An event that bills itself as giving “Real Awards to Real Artists”, the 2018 edition of the Guitar Mag Awards 2018 return on Monday night to Ongbak Hall on the sixth floor of Show DC.

The ceremony, which kicks off at 6pm, marks the 16th year anniversary of the music magazine and has as its theme “Music Digital 4.0” – “dontri mankong silapin mangkang wongkarn yangyuen”, which loosely translates as “stable music, wealthy artists and a sustainable music circle”.

The awards consist of 14 categories including Most Admired Artist Award for Athiwara “Toon” Kongmalai, the frontman of rock band Bodyslam, and Lifetime Achievement Award for Thaneth Warakulnukroh.

“We’ve added the ‘Most Admired Artist Award; to recognise Toon Bodyslam who is not only the pride in Thailand’s music circle but also works hard to benefit society. He’s an inspiration to everyone,” says a member of the organising team.

“Piyawan Wongsawang, the chief executive of The Guitar Mag, will personally present Toon’s award.”

Slot Machine, The Toys, The Rube, Klear, and BNK48 will entertain the audience between announcements while outside the hall, the magazine will host shows by Bao Young Blood, the Hot Wave Music Awards, and the Imperial Music Contest. To be part of the award ceremony, bring along the February or March edition of The Guitar Mag and you’ll be given a free ticket. For more information, visit http://www.TheGuitarMag.com or join the conversation at Facebook: The Guitar Mag.

The nominations for The Guitar Mag Award 2018 are:

The Guitar Man of the Year

Thanat Meatanayanon of Instinct for “Chart Na Mee Jing”

Theerawong Watanajarupong of The Rube for “Mai Chai Phra Ek”

Nathapong Lertsrinual of Helmet Head for “Kotra Cool”

Teekatat Tawiarayakul of Potato for “Thuk Dan Thuk Moom”

Apichat Phromraksa of Big Ass for “Cherd Singto”

Best Producer

Poonsak Jaturabul, “Fah Pen Jai” by 25 Hours

Suwatchai Suthirat, “Muea Wan” by Pramote Pathan

Thanwa Boonsongnern, “Korn Rudoo Fon” by the Toys

Suthee Saengsereechon,“Korn Rudoo Fon” by the Toys

Bodin Charoenrat, “Mai Chai Phra Ek” by the Rube

Best Song Writer

Tawan Chawalitthamrong, “Jeb Jon Mai Khao Jai”

Rat Pikhatpairee and Rangsan Panyajai, “Lub Luek”

Patiwet Uthaichalern, “Non Jub Mue Kan Khrang Raek”

Bodin Charoenrat, “Mai Chai Phra Ek”

Olarn Choojai, “Rak Tua Ang”

New Wave

Max Jenmana

The Toys

BNK48

The Kastle

Mean

Best Style

Thaitanium

Arak and The Pisaj Band

Paradox

25 Hours

Scrubb

Best Choice

The Rube

Ebola

Somkiat

Instinct

SDF

Best Male Artist

Palitchoke Ayanaputra

Chanakan Ratanaudom

Nopasin Sangsuwan

Jirakorn Sompitak

Tachaya Pratumwan

Best Female Artist

Waruntorn Paonill

Eve Pancharoen aka Palmy

Kanyarat Tiyapornchai

Wichayanee Pearklin

Thanida Thamwimol

Best Band

Slot Machine

Big Ass

ETC

Room39

Mild

Best Album

“Now”, Thaitanium

“Cyantist”, Chanakan Ratanaudom

“Dam Sanit”, Hugo

“The Lion”, Big Ass

“Restart”, Room39

Single Hit

“Phan Muen Hetphol”, Klear

“Fortune Cookie”, BNK48

“Korn Rudoo Fon”, The Toys

“Khon La Chan”, Jaonaay

“Pen Thuk Yang”, Room39

The highest paid DJ in Singapore as of 2017, she placed first runner-up at the long-standing “New Paper New Face” modelling competition in 2013.

For more information, call (094) 184 3189.

Play Misty for me

DJ Misty, one of the pioneer female DJs of Malaysia and the first female DJ to represent Kartelhitmen as the No 1 DJ crew in Malaysia, returns to Bangkok on Thursday night for a gig at Sugar Club that gets underway at 10pm. The DJ, who was voted the top R&B Hip Hop “she-jay” in Malaysia, will be joined by DJs EThemiz, Miss G, The Next Level and sugar babes.

Book a table at (061) 391 3111.

Get ready to party

Transmission, a renowned trance music festival that originated in the Czech Republic and has become well-known worldwide for its visual spectacle and excessive laser shows, is hosting an official pre-party at Insanity Nightclub on March 16 from 9pm to 2am. Among the guests are world-class trance DJs Ferry Tayle, Menno de Jong, and Sean Tyas as well as Alessandra Roncone.

Find out more by calling (087) 804 9542.

Great Escape

Escape 56, a collaborative pop-up party series from Singapore that takes place at unique venues with a focus on house and techno music, will return to Bangkok for its second edition at Shade & Shadow on March 16 from 9pm to 4am. The event will feature Italian DJ and producer duo Marvin & Guy, together with opening acts Chote & Tek Harrington, STGZ Stagazer, and Hidemasa Mitsui.

Join the conversation at Facebook.com/pages/ShadeShadowEventSpace/188865665180735.

High at Sugar

French DJ and turntablist M1 joins with DJs EThemiz, Mizz G, MC G-Spark, The Next Level and sugar babes at Sugar Club on March 22 from 10 for a night of hip hop, R&B and bass house.

Reserve your seat at (061) 391 3111.

Artists and scholars have been churning out dystopian visions since the rise of Donald Trump, but David Byrne is defiantly chipper.

The post-punk pioneer and former Talking Heads frontman wants to preserve some of the optimism from his youth, which infuses his first album in six years, “American Utopia”.

“I realised that I was getting increasingly angry and depressed about the state of the world, or at least where I live,” says Byrne. “But occasionally I noticed some things that made me kind of hopeful.”

The 65-year-old began jotting down “reasons to be cheerful”, which he has turned into a series of blog essays and public lectures in Europe.

Among his sources of inspiration – the Republican mayor of Georgetown, Texas, who, citing economic reasons, wants to shift the city entirely to renewable energy despite his state’s deep-rooted relationship with fossil fuels.

“American Utopia” began in tandem, with Byrne determined to look up despite the Scottish-born singer’s dismay over his adopted country’s direction under Trump. “I’m not writing songs about wind power or bicycles or educational initiatives. That would be hard to do,” says Byrne, who is prone to laughing at unexpected moments.

“I write more from the point of view of asking who we are and what kind of people are we. What am I – how do I relate to other people?”

The title alone of “American Utopia” marks an about-face of sorts for the New Wave pioneer, whose bellowing voice dead-panned absurdities in Talking Heads songs such as “Psycho Killer”, “Once in a Lifetime” and “Burning Down the House”.

In “Bicycle Diaries,” his memoir of his love affair with cycling, Byrne wrote that when he formed Talking Heads he was “more interested in irony than utopia.” That evidently has changed.

“I think it’s not ironic,” he says of the “American Utopia” title. “I think it’s about the kind of deep yearning that people have for something better than whatever their current situation is, and a kind of hope that such a thing is possible.” Byrne’s reflections on the album about the American experience nonetheless remain full of abstraction.

“Dog’s Mind”, a dreamy mid-tempo synth ballad, starts off discussing the White House’s relationship with the press corps before Byrne sings, “We are dogs in our own paradise / In a theme park all our own / Doggie dancers doing duty / Doggy dreaming all day long.”

The album’s first single, “Everybody’s Coming to My House”, evokes a dance party with sax, piano and echoes of LCD Soundsystem, while “Doing the Right Thing” erupts in joy in a whirling synth solo.

He built the songs off rough tracks that had been composed by Brian Eno, the ambientmusic innovator and longtime collaborator of Byrne as well as David Bowie and U2.

Eno notably worked with Byrne on his first solo album, “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts”, a groundbreaking work for its use of samples. The 1981 album brought in West African rhythms and Arabic pop, presaging Byrne’s deep interest in world music that included founding the Luaka Bop label.

“I think we have stayed friends because we often talk about things other than music,” Byrne says of Eno. “So it’s not like a business relationship and it changes all the time.”

For “American Utopia”, Byrne is putting on what he calls his most ambitious performances since the classic 1984 Talking Heads concert film “Stop Making Sense”.

The latest tour, which includes a set at top US festival Coachella, takes place on a sleekly minimalist stage, with all instruments portable and no cords, road cases or stagehands lurking in the corner.

“It’s all about us, and I don’t mean that in an egotistical way. It’s all about the performers – the human beings, the people making the music,” he explains.

Byrne, who became a US citizen before Barack Obama’s second election in 2012, says he brought along on a previous tour a copy of Alexis de Tocqueville’s classic “Democracy in America” about the US experiment in its early 19th century.

He adds that he had long believed that the United States, for all its imperfections, “stood for ideas that were inspiring to other people around the world.” But with age, he felt greater disillu¬sion.

“So now I wonder – what’s left? Some of that hope, that yearning, is still there. And you won¬der, where does it lead?”

Strumming his guitar with ease and backed by a drummer, Singhkum Boonriang belts out covers of Thai ballads as strangers pass by on a busy Bangkok afternoon.

But Singhkum is no ordinary busker – he’s one of hundreds of blind singers who perform across the Thai capital at traffic junctions, Skytrain stops and other busy locations.

“It’s born out of my love to play music and sing,” Singhkum explains, sitting in front of a small donation box. Aided by a small speaker, he is hopeful of attracting attention, and some loose change.

He started performing in his teens but took up the street gig four years ago when he moved to the Thai capital from the north.

“When I first arrived in Bangkok, I heard many street musicians playing in public spaces, and I love to sing, so I gave it a try,” he adds.

Like Singhkum, many of Bangkok’s blind singers hail from poor and rural provinces and come to the capital in search of work.

But their options are limited.

“There are two or three jobs that we can do, like selling lottery tickets, singing or giving massages,” muses 50-year-old Yupin Boonchuen, who makes around Bt1,000 a day performing outside a Skytrain station.

Attitudes towards begging and street performing are ambiguous in superstitious Thailand; some view disabilities as the result of bad karma from previous lives.

Such street jobs also carry a social stigma, with buskers seen as hustlers on the run from city officials.

“Sometimes when I get chased away I feel, why don’t they give me a chance? I was sad that they didn’t give me an opportunity to show my talent,” Yupin says.

Others see giving to the needy as a way to accrue merit in their next life.

The singers, armed with traditional mandolins and bamboo flutes, can transport listeners to the past.

“They’re actually part of the traditional folk culture of this country,” explains Philip Cornwell-Smith, author of a book on Thai culture.

“The sound is quite plaintive – the music itself is quite nostalgic, almost, and so I think it has quite a strong pull on the Thai heart,” he adds.

Attitudes may also be changing thanks to reforms from an unlikely corner.

The junta recently pushed through new rules separating street showmen from beggars by granting “talent” cards.

All Thais who wish to perform for money in public spaces can now register with the authorities and play legally.

So far more than 2,000 people have signed up as street performers with the blind singers making up the majority.

The government has also started offering music, performance and fashion classes to help blind singers sharpen their skills and presentation.

A recent two-day training course at a Bangkok hotel saw nearly 300 blind performers across the country receive voice lessons.

“The project stemmed from the idea of not leaving anyone behind,” says Napa Setthakorn, director of the Social Development and Welfare Department, which runs the programme.

Yet as the legal channels open up, the number of street troubadours is increasing, including young musicians pumping out pop hits.

The added competition often means a drop in earnings.

Singhkum, the guitarist at Lumpini park, says that on some days he can’t make enough money to cover the two-way pickup service he needs and the helper who chaperones his travel.

And if this gig doesn’t work out, he’s not sure where else to turn.

He asks: “How many opportunities does our society provide for the disabled?”

“I think little. The disabled people can do so many things but the acceptance from society is still low,” the 28-year-old adds.

His wish is to be seen as first and foremost as a musician. He insists: “I just want them to think of me as doing a job, not for the sympathy.”

The chart-topping Bugg burst onto the music scene as a 17-year-old prodigy in 2011 when he was selected to perform at the Glastonbury Festival.

Now 23 years of age, Bugg has released four highly acclaimed albums which have all made the Top 10 in the UK. For his latest, “Hearts That Strain”, Bugg flew to Nashville to record with some of the best players in popular music.

Members of American Sound Studio’s house band The Memphis Boys, Gene Chrisman and Bobby Woods provided the chops on such iconic records as Dusty Springfield’s “Dusty In Memphis”, as well as Elvis Presley’s “In The Ghetto” and “Suspicious Minds”, cutting their teeth in sessions with legends like Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin and Dionne Warwick.

“It was a mad vibe being from England and meeting these absolute legends and then recording with them,” Bugg says.

A chance encounter back in the studio in UK provided another surprise collaboration when country-rock superstar Billy Ray Cyrus stopped by and was so taken with the rough version of Bugg’s song “Waiting” that he suggested his daughter – younger sister of Miley – Noah Cyrus should sing it.

Tickets are priced at Bt2,600 and are available for pre-sale to My Live Nation members March 15-16. Official public sales start on March 17 at http://www.thaiticketmajor.com.

The 68-year-old R&B singer, a former front man for Motown legends The Commodores, has sold more than 100 million records over a career spanning six decades.

“This is almost beyond the childhood dream,” Richie told AFP at the ceremony on Hollywood Boulevard, a time-honored tradition launched in the 1920s.

“When I first came to this town, the Holiday Inn was back there, right behind me, and the first thing I did was ran out the room, came downstairs and put my feet in all the hands and feet on the ground. Now, my hands and feet are going into this thing, it’s almost beyond belief.”

Late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, fresh off his Oscars hosting duties, presented the ceremony while veteran actor Samuel L. Jackson was on hand to support Richie, who told the crowd the honor was an “out of body experience.”

Lionel Brockman Richie Jr. was born on June 20, 1949 and raised on the private, historically black Tuskegee Institute university campus in Alabama, where his family had worked for generations.

A high school tennis star, he accepted a scholarship to study at the institute but dropped out and seriously considered becoming a priest for a while.

He formed a series of bands and, while still at college in 1968, joined aspiring Motown group The Commodores, playing saxophone and singing.

He went on to write some of his most enduring songs for the group, including “Still,” “Sail On,” “Easy” and “Three Times a Lady,” which earned a 1979 American Music Award and a People’s Choice Award.

– Motown hits –

He later wrote “Lady” for Kenny Rogers and had a huge hit alongside Diana Ross with “Endless Love,” which became the most successful single in Motown history, topping the US charts for nine weeks.

Alongside Michael Jackson and Prince, he was one of the most successful male solo artists of the 1980s, with a run of 13 consecutive top ten hits in the US Billboard charts, five of them number ones.

He scored a major hit with “All Night Long,” and won an Oscar for “Say You, Say Me,” written for the film “White Nights.” His Grammys include the 1985 Song of the Year prize for “We Are the World,” co-written with Jackson.

Richie managed a nine-year streak of writing at least one number one single a year — a feat matched only by Irving Berlin — enjoying much of his success internationally, with a particularly strong following in the Arab world.

But his run came to an end in 1987 and Richie took some time out, coming back in the 1990s, with mixed results.

Despite the runaway success of “Hello,” Richie has said he came to resent being classified as a balladeer and chose simply to follow his artistic senses.

“I developed into something that even I did not know who I was,” he said at a Songwriters Hall of Fame gala in New York in 2016.

“All the songs that I created were the songs that they told me would ruin my career.”

An avid gardener, Richie has said that if he weren’t a musician, he would be a landscape architect or interior designer.

The surviving three members of The Cranberries said that O’Riordan had already recorded vocals for a new album, which the band now hopes to finish and release in early 2019.

The Cranberries said that they also would move forward with a 25th anniversary reissue this year of their debut album, “Everyone Else is Doing it, So Why Can’t We?,” after putting work on hold following O’Riordan’s death.

“After much consideration we have decided to finish what we started,” the band wrote on Facebook.

“We thought about it and decided that as this is something that we started as a band, with Dolores, we should push ahead and finish it.”

The 1993 album proved to be an international success led by “Linger,” a wistful song about a first kiss.

The reissued edition will be remastered and feature previously unreleased material from the era, the band said.

O’Riordan was found dead in a London hotel on January 15 at age 46. A full inquest into her death is set for April 3, although authorities are not treating her death as suspicious.

With a voice that merged florid traditional Celtic singing with the ferocity of punk rock, O’Riordan defined the sound of The Cranberries whose major hits also included the politically charged “Zombie.”

The Cranberries last released an album of new material, “Roses,” in 2012 after a gap of more than a decade.

 The tour, which will see the singer performing in Hong Kong, Taiwan. China and India, is his fifth.

Blunt has released multiple critically acclaimed albums, which have garnered him tens of millions in album sales, Grammy nominations, and Brit awards. “Back to Bedlam” was the UK’s biggest selling album of the 2000s according to BBC Radio 1. His most recent tour, alongside Ed Sheeran, saw Blunt perform across the United States tat sold-out shows.

The song list includes “You’re Beautiful”, “Bartender”, “Goodbye My Love” and “Carry You Home”

Tickets costing from Bt1,500 to Bt5,500 are on sale at Thai Ticket Major counters and online at http://www.ThaiTicketMajor.com.

Solomon’s son Michael told the Sacramento Bee newspaper that his father died of an apparent heart attack while watching the Oscars on Sunday night at his home in the California capital.

“He was giving his opinion of what someone was wearing that he thought was ugly, then asked (his wife) Patti to refill his whisky,” Solomon said, adding that his father had died by the time she returned.

James Donio, president of the Music Business Association trade group, voiced sadness over his death and hailed his influence.

“Russ was quite outspoken and having a conversation with him about the music business was always a priceless education,” Donio said in a statement.

Solomon founded Tower Records at a time that records in the United States were mostly sold in the corners of stores much like clothing or snacks.

Creating a welcoming space for music lovers under the store’s yellow-and-red signs, Tower Records helped build a subculture of record stores, especially after opening branches in the heart of the music industry on Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard and on New York’s East Village.

In a 2015 documentary on Tower Records, “All Things Must Pass,” Elton John recalled heading every Tuesday morning to the Hollywood store, chatting to employees about music as he left with piles of vinyl.

Solomon’s father had run a drugstore named Tower in Sacramento that sold everything from candy to perfume to soft drinks.

The younger Solomon in the documentary recalled how he would buy used records for three cents each and found ready buyers when he resold them for 10 cents.

He soon decided to buy records wholesale in nearby San Francisco and in 1960 opened the first Tower Records in Sacramento.

But after decades of solid profits, Tower Records entered a crisis by the mid-1990s. It tried to expand but big retailers such as Walmart could sell CDs for lower prices, while iTunes and online retailers sapped the market for record stores even further.

Tower Records filed twice for bankruptcy protection and closed in 2006.

Its stores in Japan, one of the most resilient music markets, were unaffected and vast Tower shops remain open in prominent locations such as Tokyo’s Shibuya entertainment district.

Tower’s bankruptcy in the United States came before the recent rebirth of record stores fueled by new interest in vinyl, with several hundred shops opening in the past five years.

On what would have been the rocker’s 76th birthday on Friday, the Lou Reed Archive announced the publication of its first book, “Do Angels Need Haircuts?”, compiling his unpublished poems from 1970-71.

The book, to come out in April, offers “a window to a little-known chapter in the life of one of the most uncompromising voices in American popular culture,” publishing house Anthology said in its announcement.

The poetry collection will come with a seven-inch record of Reed reciting his verse at St. Mark’s Church in New York’s East Village.

Starting with its 1967 debut album produced by Andy Warhol, The Velvet Underground shook up the music scene by bringing a new artistic sensibility to rock and lyrically exploring topics then unthinkable for pop songs such as drug highs and deviant sex.

But Reed left as The Velvet Underground’s frontman shortly before the release of the group’s fourth studio album, “Loaded,” in 1970.

Tensions had been mounting between Reed and bassist Doug Yule, who assisted and eventually replaced him on lead vocals, and The Velvet Underground’s new mainstream label was pushing the band to produce more radio-friendly songs.

Reed, who had so far earned underground fame but limited money, returned in 1970 to his parents’ home on Long Island and worked as a typist in his father’s lucrative tax accounting firm.

Reed’s suburban idyll was short-lived and in 1972 he launched his successful solo career, recording in London with the encouragement of David Bowie.

“Do Angels Need Haircuts?” is the first publication of its sort from Reed, although his lyrics have previously been released in book form, notably 2001’s illustrated “The Raven,” which brought together the words of Reed and Edgar Allan Poe.

Reed died of liver disease in 2013 at age 71.