Girls Aloud manager Peter Loraine was honored with a prestigious Strat award at last night’s Music Week Awards in London, where UMG U.K. labels EMI and Island Records were also big winners.

Loraine was honored for a three-decade career in which he’s worked with a wealth of British pop greats, including Girls Aloud (who presented him with the award in the above photo), S Club 7, ABBA, All Saints, Jessie Ware and Goldfrapp.

EMI took home Record Company of the Year, as they also did last year, making it a second win for label leaders Rebecca Allen and Jo Charrington, who took the helm in 2022. The win followed a successful 2023 in which the EMI team tallied #1 U.K. albums by Lewis Capaldi, Take That and Taylor Swift, plus a #4 debut from Olivia Dean and a successful breakthrough for Mae Stephens, who peaked at #13 with her viral hit, “If We Ever Broke Up.” EMI were also honored with Promotions Team of the Year.

The Island Records squad, led by President Louis Bloom, took the A&R Award after enjoying a major breakthrough with BRIT Award Rising Star winners The Last Dinner Party, whose debut, Prelude to Ecstasy, hit #1 in the U.K. in February. The label also released #1 albums from indie rock act The Lathums, plus U2 and Hozier last year.

UMG had another win for Catalog Marketing Campaign for UMR’s work on The Beatles Now and Then release. It’s about time someone gave an award to that quartet from Liverpool!

In other categories, Central Cee manager Bello was named Manager of the Year; Publisher of the Year went to Warner Chappell; and EGA Distro took Independent Record Company of the Year.

Warner Music U.K. claimed two gongs for International Marketing Team of the Year and Sync Team of the Year, Sony Music U.K. took Sales Team of the Year and the Label/Artist Services award went to AWAL. Other winners included Young Songs for Independent Publisher of the Year, CAA for Live Music Agency, Live Nation U.K. for Live Music Promoter and RAYE and The Orchard for Artist Marketing Campaign.

Congratulations to all the winners. We look forward to hearing more about it when you take us out for chicken and chips.