Steve Lillywhite to present keynote at AMP announcement

This year’s guest speaker at the Cooper’s Australian Music Prize’s pre-winner’s Amped Up In Conversation lunch is producer Steve Lillywhite.

Lillywhite will present a keynote speech and take part in a Q&A with the 130-strong audience. The one-time avid punk is quite the raconteur, with previous appearances overseas filled with anecdotes of U2, The Rolling Stones, Talking Heads, The Members, Simple Minds, The Killers and Morrissey.

The lunch takes place on Wednesday March 5 at the Basement in Sydney. The $30,000 prize winner is decided by the judges that morning. On the shortlist are:

Beaches – She Beats
Big Scary – Not Art
Cloud Control – Dream Cave
Dialectrix – The Cold Light Of Day
Horrorshow – King Amongst Many
Jagwar Ma – Howlin’
Jen Cloher – In Blood Memory
Jimblah – Phoenix
Kirin J Callinan – Embracism

AMP founder Scott B. Murphy told TMN, “The diversity of this list is fantastic.” He adds, “We notice the winner’s album has a sales spike right after. They get media attention in Australia as well as overseas, and the flow-on effect is obvious. One feedback we get from past winners is how they got moved up a slot at an overseas festival as a result.”