Muchmusic’s video awards give Canada a prize with VJ’s retirement
By Alan Britnell and Mikala Fob
Early last week MuchMusic announced that VJ and hair joke Steve Anthony will finally (thank the good Lord) be leaving our airwaves. So in order to celebrate his departure, hundreds of Canada’s music and video industry-types gathered in the Much environment to make sure that he was really leaving. Since everyone was already there, Moses decided to give away a few plastic M’s. Welcome to the 1995 MuchMusic Video Awards, have a few drinks. We did.
The show started off with more than 500 teeny boppers packed into the parking lot. Surfing and swooning to Moist, the kids got to mosh on national TV to the band’s four-song set. Under the big top tent, the music industry folks drank wine, ate chicken burgers and pretended not to notice or care.
Booze, food and did we mention cameras? Anyone seen here will forever be immortalized on Moses’ spinoffs: the New VR, New Music, City TV, Fax and so on. At every corner, down every aisle and from any window, the cameras were there. Everywhere. Ha, ha.
It was indeed a circus. Hundreds of “special, beautiful people” (and also Snow) air-kissed and repeated the familiar mantra, “Hi…how are you. Grrr-eat to see you.”
Milling around in the outside tent, members of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia natives Sandbox were standing looking very young and out of place along the likes of the Grim Reaper himself, Tom Wilson from Junkhouse, the vinyl clad members of Age of Electric and the be-dreaded Dream Warriors.
Weezer’s guitarist Brian Bell (no, no, no! the band has not broken up!) and their video director Spike Jonze were on hand to pick up the Best International Music Video for “Buddy Holly.” And with performances by Alanis Morrissette from Much’s sister station in Helsinki, Finland and Jann Arden in Strasbourg, France, this year’s awards had an international feel.
However, it’s hard to really care about Jann Adren when you discover that Sarah McLachlan is sitting at the Interactive Internet site doing some online live chats with computer geeks across the country. We hovered for a while around her and other band members who could type (like Steven from Barenaked Ladies and Jeff from Moist) until it was soon time for Madame MacLachlan to be whisked away to her wonderfully intimate live performance in the Bravo! headquarters.
Unlike the MTV awards, the chaos of the MMVA’s works nicely. The lack of pretention, as always, made for a friendlier, relaxed atmosphere. Or was it the free bar? Nevertheless, nobody thought they were better than anyone else, except perhaps for Moses who was followed around by his own spikey-haired “security guard” who made sure that nobody stepped on Herr Znaimer’s tux tails.
The fireworks from Much’s roof signalled that the party was winding down (though not for Moist guitarist/facial contortionist Mark Makowy who swayed happily by an upstairs bar) and it was time to move on to the after-party at the Left Bank. As members of Our Lady Piece, I Mother Earth and Sarah MacLachlan’s entourage trudged toward the uber-trendy bar, a victory cry was heard:
STEVE ANTHONY HAS LEFT THE BUILDING.
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