www.billboard.com/articles/news/6113736/classic-rock-roll-honour-awards-hollywood-november-4Classic Rock Awards Heading to Hollywood in November (Exclusive)
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By Gary Graff | June 06, 2014 9:54 AM EDT
The U.K.'s Classic Rock magazine is taking its show on the road and planting a flag in the U.S.
Classic Rock will bring its 10th annual Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards across the pond for the first time ever on Nov. 4 at the Avalon in Hollywood. The gala will include the annual Classic Rock Living Legend Award -- previously won by Jimmy Page, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Rush, Iggy Pop, Jeff Beck and Lemmy Kilmister -- along with a selection of other categories, many of them determined by a public vote. The characteristically star-studded show will also include live performances, celebrity presenters and, for attendees, VIP amenities.
An announcement of categories, performers and emcees (previous hosts have included Cooper, Kiss' Gene Simmons and Duff McKagan) is coming in July to coincide with Classic Rock's 200th issue.
"We thought this was the 10th anniversary we should take this thing to the second home of rock 'n' roll," Classic Rock editor Sian Llewellyn tells Billboard. "We want to take this globally now, and the Americans love rock as much if not moreseo than the Brits."
Classic Rock, in its second year owned the Team Rock Limited, which publishes other magazines and runs on online radio network, is also hoping the ceremony will help the high-gloss monthly get a stronger toehold in the lucrative North American market.
"We celebrate that sort of rock music that doesn't get quite the love maybe it deserves," Llewellyn explains, adding that the publication's approach to the genre, with bands such as Alter Bridge and Black Stone Cherry as cover subjects, is not as static as its radio format counterpart in the U.S. "We're not just dusty old rock; we're all sorts of rock. Classic rock means the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, the Eagles and all that, but it also means brand new bands that follow on in that great tradition of rock. If it's got loud guitars and rocks and is in the tradition of classic rock, it's good -- not just great new music from stalwarts and veterans like (Tom) Petty or whoever. There are a lot of new band that have taken those influences and run with them. So (the awards) will involve those kinds of bands as well)."
The Classic Rock Awards have been held at venues in London, including the famed Roundhouse. For the past two years the show has been televised via Britain's Sky Arts. A broadcast deal for this year's ceremony is currently being negotiated.
