The
results of the Pride Of Manchester Awards 2008-09 has
now been decided with over 2,600 of our 20,000 members
casting their votes for the best Manchester had to offer
during 2008.
On
these pages, you'll find the final winners for each
award, including the name of the lucky voter who won
a trip to Montreux, Switzerland.
Whilst
most Pride Of Manchester Awards were decided by members'
votes, the awards for Best Restaurant and Best Hotel
were decided upon from the reviews submited by our customers
during 2008.
Pride
Of Manchester Award for Best Album from a Manchester
Band
2008
was another amazing year for bands from Manchester with
the likes of Take That, Oasis, The
Ting Tings, The Verve, The Courteeners,
Elbow, Primal Scream, James and
Russell Watson all enjoying Top 10 chart success.
The most critical acclaim went to Elbow for their
Mercury & Brit Award winning album 'Seldom Seen
Kid', whilst Randy Crawford described Mick Hucknall's
solo tribute to Bobby Bland as 'the finest record' she'd
heard 'for a long time' when we bumped into her at his
Montreux concert.
1824
members voted for 16 different albums with the 2008-09
winner being....
Bury
band Elbow won both the Mercury Music Prize & The
Brit Award for their brilliant fourth studio album,
‘The Seldom Seen Kid’, which was driven
by thunderous riffs that remind listeners of the band’s
love of the heavy as well as the delicate. Written largely
about the hugely influential Bury singer/songwriter
Bryan Glancy, who died in 1996, it reached no.5 in the
UK charts and included the hits 'One Day Like This'
and 'Grounds For Divorce', which references Temple Bar
on Oxford Road.
Pride
Of Manchester Award for Best Movie with a Manchester
Connection
Whilst
2007 saw Manchester-located movies winning awards around
the globe and 2009 is set to see the release of some
blockbusters filmed in the city, 2008 was a relatively
quiet year. The biggest releases starring Mancunian
actors included Steve Coogan in the smash comedy Tropic
Thunder, Ian McShane in Death Race, Albert
Finney in Before The Devil Knows You're Dead
and Sir Ben Kingsley in The Love Guru, Elergy,
Transsiberian and the brilliant The Wackness
amongst others. Ian McShane also provided the voice
of Tai Lung in Kung-Fu Panda with Jane Horrocks
voicing Fairy Mary in Tinker Bell. Mike Leigh's
multi-award winning Happy-Go-Lucky had the critics
purring. Grant Gee's cinema documentary of Joy Division
received 5 star reviews across the board as did Oldham
comic legend Eric Sykes in Son Of Rambow. Interestingly
Ridley Scott's Body of Lies starring Leonardo
Di Caprio and Russell Crowe was set in Manchester but
actually filmed in Baltimore.
1708
members voted for 24 different films with the 2008-09
winner being...
Last
Year's Winner
CONTROL
Anton
Corbijn's Cannes Film Festival winning cinema
biopic of Manchester music legend Ian Curtis
~
2008-09 BEST FILM WITH A MANCHESTER
CONNECTION ~
Joy
Division
Grant
Gee's cinema documentary of Manchester band Joy Division
received 5 star reviews from the likes of Time Out and
The Guardian, with Empire and Total Cinema also waxing
lyrical of the rockumentary. The film follows the unlikely
rise of these working class Manchester lads up to Ian
Curtis's suicide, which tore the band apart until it
was reborn as New Order. Unlike the Pride Of Manchester
Award winning Control, a drama which told the story
of Ian Curtis, Joy Division is a documentary about the
whole band which boasts rare footage as well as their
beautifully moody videos and one of Tony Wilson's last
ever interviews, capturing the essence of what made
Joy Division so special yet so tragic.
