The 4th Jack Daniel’s Rock Awards 2008-09

Press Release

The 4th Jack Daniel’s Rock Awards 2008-09 On Thursday, February 12, 2009 at Hard Rock Café, Mumbai

Jack Daniel’s continues to take Indian Rock

To the International Stage

For Immediate Release 

The 4th Jack Daniel’s Rock Awards, 2008-09 have been getting a terrific build-up with a series of Tribute Nights to legendary rock idols. The Jack Daniel’s - Rolling Stone - VH1 Tribute Nights to the legends of music enthralled Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata over the last 4 months with mega events at rock haunts like Hard Rock Café (Mumbai) Elevate (Delhi), and Some Place Else (Kolkata). The venues were spilling over with rock lovers who arrived in large numbers to pay tribute to the legendary bands, cheer and hear their favourite bands, and also to participate in the new, interactive voting process in place for the Rock Awards. The response to the specially designated website, www.jdrockawards.com has been phenomenal; in just 4 days after the site was opened for public voting, almost 1300 consumers and rock lovers have registered themselves to vote for their favorite bands.

The first of the four Jack Daniel’s - Rolling Stone - VH1 Tribute series Tribute Night honored The Beatles on the 40th anniversary of The White Album, at a jam-packed concert at Mumbai’s Hard Rock Café on November 6, 2008, The second was a Tribute to the legendary Jim Morrison at a packed concert celebrating the iconic singer’s birthday on December 05, 2008, at Elevate, Noida. The third concert was held at Kolkata’s Someplace Else on January 10, 2009 to honour the 30th anniversary of Pink Floyd’s classic album The Wall.

The final concert of the series will be at Mumbai’s Hard Rock Café on February 12, 2009at the presentation of the 4th Jack Daniel’s Rock Awards. The Tribute to Guitar Gods concert will honor some of the greatest guitarists of our times. It will be the first time that the Jack Daniel’s Rock Awards Final has moved from Delhito Mumbai.

The response to Jack Daniel’s invitation to performing bands in India continues to be overwhelming.For this year’s edition, 75 entries were received. A note-by-note scanning of each of the 121 bands’ original compositions was arranged under a 5-member jury. The jury finally selected 5 nominations in each category, which were then brought into the public domain through the voting process that will decide the final winners in each category.The final 5 nominations in each category are also simultaneously assessed by a formidable 9-member jury panel namely Uday Benegal (Indus Creed), Mahesh Tinaiker (Indus Creed), Milind Deora (Member of Parliament), Luke Kenny (Actor), Rudy Wallang (Soulmate), Nitin Malik (Parikrama), Anand Srinivasan (EMI – Virgin), Arjun Sankalia (Sony – BMG) and Gaurav Sharma (Fever 104 FM). The winners will be decided upon a cumulative total of popular votes and jury’s verdict. In all cases, the jury’s verdict overrules popular voting.

To add to the efforts of the past 4 years, the forerunner to the 4th Jack Daniel’s Rock Awards Jack Daniel’s - Rolling Stone - VH1 Tribute is the tribute to the legends of music. It has been a worldwide tradition that Jack Daniel’s has consistently promoted the finer things in life, be it fashion, art, music, theatre or sport. Jack Daniel’s has been supporting rock music in a big way in Europe and America, hence the association with Indian Rock is a natural step towards enhancing that tradition in the best possible manner. It gives them great pleasure to share with you the fact that for the 4th Jack Daniel’s Rock Awards they have the unstinting support of the best bands in the country, many of whom have created truly worthy benchmarks in the year that has gone by. The turnout of rock lovers at the venues each year is remarkable to say the least and there has not been a single show that has not been packed.

The Jack Daniel’s Rock Awards is based on popular votes and the recommendations of a specially formed jury. To get more music lovers to participate in the process, online voting for all nominated categories was made possible last year through the website www.jdrockawards.com. The final winners will be declared and will receive their Awards at the Grand Finale on February 12, 2009. A total of 16 awards will be given in nine categories including Band of the Year, Song of the Year, Lifetime Achievement Award, Emerging Band of the Year, etc. There will beelectrifying performances by some of India's very best guitarists.

Giving out the awards would be music luminaries like Fans of Indian rock Luke Kenny, Ehsaan, Vishal Dadlani, Garry Lawyer, Milind Deora,Monikangana Dutt, Tara Sharma, Hard Kaur amongst others would also be present to encourage and applaud the growing popularity of Indian Rock.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Amrit Kiran Singh, Area Director & VP, Brown-Forman Worldwide stated, “It was Jack Daniel’s efforts 4 years ago, that began the process of bringing rock music, mainstream. Till this point rock music in India was confined to the university campus. Today, rock bands are playing at style bars and restaurants like Smoke House Grill, TGI Fridays, Blue Frog etc. There are 3 magazines in India dedicated to Rock Music (Rolling Stone, Blender & RSJ), there are Hard Rock Cafes in 4 cities and movies like Rock On. So rock music has come a long way in India since Jack Daniel’s began its consistent support to this genre of music. The Jack Daniel’s Rock Awards which has seen the winning bands (Them Cones and Menwhopause) being sponsored by us to perform in England and the US has moved to another level this year. With credible partners such as Rolling Stones and VH1 joining hands with us to create synergy, the Jack Daniel’s Rock Awards is all set to becoming a benchmark event in the Indian music scene this year.”

Last year Jack Daniel’s Legendary Mash International Grand Finale at Tennessee threw open the stage to young, upcoming bands from around the world. A large criterion in winning this year would be the self-belief and ability among bands to compete on equal terms with the best in the world.

According to Mr. Radhakrishnan Nair, Editor & Publisher of Rolling Stone, the Indian edition of the world’s greatest music magazine, “Jack Daniel’s - Rolling Stone Tribute nights are part of our mission to promote rock music in India, and the Jack Daniel’s Rock Awards has done a commendable job over the years to encourage Indian bands to create music that is not only original but also of a very high quality.”

In early 2006, rock music in India got a huge surge when Jack Daniel’s organized the JD Set. Featuring 5 of the best bands in the country, the JD Set created waves when Them Clones, the band that won the event, winged their way to London to participate in the JD Set, UK. The very next year, Jack Daniel’s took rock music in India to the next level by honoring the Indian rock fraternity at the first ever organized awards for Rock Music in India at The Jack Daniel’s Backstage Tennessee Annual Rock Awards. Earlier, in 2008 Menwhopause won the Best Band of the Year Award at Jack Daniel’s Legendary Mash and went to Lynchburg, Tennessee to compete with other winners from across the globe at the Jack Daniel’s Legendary Mash event. The stage is now set for the 4th year of the Jack Daniel’s Annual Rock Awards ’08-’09!

Along with Rolling Stone and VH1, Jack Daniel’s has been intimately connected with music for many years. Mr. Jack Daniel’s sponsored and supported a band as far back as 1906, long before a slight inversion of numbers gave birth to a full-fledged rock revolution in 1960. Jack Daniel’s foresees the Jack Daniel’s Annual Rock Awards as an ongoing and long-term annual celebration where the bar will be raised every year and new facets will be introduced to the annual event as a continuous, ever-evolving process.

For further details please contact PR Grid: Jitendra Parmar/Ajay Garkal/Ritu Lamba/ Richa Katiyar 9818410072, 9810632344, 9810816035, 9313364676, 911141431044, 41431455, 29249364