Nobody wants to be a gatecrasher.
And for viewers of the Arias last night, it felt like we’d stumbled into some raging A-list party and we definitely weren’t invited.
Staged for the first time at the Sydney Opera House, in an ultra-casual outdoor telecast, the awards seemed to be a cracker, but only if you had the all-important gold lanyard around your neck.
It was like we were the designated driver on a massive night out, relegated to lemonades all evening while everyone else got stuck into the open bar.
The idea of presenters among the crowd sounded good in theory, but it meant people stumbling through the shot, and artists having to wade through the crowd to accept their gongs…
When they knew they’d won, that is.
Powderfinger had to be located by Aria officials, after not even knowing they’d just nabbed an award.
Arriving at the presentation area with beer still in hand, lead singer Bernard Fanning had to ask Carmen Electra what they’d won.
I guess when you’ve got the best part of 20 Arias to your name, what’s another pointy statue on the mantle piece?
Perhaps the producers should have put tracking devices on the artists, so they knew where the heck they were, or resorted to those buzzers they use at bistros to tell you when come collect your lamb special from the counter.
And so much for all those costly government anti-drinking campaigns, the message kind of gets lost when artists saunter onto the “stage” clutching a stubbie.
The alleged high point of the night - Best Album and Best Single – to Angus and Julia Stone was cringeworthy, the duo was facing the wrong way and barely able to manage entire sentences.
Host Nat Bass had to keep running backstage to breast feed (later admitting she felt “like a cow”), Dylan went missing for a huge chunk of the start after being unable to get down from on top of the Opera House. And what the heck was he doing pretending to hump someone in the crowd later on, seriously, is this where Australian TV is at?
Ronan Keating and Marcia Hines were about as compatible as Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard post-knifing, and Bob Katter’s “Araria” gaffe was, well, atrocious.
Social networking sites have gone mad dissing the event, even the event’s Wikipedia page was changed today saying “the 2010 Aria Awards sucked. Badly”.
Guests who were there said it was a great night, but it reignites the debate of what the Arias are actually all about… is it an event staged for the musicians and the people there, or is it for a TV audience?
Well, maybe they should just do it for the industry, cos no one’s watching anyway.
Coming in 17th on the most-watched list last night and drawing just 624,000 viewers, it was smashed by pretty much everything, including Poirot: Evil Under The Sun and The X-Factor.
We didn’t think it could get any worse than last year’s Channel 9 debacle, which rated just over 700,000 – which was 400,000 down on 2008.
Australian TV is lurching from one disaster to the next. Who would have guessed the Next Top Model finale debacle could be topped so quickly?
Powderfinger and Guy Sebastian’s live performances were the only real watchable moments of a shambolic telecast, although it could be argued Steve Kilbey’s trainwreck presentation to the Stones was actually a highlight – the point where he was clearly wound up by a producer was a classic, he was like a drunken uncle rambling on at your 21st.
Event producer Mark Pope admitted even before the event that there would be a pretty frank review process, so we can only hope they figure out what they heck they want the awards to be – an industry event or a TV spectacle for the peeps who actually shelled out the cash for the albums.
Because I’m not sure I’ll be gatecrashing again next year.
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