McGuinness Honored at Music Week Awards

Paul McGuinness received the Strat Award at the Music Week Awards last week in London. The award, which is named in memory of Tony Stratton-Smith (the founder of Charisma Records), is presented to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the UK music industry.

Among those who provided tributes to McGuinness at the ceremony were Steve Lillywhite, who shared a story about coming to Dublin in 1979 “to see this great new band called U2”; PJ Harvey; Universal Music Group chairman Doug Morris; and, of course, U2, who sent a video message featuring the entire band (yes, Adam lives).


In the video messge, Bono praised McGuinness for impressing upon the band the importance of owning the copyrights to their songs.

“He made us realize that if we did things right, we could own our own copyrights. He fought really hard to ensure we own those songs and that is something we hold to be very dear,” Bono said.

In his acceptance of the award, McGuinness thanked the staff at Principle Management, Island, Universal Publishing and Warner/Chappell, and the bands whom he manages, including The Rapture, Paddy Casey, PJ Harvey, and “the incomparable U2.”