As Shannon Noll was about to take to the stage at Moonshiners last week, plans were quickly hatched to present him with a Golden Guitar he won 18 months ago, but had not yet received.
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Noll was not in Tamworth when a song he sang on, Lee Kernaghan’s Spirit of the Anzacs, picked up Vocal Collaboration of the Year at the 2016 Toyota Golden Guitar Awards.
Since then, the Golden Guitar with Noll’s name on it has remained in safe keeping until it could be presented to the singer.
“At the last minute on the night of his concert we remembered we had the Golden Guitar safely tucked away and arranged for it to be presented to him,” Cheryl Byrnes, managing editor of Country Music Capital News, said.
The award had been kept at the Capital News office and was taken to the venue Noll was playing, where Craig Power from The Pub Group presented it to Noll on behalf of the CMAA, during his gig.
“He had no idea and was really surprised and thrilled to finally have it,” Cheryl said.
He had no idea and was really surprised and thrilled to finally have it.
- Cheryl Byrnes
Kernaghan’s song Spirit of the Anzacs included seven guest artists, Guy Sebastian, Jessica Mauboy, Jon Stevens, Amy & George Sheppard, Megan Washington and Noll.
It was the first Golden Guitar win for all of the guest artists.
Kernaghan had assembled the impressive line-up for the song while recording an album to pay tribute to our war veterans, released to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing in 2015.
Noll was clearly shocked to be presented with his Golden Guitar, and speaking backstage after the gig, Noll’s joy was obvious.
“It’s a real proud moment to have that,” Noll said. “You don’t get too many awards these days.”
The concert’s organiser, Chris Watson, said he could not think of a better place to present the award.
“The Golden Guitar Awards are such a big part of Tamworth, and the Tamworth Country Music Festival, that we thought it was very fitting to present it to him here,” Chris said.
“That song is about paying respect to people who have fought for Australia, and all of our nurses and servicemen and women, so he was very emotional about what that song meant.”
And he said many of the fans there on the night were just as excited as Noll himself.
“I think they felt very involved in it. That venue is such an intimate and upclose venue so they felt very much a part of the moment.”
