It began, quite deliberately, with Keith Flint.

The Prodigy’s Champions Of London  boomed across the Grand Connaught Rooms in London at 8.45pm on November 6, 2019, ringing the opening bell on the UK-focused A&R Awards, presented by MBW in association with Abbey Road Studios.

Backed by the likes of the BPI, Centtrip, Downtown, Hipgnosis, Spotify, Vevo and YouTube Music, the evening saw some heart-warming moments, not least British songwriter/producer extraordinaire, Steve Mac, paying tribute to his long-term manager, David Howells – and then Howells returning the favour. The duo mutually collected the A&R Loyalty Award.

Elsewhere, Independiente and Go! Discs founder Andy Macdonald won the coveted A&R Icon gong for his work with the likes of The La’s, Travis, Paul Weller, The Housemartins, The Beautiful South and So Solid Crew.

The prize was presented by Macdonald’s one-time mentee, Ferdy Unger-Hamilton, the current-day President of Columbia Records UK, who signed the likes of Gabrielle and Portishead in the ’90s while building imprint Go! Beat within Go! Discs’ walls.

The final trophy of the evening, the Sir George Martin Award, went to Universal Music Publishing Group UK boss, Mike McCormack (pictured). The likes of Robbie Williams, Annie Lennox, The Clash (The actual Clash), Simon Cowell, Paloma Faith and Jody Gerson paid tribute to McCormack (as did Peter Crouch and Jose Mourinho, for that matter). Predictably, McCormack’s acceptance speech brought the entire room to its feet.

Who else won awards? Some names you might know. Polydor, Warner Chappell, Alec Boateng, Lisa Cullington, Dipesh Parmar, Jimmy Napes, Jamie Oborne, TMS, Method Music… to name a few.

William Orbit was there. It was a whole thing.