Swans were named Hardest Working Band at last night’s AIM Independent Music Awards in London.
The Association of Independent Music held its annual awards show at The Brewery in Clerkenwell, London, where Enter Shikari won Independent Album Of The Year for The Mindsweep and Earache Records boss Digby Pearson was given the Pioneer Award.
Swans were unable to be at the ceremony and mainman Michael Gira delivered an acceptance speech via video link. Watch it below.
He said: “Those of us that have truly laboured – for instance in the fields of carpentry, roofing, hod-carrying, demolition, bricklaying and even in Amazon delivery centres or a clothing or plastics factory somewhere in the world – know what true labour is, and therefor know that recording and touring with a band is decidedly lightweight by comparison.
“But even so, and leaving aside the fact that working hard does not necessarily mean that the work itself is worthwhile, we here at the Swans work site accept with the deepest heartfelt gratitude your generous honour here today.”
Swans last week made limited edition double-CD The Gate available, with funds to be used to record one last album with the current lineup. Over the weekend, all available packages for The Gate sold out.
AIM AWARD WINNERS 2015
Best Small Label (in association with Disc Manufacturing Services): Erased Tape Records
Best Difficult Second Album (in association with XFM): Young Fathers – White Men Are Black Men Too
Special Catalogue Release of the Year (in association with Amazon Music): Cities of Darkscorch Boardgame
Hardest Working Band or Artist: Swans
Golden Welly Award for Best Independent Festival (in association with AIF, voted for by readers of DIY): Brainchild Festival
Independent Breakthrough of the Year: Wolf Alice
Indie Champion (in association with CI): Marc Riley, BBC 6 Music
Independent Video of the Year (in association with Vevo): Flying Lotus – Never Catch Me
Best Live Act (in association with Jack Daniel’s, voted for by visitors to Songkick): All Time Low
Independent Track of the Year (in association with Spotify): FKA Twigs – Two Weeks
PPL Award for Most Played New Independent Act: Jungle
Independent Album of the Year (in association with dotFans): Enter Shikari – The Mindsweep
Independent Label of the Year (in association with Believe Digital): Transgressive Records
Pioneer Award (in association with The Orchard): Digby Pearson, Earache Records
Innovator Award (in association with Promostream): Peter Quicke, Matt Black and Jonathan More of Ninja Tune
Outstanding Contribution to Music (in association with Merlin): Skepta
