Hot Press Readers’ Poll 2006

The results are in, the polls have been polled, the burghers have spoken, the great unwashed have vented their spleen and by now even the dogs in the street… okay, okay, we’ll get to the point.

Last year, the more total of recall among you might remember, the polls were mostly dominated by U2’s boon year, while Arcade Fire and Green Day split the international votes between them.
This time around, U2 retained top dog status in the best Irish band section on the back of a couple of sterling singles, a somewhat gratuitous Greatest Hits collection, the book, the DVD, the website, the t-shirt and the Stetsongate court case, but – and it’s a big but – that young whelp Damien Rice and his crack ensemble trounced the big boys in a whole ream of categories, having nudged out The Frames as the main pretenders to Bono’s and co’s throne. 9 was a rough-hewn grower yes, but a damn fine follow up to O, the knock-on effect resulting in Lisa Hannigan scooping best Irish female (even though she’s technically not yet a fully fledged solo artist), while Vyvienne Long is now neck and neck with Colm Mac Con Iomaire as the chief challenger to Edge’s instrumental supremacy. Kudos also to Snow Patrol, who polled well with the lovely ‘Chasing Cars’ and showed that the Final Straw breakthrough was no flash-in-the-pan.
There was a handsome turnout for Director too, whose well crafted debut We Thrive On Big Cities saw them crowned the best of the new bloods, hotly pursued by The Blizzards. Elsewhere, Kila continued to reap the benefits of a decade spent reinvigorating Irish trad, while on the comedy circuit, Mr. Tiernan felt the hot breath of Dara O’ Briain on his neck (you know what we mean).
In the wider world, The Killers’ second album (and a mighty fine record Sam’s Town is) filled the gap left by Arcade Fire’s studio-enforced absence and suggested that they might just have the stuff to become that rare thing in the iPod age: a stadium filling albums band. Mind you, people’s favourites such as the Chili Peppers and the Flaming Lips obviously left their core constituents underwhelmed.
Elsewhere, Amy Winehouse nabbed the well deserved best female gong, Arctic Monkeys survived the start-of year-hype to secure debutante garlands, while Josh Ritter, doubtlessly still in recovery from Stephen King pronouncing The Animal Years as one of the best albums of the last decade, snagged best songwriter, live act, album cover and international male (eclipsing his hero Bruce, whose We Shall Overcome Seeger Sessions album was sorely conspicuous by its absence from the folk/roots category, although it was gratifying to see Rodrigo Y Gabriela get their dues).
Right then, twice around the bikeshed and we’ll meet you back here next year.
Irish results
International results
General results