) from Gary Moore, Sharon Osbourne presented the Armand de Brignac VIP Award to music promoter Harvey Goldsmith, Wayne Kramer from The MC5 collected the award for Metal Guru (sponsored by Plastichead Distribution) from bad boys of rock Bobby Gillespie and Mani.
The night also saw Jack Bruce pick up Classic Album for Cream’s Disraeli Gears (sponsored by Eagle Rock), and Slash receive the Marshall ‘11’ Award for his services to balls-out, guns-blazing rock ‘n’ roll.
A poignant moment came when Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett was posthumously awarded the Tommy Vance Inspiration Award (presented by Gibson). Syd’s sister Rosemary collected the award in honour of her late brother. The legendary Todd Rundgren presented Rosemary with the award.
The Classic Rock Childline Award went to Canadian rocker Bryan Adams.
Classic Rock’s Editor In Chief Scott Rowley said: “Ten years ago people said a magazine like Classic Rock couldn’t last. A decade later, we outsell the NME and Kerrang! – as well as men’s magazines like Esquire and Arena. Ozzy’s a household name and bands like AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Metallica and Guns N’ Roses are getting more headlines and front covers than ever, breaking box office records and topping the charts. The Roll Of Honour is a celebration of rock music as the most vital and vibrant genre of music.”
Full list of winners:
Album Of The Year sponsored by Universal Music Catalogue/Lost Tunes
Winner: Whitesnake – Good To Be Bad
Band Of The Year sponsored by Live Nation
Winner: Foo Fighters
Reissue Of The Year sponsored by Rock Radio
Winner: Metallica – 1st Three Albums: Vinyl Reissues
DVD Of The Year sponsored by Play.com
Winner: AC/DC – Plug Me In
Event Of The Year sponsored by Music Live
Winner: Led Zeppelin @ The 02 Arena
Best New Band sponsored by Provogue
Winner: Airbourne
Classic Songwriter sponsored by Guitar Hero
Winner: Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac)
Showman Award sponsored by Guinness
Winner: Paul Stanley (Kiss)
The Armand de Brignac VIP Award
Winner: Harvey Goldsmith
Gibson presents the Tommy Vance Inspiration Award
Winner: Syd Barrett
Classic Album sponsored by Eagle Rock
Winner: Cream – Disraeli Gears
Metal Guru sponsored by Plastichead Distribution
Winner: Wayne Kramer (MC5)
Classic Rock/Childline Award
Winner: Bryan Adams
Outstanding Contribution sponsored by Monitor Audio
Winner: Jeff Beck
Marshall ‘11’ Award
Winner: Slash
Living Legend sponsored by Marshall
Winner: Ozzy Osbourne
Whitesnake album of the year and fully deserved.great album.
I thought Wishbone Ash should have won the reissue of the year for Argus.
foo fighter band of the year is an offense to rock music!!!!
dave grohl is a fuckin grunger unable to play and to sing!
regarding the album of the year category ,whitesnake’s good to be bad is a good album indeed but journey’s revelations is WAY better!!!
Oh yes… a GRAND album indeed!! It left me totally speechless when I first listened to it. Congratulations Whitesnake!!!
Please tell me someone saw Jeff and Ronnie in a corner seriously discussing an effort to reform the original Jeff Beck Group.
C’mon Rod… you’re filthy rich so take a break from being a crooner and give us some classic rock & roll with Jeff and Ronnie again.
Arise Sir David Of Coverdale. You deserve it Sir. Also, kudos to Paul Stanley – KISS deserved something after bringing the storming Alive35 tour to Europe. Congrats to Classic Rock for putting on what sounds like another awesome night.
Whitesnake album of the year? nope! Uriah Heep deserved that much, much, MUCH more that Cov! IMHO, of course …
Sounds like another enjoyable awards evening organised by Classic Rock – I just can’t believe that Ozzy got the Living Legend honour only now. I agree with the status of the other three but Ozzy coming in after Alice and Lemmy? He showed those guys what heavy metal and hard rock is all about. His wife should also get an award for pulling him off that white mountain on top of the boozy sea…
Whitesnake album of the year! Oh dear it wasn`t even the best album released by a former member of Deep Purple this year that honour would be for Glenn Hughes for the brilliant FUNK album.
However classic rock obviously prefers by the numbers ancient cock rock to interesting creative work where an artist pushes himself in new directions.
“Whitesnake album of the year! Oh dear it wasn`t even the best album released by a former member of Deep Purple this year that honour would be for Glenn Hughes for the brilliant FUNK album.
However classic rock obviously prefers by the numbers ancient cock rock to interesting creative work where an artist pushes himself in new directions.
Posted by Northern boy (127.0.0.1) on November 04, 2008 at 08:22 AM GMT # ”
Don’t the puiblic vote for these awards? If so aren’t you insulting the Classic Rock Readership????
What was the use of the event of the year award. As soon as the nominations came out everyone knew it would go to Led Zep. Not because of the quality of the concert but because it’s led zep.
And how can whitesnake beat def leppard’s album for album of the year. The lep’s charted higher and they were the main act when whitesnake supported them. Bit like saying tottenham being crowned team of the year but Chelsea was the ones that won the treble
i didnt vote coz i could’nt vote for who i wanted to, it was a pre-selected bunch we were forced to vote for! ozzy should have got the living legend award years ago mind, nobody is a bigger legend in rock wether you like him or not so about time on that one like!
Whitesnake album is definitely better than the Def Leppard one, and if memory serves correctly it did chart higher in the UK. Not that particularly means anything with regards quality.
As for the shout for the Glenn Hughes album, can’t agree there, think it is pretty poor myself.
We were only allowed to vote for 5 pre selected acts in each category, so in effect the editorial staff of classic rock are deciding which limited range of acts we can vote for.So these awards are not representative of what fans want. You have to vote for what the journalist tell you to, so i am afraid it is as meaningless as every other awards ceremony.
Going back to Whitesnake, Good to be Bad; it is a perfectly fine album but far inferior to the classic albums of the early to mid 80`s.Whilst those poor sods who shelled out hard earned cash to see Whitesnake this summer will realise that the once great voice has well and truly gone.
Re-issue:
Metallica probably won because they’ve been in the news a lot recently.
Agree with the chap below – Wishbone Ash should have won for the Argus re-issue – completely underrated band over the years and yet so influential – especially this album.
Yessss ! I voted for Whitesnake and Im very happy that Good to be Bad won this award
They deserve it !!!!
I Totally agree with Phil Matthews, Argus should have won the Best reissue award.
Was talking to Martin Turner after the W.A. gig on saturday evening, which B.T.W. was Excellent.
Jayman – get your head out of your arse you plumb. Lemmy was a roadie for Hendrix while Ozzy was sitting in some Birmingham jail cell after some bungled burglary – so don’t even think for one minute that ozzy “showed those guys what heavy metal and hard rock is all about” as that is the biggest load of shit I have ever heard and you are a mug for writing it.
Award ceremonies always seem a bit meaningless, but well done Classic Rock for recognising Wayne Kramer’s pioneering contribution. The MC5 still remain one of the most under-appreciated yet influential bands in rock history.
Incidentally, today is the 14th anniversary of Fred “Sonic” Smith’s death. Do yourselves a favour and grab yourself a copy of High Time (the band’s less-known third album) and blast it out in Fred’s honour.
RIP Fred.
I see that I’ve offended your sensibilities Lummy. I know about all that history and I rate Hawkwind’s psychedelic rock and Motorhead’s brand of heavy metal very highly, but Sabbath were the first proper metal band and Ozzy was and still is the greatest hard rocker of all time – who else would you want to booze to on a Friday night? Lemmy gets a bit much after a couple (of songs, not tracks), and Alice is cool but on the softer side, so don’t take it so personal…
well, i suppose it was a bit unfair that wishbone ash had to compete with THREE mettalica albums, but “WE KNOW” who should have won dont we phil!
“we know” madmickeyt? yeah, but none of them on the pre-list i was given to choose from! i like to choose for mesel like!
Fortunately we are all different and so it was very unlikely that the winners would receive unanimous support. But whether you favour Journey over Whitesnake or Def Leppard over Uriah Heep, I think one thing is clear. 2008 has been a cracking year for TRUE classic rock! And in their category I would say that Airbourne were the most authentic new “classic rock” band too. The Led Zeppelin victory was predictable but I can understand it, and at least it isn’t as laughable as Chinese Democracy winning the best album in Classic Rock LAST year!!! Hmm that’s a point – wonder what will come out of top in the journo’s poll THIS year?
Congrats to Paul Stanley! He really deserves this.
Can’t quite understand why ‘Argus’ wasn’t the re-issue of the year or ‘Revelation’ wasn’t the album of the year.
I know these things are always subjective, so it would be good to see a breakdown of the votes. Very, very strange IMO!
Totally agree with Northern Boy with regard to readers being told by the magazine to select one of THEIR nominations.A farce on apar with the brit awards.Let us chose all our own acts for all awards.Some of the stuff we had to vote for was embarrising.The mag is becoming embarrasing.What happened to innovative rock that we love in the 70s ?
Airbourne deserved the Best New Band award, they’re just so awesome. Even if their not exactly the most original band, at least they’re keeping the spark.
After going to see Airbourne this week I thoroughly agree with the Best New Band title. They are seriously rocking!
AIRBOURNE – Can’t get enough of this band – AIRBOURNE!!!!!!