Aussie Political Rock Group Wins Best Rock Indie Award

Australian political rock group "OutKry" won the Hardrush Independent Music Award 2006 for Best Rock CD "In This World". The band which launched "Rock The Tox" to stop toxic waste being dumped next to a national park and played the steps of Parliament House last month was a clear favourite and attended the awards.

The 2006 Hardrush Independent Music Awards were announced and presented at MusicLand Melbourne, Australia on Friday night 25 August.

Recognizing the effort and influence of independent artists on the music market the awards were both genre and performance based and attended by media personalities and artists from across Australia.

The awards included:

* Best Folk - Australia, Home Again And Free – Buckley’s Chance (UK based Aussies);
* Best Country - Bring Me Home – Julie McAllan (NT);
* Best Jazz/World - Apewe Sifa – Wangeci (Kenya based);
* Best Blues & Roots CD - Keeping The Faith – Sean Hale (VIC);
* Best Christian - House Of I Am – Aliki (QLD);
* Best Urban - Family Harmony – BASIC (VIC);
* Best Pop - Heaven’s Eyes – Cindy-Leigh Boske (QLD);
* Best Rock - In This World – OutKry (VIC);
* Best Compilation CD - In God’s Country
* Best Producer - Reggie Bowman – In This World;
* Best Music Video - Red And Yellow Black And White - James Hollands;
* Songwriting Achievement - Dean Haitani (QLD);
* Export Achievement - Gavin Chatelier (VIC);
* Highest Sales - Restoration - compilation

Performers at the awards included Guryel Ali (reggae), Gavin Chatelier (country), Sean Hale (blues), Sri V (urban), Melanii (pop), Dean Haitani (alternate) and OutKry (rock). During their performance, lead singer Alx repeated the band's motto 'You Gotta stand for something or you'll fall for anything"

ARIA member Hardrush Music is a medium scale independent label with almost 100 artists with sales of $3 million in 2005-06. With a catalog comprising all music styles, around 25% of sales were to export markets during this period. The label's key strengths are in Blues, Country, Gospel, Pop, Rock, and Urban genres.