Former Island Records executive Nick Stewart picked up the award on behalf on Blackwell, while there were video tributes from a host of former Island executives such as Marc Marot and Tim Clark. The award marked 50 years of Music Week magazine.
Meanwhile, U2 led video tributes to Partridge, who passed away last year. "I think it's fair to say that you believed in us before we believed in ourselves," Bono said of the man who was an early champion of the band.
Universal were the major winners among the record companies, with Polydor winning Record Company Of The Year, Fiction's Jim Chancellor picking up the A&R Award from Elbow frontman Guy Garvey and Universal's Lost Tunes initiative winning Digital Achievement Of The Year. (A full list of winners is below).
Xl was named Independent Record Company Of The Year on the back of successes from Adele, MIA, Radiohead and Vampire Weekend, while Jeanette Lee won Manager Of The Year for her work with Duffy who turned up to present the award to her.
In an unprecedented move, Universal and EMI shared the spoils for Publisher Of The Year after the two proved too close to separate. Kobalt was named Independent Publisher Of The Year.
AIM chairman and CEO Alison Wenham also picked up a special achievement award, marking ten years of the indies association.
Music Week editor Paul Williams says, "I thought tonight showed that, despite all the evident difficulties in the music industry, there is still a great deal to celebrate. I would like to congratulate all the winners and thank everyone for coming."
The winners are:
Artist Marketing Campaign of the Year
Liz Goodwin from Polydor for Elbow The Seldom Seen Kid
Catalogue Marketing Campaign of the Year
Rachael Paley from Mercury Records for Stereophonics - Decade In The Sun - Best Of
Digital Achievement of the Year
Lost Tunes - Universal Music Catalogue, UK
Music Retail Brand of the Year
Amazon.co.uk
Music & Brand Partnership of the Year
Bacardi & Groove Armada - KLP
Music Retail Store of the Year
Rough Trade East, London
Music Sales Force of the Year
Sony Music
Music Sync of the Year
Boots "Here Come The Girls" - Sugababes - Universal Music
Music Venue of the Year
O2 Academy Brixton
National Promotions Team of the Year
Atlantic Promotions
National Radio Station of the Year
BBC Radio 2
PR Campaign of the Year
BC from MBC PR for Duffy: The Rise of Little Big Voice
Regional Promotions Team of the Year
Columbia Records
Regional Radio Station of the Year
Radio City 96.7
Distributor of the Year
Proper Music Distribution
Publisher of the Year
EMI Music Publishing
Independent Publisher of the Year
Kobalt
Record Company of the Year
Polydor
Independent Record Company of the Year
XL
Concert Promoter of the Year
Rob Hallett
The Strat
Rob Partridge
UK Music Executive of the Past 50 Years
Chris Blackwell
The A&R Award
Jim Chancellor
Manager of the Year
Jeanette Lee
Producer of the Year
Xenomania
Special Achievement - 10 Years of AIM
Alison Wenham
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