IRMA chair clarifies industry position on awards

IRMA Chairman, Freddie Middleton, has moved to quell the controversy regarding the confusion over categories in this year’s IRMA awards.

Clearly incensed at the way in which the controversy had erupted, Middleton, who is the Irish boss of BMG, the label to which Six are signed, explained the system to Hot Press.com.

"Even 2FM had the wrong heading on the website," he pointed out. "We wanted to have a Best Newcomer in 2002 and a Biggest Hope for 2002. On my desk are all the nominations from all the record companies. There were only two artists nominated for (Biggest Hope For) 2002 – Six, by me, and Lynn Ryan, nominated by Universal. Now it doesn’t need a genius to discover that we don’t need to run that category. Lynn Ryan and Universal have conceded that Six will run away with it anyway."

Middleton insisted that there was always a distinction between the Best Newcomer and the Hope For 2002 categories – despite the impression created by the press releases issued by event sponsors Meteor and promoters MCD.

"I’m annoyed that people haven’t got the brains to understand the difference between Newcomer and Hope for 2002," he said. "And why I’m not running Hope for 2002. Because only two acts were nominated. I have all the nomination papers here in my hand. There was no confusion from the record companies.

"I’m annoyed that in the interest of having a Newcomer in the Irish section, to encourage Irish talent, it’s been kicked back at us that we put Six in there," he added. "We have not. We put them in a different section – Hope for 2002. And they were never in Newcomer, because they didn’t have a record released last year. I can’t break my own rules."

In relation to the press release which included Six, as well as Lynn Ryan, in the Newcomer category, Middleton was dismissive. "That was wrong," he told hotpress.com. "If that came from a media company, they got it wrong. You did not get that (release) from the organisers of the Awards show.

"It’s not a press release approved by me. And they are not running the Meteors. They may be working for MCD and they got it wrong if that’s the case.

"The only story in this is The Revs’ press release," he concluded.

RTE were unavailable for comment.