Music Week Awards wins for SJM Concerts, CAA, AXS

SJM Concerts paid tribute to the late Chris York after being named Live Music Promoter of the Year at the 2025 Music Week Awards.

Accepting the award at last night’s ceremony at London’s Grosvenor House, SJM’s Jack Dowling and John Cornell described their hugely respected former colleague, who died last year aged 55, as a “special guy”.

York was a director at SJM, working with artists including Oasis, Foo Fighters, Green Day, The Chemical Brothers, Lily Allen, Massive Attack, Robert Plant, Underworld, Lorde, Morrissey, Placebo, Suede and Stereophonics over the course of 30 years.

Elsewhere, CAA took home the Live Music Agency prize for a second successive year, with agent Maria May saluting the “exceptional hard work” and collaboration of the team.

“The senior leadership is amazing,” she added. “We all love being in our jobs and we’re extremely grateful to everybody for this award.”

Reading & Leeds, whose 2024 edition was headed by Blink-182, Fred Again.., Lana Del Rey, Liam Gallagher, Catfish and the Bottlemen and Gerry Cinnamon, claimed Festival of the Year and AXS Europe received the Ticketing Company award.

“Artist management today is not an individual pursuit, it’s a shared enterprise”

In addition, Nottingham’s The Bodega came out on top in the Grassroots Venue: Spirit of the Scene category.

The night’s most prestigious award, The Strat, went to Wildlife Entertainment CEO and longtime Arctic Monkeys manager Ian McAndrew. The band’s frontman Alex Turner made a surprise appearance to present McAndrew with the honour alongside Wildlife MD Emma Greengrass.

McAndrew, who has guided the likes of Travis, Royal Blood, Miles Kane and Fontaines D.C. during his 35-year career, is also a founding member of anti-ticket touting campaign group FanFair Alliance.

“Artist management today is not an individual pursuit, it’s a shared enterprise,” he said. “I’m blessed to work with the very best. I’m particularly fortunate to work alongside my fellow director, Sarah Abbott, and Wildlife MD Emma Greengrass, who is someone I not only value as a great professional manager, she’s someone I cherish as a very dear friend.

“I’m grateful to all our former Wildlife colleagues, particularly to my old partner, Colin Lester, the doctor, with whom I shared some amazing experiences and with a lot of laughs along the way.

“I’m truly fortunate to have been afforded the opportunity to do what I want to do, which is to help my artists, my songwriters, get up in the morning, go to bed at night and do what they want to do.”

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