Music Producers Guild Awards winners declared

Paul Epworth: receives the MPG Producer Of The Year award for the fourth time

It’s a fourth major win for producer and songwriter Paul Epworth, while David Bowie’s producer Tony Visconti wins two categories

For the fourth time in his career, producer Paul Epworth received the top accolade at the Music Producers Guild Awards, by carrying off the prestigious Producer of the Year Award for 2017. Epworth, who previously won the same award in 2010, 2013 and 2015, was nominated this year for his work with Adele, The Stone Roses and Usher.

The MPG Awards 2017, which took place at London’s Grosvenor House last night, also saw American producer Tony Visconti honoured with the Award for Outstanding Contribution to UK Music. This accolade recognised the enormous impact Visconti has had on the UK music scene over many years thanks to his ground-breaking work with artists such as David Bowie, Marc Bolan and T.Rex, The Moody Blues, The Seahorses, Angélique Kidjo, The Manic Street Preachers and Morrissey. Visconti also received the MPG’s 2017 gong for International Producer of the Year for his work on Bowie’s last album, Blackstar – itself a winner in the UK Album of the Year category.

Producer and DJ Roni Size was also honoured by the MPG with the Inspiration Award. Reprazent, the drum and bass collective Size founded in the mid-1990s, took the world by a storm when their New Forms LP won the Mercury Music Prize. The album quickly went platinum thanks to modern-day classics such as Watching Windows, Heroes and Brown Paper Bag. The 350-plus guests at last night’s event were also treated to a DJ set by Roni Size.

“Every year it becomes more and more difficult to find superlatives to describe the fantastic array of talent honoured during our Awards event,” declared MPG’s Tony Platt. “It is impossible to overstate the contribution these people make to our industry. The next few years will present many new challenges but with this level of creativity and inspiration to call on, we are well placed to face them.”

To find out more about the MPG, check out: mpg.org.uk

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