Eskimo Joe clean up at WAMiAwards

Thu 24th Feb, 2005 in Local News

Fremantle band Eskimo Joe blitzed a star-studded field to pick up six awards at the 2005 WAMi Awards in Perth on Tuesday.

Triple J’s Robbie Buck hosted the event at the Beck’s Verandah, outside the Perth Concert hall, where instead of trophies, Western Australia’s finest artists were presented with cakes.

Eskimo Joe won awards for Most Popular Act, Most Popular Single or EP, Most Popular Live Act and Most Popular Album for A Song is a City. As the band accepted their final award for the night, guitarist Stu MacLeod said it was an honour to be nominated alongside so many good bands, including good friends Little Birdy.

The $10,000 bar tab was long gone by the time original AC/DC singer Bon Scott was inducted to the WAMi Hall of Fame – the awards falling just three days after the 25th anniversary of his untimely death. Scott was inducted alongside blues guitarist Dave Hole and Martin Clarke, responsible for the first WA-based record label.

Little Birdy’s Beautiful to Me won the award for Most Popular Music Video, while vocalist Katy Steele was named WA’s best female vocalist in an industry-voted category, awarded on Monday night at the Monkey Bar.

Other winners on the night included The Panda Band, who accepted the award for Most Promising New Act, horror movie-lovers Snowman, who were named Favourite Newcomer, and Gyroscope, who reluctantly accepted the cake for Best Punk Act, explaining they were “not really punk”.

Despite winning none of their nominated categories, Perth icons Jebediah got the boozed-up crowd moving, with a short set of tracks from their independently-released fourth album Braxton Hicks. Other bands to perform on the night included The Panda Band and Red Jezebel.