The PRS for Music Icon Award was presented to The Cure’s Robert Smith and Simon Gallup for their songwriting achievements spanning over 40 years.
“It’s a strange one," Smith told Headliner. "It felt weird leaving the other three at the table. For me it’s really important that Simon is up there with me. He's so overlooked it’s criminal. He’s been there pretty much the whole time.
“The thing that strikes me about a lot of the songwriting awards today is that there are teams of songwriters - that never existed when we were young. You used to write songs because you felt you wanted to say something, whereas now I have this horrible nagging feeling sometimes that there are people sitting in a room putting things together that tick boxes... and that, I suppose, is why I have disengaged a bit. There is so much great music that’s been made over the years, and will be made over the years, but even saying that I turn into a critic."
As for how his and Gallup's approach to songwriting has changed over the years, Smith said: “Simon still does it all on cassette! Between us we have demos and we go back and forth, but ultimately, because I write the words, I decide which songs are going to progress and which ones aren’t. But usually with hindsight I pick the wrong songs. I just finished the The Wish remasters and that’s coming out in a couple of months, and I was going through all the old demos for it and there were so many of his demos that never got past that stage and just remained instrumental purely because I couldn’t think of any words for them. And it’s really sad because some of them are great, so they are all coming out as instrumentals. That’s the same every time we do anything, there’s always loads and loads of music and a lot of it is Simon’s, but I run out of words."
Meanwhile, Paul Heaton was awarded Outstanding Song Collection for his work with The Housemartins through to The Beautiful South and his current collaboration with Jacqui Abbott.
"It’s lovely to win this award at this age," Heaton told Headliner. "I think If I’d won it right at the height of my fame it would have been seen as just what you get at that age with success, but this is recognised over a series of albums and a history, so it’s really nice."
Commenting on his path into songwriting and The Ivors' TheWRD initiative launched at the ceremony, he continued: "I left school without any qualifications and went straight into an office as a teaboy, where I worked for three years. But for those three years I was writing, things like Happy Hour and songs about office politics and stuff like that. For the last three or four months there, I was trying to hand my notice in but I just didn't have the financial security to do it, and I knew I was starting to develop as a songwriter. I’m my own worst critic, but I wrote a couple where I knew they were proper songs. So someone in that situation, if they are given the right support… I nearly made the mistake of staying there, and if I had I’d probably still be there now. My director at the company said to me when I handed in my notice ‘I think you’re stupid’. I said, ‘well, I think I should go into music, when I’m making music it makes me happy’. But he said, ‘you’re stupid, you’ve got a good life being a teaboy in the accounts’. He wasn't being nasty, he was just being realistic. But I ignored him and organisations like TheWRD that The Ivors is setting up could just split the difference for somebody."
Also announced at the ceremony was the retirement of long-time ceremony host Paul Gambaccini. He hosted his first Ivor Novello Award ceremony in 1988 and has presented the awards every year since, only missing 2020 when the winners were announced online. In recognition of this, Academy Fellow Joan Armatrading presented him with a unique statuette to acknowledge his contribution to the awards. The Academy also announced that Lauren Laverne will be taking over hosting duties in 2023.
Shaznay Lewis, Ivor Novello Award winner and judge for The Ivors, said: “I’m absolutely thrilled for this year’s winners, who have joined an ever-expanding list of legendary songwriters and screen composers. It is a privilege to experience such an immensely powerful, emotive and eclectic range of music. Huge congratulations to everyone who took home awards, and every single songwriter and composer nominated.”
The 2022 full winners list is as follows:
Academy Fellowship
Peter Gabriel
Best Album
Pink Noise
written by Dann Hume and Laura Mvula
performed by Laura Mvula
published in the UK by Sony Music Publishing and Universal Music Publishing
Best Contemporary Song
I Love You, I Hate You
written by Dean ‘Inflo’ Josiah Cover and Little Simz
performed by Little Simz
published in the UK by Universal Music Publishing
Best Original Film Score
The World To Come
Composed by Daniel Blumberg
published in the UK by Wise Music Group
Best Original Video Game Score
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
Composed by Richard Jacques
Best Song Musically and Lyrically
Seventeen Going Under
Written and performed by Sam Fender
published in the UK by Kobalt Music Publishing
Best Television Soundtrack
Landscapers
Composed by Arthur Sharpe
published in the UK by BDi Music Ltd obo Sister Pictures Ltd and SATV Publishing
Outstanding Song Collection
Paul Heaton
PRS for Music Most Performed Work
Bad Habits
written by Fred again.., Johnny McDaid and Ed Sheeran
performed by Ed Sheeran
published in the UK by Promised Land Music-Universal Music Publishing, Sony Music Publishing and Ed Sheeran Ltd-Sony Music Publishing
PRS for Music Icon Award
Robert Smith and Simon Gallup
Rising Star Award with Apple Music
Naomi Kimpenu
Songwriter of the Year
Dave
Special International Award with Apple Music
Shakira
Visionary Award
Elizabeth Fraser, Robin Guthrie and Simon Raymonde
