A&RS HONOURED IN LONDON

The great and good of the British A&R community were celebrated Tuesday night in London at the A&R Awards, where Independiente and Go! Discs founder Andy Macdonald was crowned A&R Icon, while UMPG U.K. chief Mike McCormack (pictured) was honoured with the Sir George Martin gong.

The ceremony, now in its fourth year, was presented by MBW in association with Abbey Road Studios. Macdonald, who signed artists including Billy Bragg, Trash Can Sinatras, The La’s, The Housemartins and Paul Weller, was presented with his award by former protégé and now-Columbia U.K. boss Ferdy Unger-Hamilton.

McCormack won the top honour of the night for a long career in publishing and labels, where he's worked with artists including S Club 7, Annie Lennox, Morrissey, Adele, Lily Allen, The Killers, MGMT and Sigur Ros.

Writer/producer Steve Mac, who has recently had hits with Mabel, Anne-Marie and Little Mix, won Producer of the Year as well as the A&R Loyalty Award alongside his manager, David Howells.

Warner had a number of wins on the night, with Warner Chapell Music U.K. being crowned Publisher of the Year, while Atlantic Records U.K. Co-Head of A&R Alec Boateng won Hip-Hop/Grime A&R of the Year, and the company’s Grace Goddard collected the A&R Administrator award.

A&R of the Year for Electronic/Dance was Ministry of Sound’s Dipesh Parmar, Decca’s Tom Lewis won in the Adult Contemporary category, Lisa Cullington from BMG took Pop/R&B and Rock/Alternative went to Dirty Hit founder and The 1975 manager Jamie Oborne.

Jimmy Napes was Songwriter of the Year, Song of the Year went to Lewis Capaldi’s smash “Someone you Loved” and Reservoir won the second Publisher of the Year gong. Method Music was top Management Company, and Partisan Records won Independent Label of the year, while Polydor was crowned Major Label, and its buzzy signing Celeste took home the Vevo DSCVR Artist to Watch.