Most Popular Band Award
The Les Keats Memorial Award for the Most Popular Band, as voted by the members of the Country Music Guild, was introduced in 2003 in remembrance of Les Keats who passed away on August 7, 2002. Les was President of The Guild for many years.
The first winner of this award was The Dalton Gang in 2004. Other winners were Mustang, The Prairie Oysters, Tim Farren Band, Rough Cut, The Rip Rawers, Honkytonk Rockers and Doug Bruce & The Tailgaters.
Listen to the announcement of the winners of the “Most Popular Band” and the “Most Popular Vocalist” and the winners’ responses on the night.
Most Popular Band Award (2017 – 2018)
On Friday August 25, 2018, The Dalton Gang won the 15th annual Les Keats Memorial Award for the “Most Popular Band” as voted by the members of the Country Music Guild of Australasia.
They were one of 21 bands to perform at The Guild during the year 2017-2018.
This is the third time they have won this Award. They won it in 2004 and 2005, the first two years the Awards were run.
The Dalton Gang performed on the night and also backed five other vocalists – Michelle Gardiner, Kerran Keats, Karan Johns, Keith Green and Terry Dean.
See the list of all the previous winners at the bottom of this page.
Most Popular Vocalist Award
The Most Popular Vocalist Award, as voted by the members of the Country Music Guild, was introduced in 2008 to acknowledge a favourite vocalist. This award is donated each year by Joy Mitchener, a Life Member of The Guild. Tim Farren won the first award in 2009. Other winners were Helen Stewart and Doug Bruce.
Most Popular Vocalist Award (2017 – 2018)
Helen Stewart and Terry Dean were tied in a dead heat in the voting so they both won the 10th annual award for the “Most Popular Vocalist”.
For Helen it was the 5th time, making it 4 years in a row she has won this award.
Helen plays bass and sings with The Dalton Gang, the Danny Stain Band, the Guild Country Band and was a member of the Tim Farren Band.
The Dalton Gang won the Most Popular Band Award in 2004 and 2005 and the Tim Farren Band in 2008, 2012 and 2014.
Helen was a member of these bands when they each won their awards.
Terry Dean is half of the popular duo Dean & Carruthers and he was thrilled to win this Award. He said the last Award he won was at the Wandong Country Music Festival in 1974.
Previous Winners
