In 2024 the Music Week Awards brought you pop perfection in the form of Girls Aloud presenting manager Peter Loraine with The Strat Award.
At this year’s ceremony, it was the turn of a rock icon to take centre stage as Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner stunned the audience by arriving on stage for the conclusion of the ceremony at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House London.
Introduced by Wildlife Entertainment MD Emma Greengrass, Alex Turner arrived on stage to huge cheers from the audience (and the soundtrack of Arctic Monkeys' R U Mine?) to present longtime manager Ian McAndrew with The Strat Award. It marks 35 years in the industry for McAndrew, who’s had huge success with acts including Arctic Monkeys, Travis, Royal Blood, Fontaines DC, Craig David, Brand New Heavies, and more.
“Please put your hands together for your 2025 Music Week Strat winner, the one, the only, Mr Ian McAndrew,” announced Turner from the stage.
View this post on Instagram
The Wildlife Entertainment founder and CEO seemed as surprised as the audience to see Turner on stage, believing that the Arctic Monkeys frontman was supposed to be in France. “Alex, that was a complete surprise, I had absolutely no idea you were here,” said McAndrew.
While most of the awards are judged by industry peers, The Strat is Music Week’s special award chosen by the Music Week team in recognition of outstanding achievements – you can read up on the history of the prestigious award here. The trophy was named after Tony Stratton-Smith (nicknamed ‘Strat’), a former journalist who became a larger-than-life industry character as a manager and the founder of Charisma Records.
Ian McAndrew is a hugely deserving winner for 2025.
View this post on Instagram
“He’s someone who’s always been a passionate advocate for long-term artist development and great songwriting,” Emma Greengrass told the audience. “Alongside that he has taken a stand against profiteering in the secondary ticketing market, as a founder member of the FanFair Alliance and helped raise millions to protect children globally who have been affected by war through his support for the incredible charity War Child.”
She added: “Over the last 35 years, he has worked alongside some of the most talented UK-based artists the world has seen. From Craig David to Travis, and Fontaines DC to one of the UK’s biggest global acts today – Arctic Monkeys. For him, it is always about great records, fantastic live shows and helping the artists stay true to themselves whilst reaching the levels of success that they seek and deserve. I am of course talking about the manager’s manager, CEO of Wildlife Entertainment, legend of the industry, my very good friend and colleague, Ian McAndrew.”
Accepting the Strat (you can watch the full video below), Ian McAndrew told the audience how he was wearing a vintage Cartier watch for the evening that had previously been owned by The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein.
“I was always, and remain, a huge admirer of Brian Epstein,” said McAndrew. “And someone else who was a big admirer of Brian was Tony Stratton-Smith... Tony was a gentleman, he was an adventurer, he was a maverick and, of course, a music manager. It was said that Tony was never happier than when the artists he had so carefully nurtured were fulfilling their creative dreams. And they're sentiments that I share, so I'm very grateful to be accepting this award in his honour."
View this post on Instagram
McAndrew recalled the start of his journey into music management, when he attended the same venue in London’s Park Lane in 1989 at the age of 22 for the Ivor Novello Awards. As well as huge artists such as George Michael, Dire Straits and the Bee Gees, it was attended by “the moguls, the hitmakers, the svengalis” – industry figures like Peter Reichardt, Robin Godfrey-Cass, Nick Phillips and Queen manager Jim Beach.
“I was curious, I was fascinated and I was inspired,” said McAndrew. “Standing here now, 35 years later, I still feel curious, I still feel fascinated. I'm still inspired, but I'm also grateful. I'm grateful to those songwriters and artists who have placed their trust in us, it's a huge privilege to serve and represent them. I'm grateful to the amazing team at Wildlife – Table 18 [cheers from the table].
“Artist management today is not an individual pursuit, it's a shared enterprise. I'm blessed to work with the very best. I'm particularly fortunate to work alongside my fellow director, Sarah Abbott, and Wildlife MD Emma Greengrass, who is someone I not only value as a great professional manager, she’s someone I cherish as a very dear friend. I'm grateful to all our former Wildlife colleagues, particularly to my old partner, Colin Lester, the doctor, with whom I shared some amazing experiences and with a lot of laughs along the way.
“I'm especially grateful to my wife, Bejou, and my loving family, who support me for helping support those who mean so much to us.”
McAndrew also used the speech to remind the industry about the War Child album of 1995, where artists recorded tracks to raise funds for children affected by war in Bosnia.
He revealed that project James Ford is now working on a new War Child album.
“I'm grateful to work in a business where actions and music make a difference,” he said.
“Tragically, today, almost twice as many children are living with fear and suffering the trauma of conflict than they were 30 years ago,” he added. “Tonight, I'm calling on this community to join us in supporting War Child with the release of a new Help album. Already, many leading artists have offered their time and creativity to write and record a truly special record. And I'm particularly thrilled to announce the producer James Ford has generously offered his time and expertise to help to produce the album.
“In the coming weeks and months, we will be inviting some of you to offer your support, because I know once again, together, we can make a difference. No child should ever be part of war – ever.”
McAndrew concluded his speech with a Bob Dylan reference.
“I was once asked to give a speech at my school when I was 18, and I decided to pose the question, What is success?” he recalled. “Borrowing from the words of Bob Dylan, a prophet, a man is a success if he gets up in the morning, gets to bed at night, and in between, does what he wants to do. I'm truly fortunate to have been afforded the opportunity to do what I want to do, which is to help my artists, my songwriters, get up in the morning, go to bed at night and do what they want to do.
“I'm very proud to accept this award on my behalf, and also on behalf of the whole Wildlife team and in some small way on behalf of Brian. Thank you.”
You can read our exclusive Music Week Awards 2025 digital cover story with Ian McAndrew here.
Previous winners include pop supremo and Fascination Management founder Peter Loraine (2024), CAA super agent Emma Banks (2023), PR guru Barbara Charone (2022), MOBO founder Kanya King (2021), Darcus Beese (2019) and Max Lousada (2018).
Just to recap, the Music Week Awards 2025 was sold-out months in advance for this year’s industry celebration – you can read our report from the night and all the winners here including a momentous double for Island EMI.
PHOTOS: Will Ireland
FOLLOW 
