ARIA Music Awards of 1988


The Second Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards was held on 29 February 1988 at the Sheraton Wentworth Hotel in Sydney. Cliff Richard was the host, with Bryan Ferry, Feargal Sharkey and Ian "Molly" Meldrum included as presenters of the 21 awards. There were no live performances and the awards were not televised. A fracas developed between manager Gary Morris, accepting awards for Midnight Oil, and former Countdown compere Meldrum who was presenting.
Some significant changes were made for the second ARIA Awards. In addition to the categories for the inaugural year, "Best Children's Album" was added. The ARIA Hall of Fame was also created, with six acts being inducted: AC/DC, Slim Dusty, Col Joye, Johnny O'Keefe, Dame Joan Sutherland and Vanda & Young. Finally an "Outstanding Achievement Award" was created and first awarded to John Farnham.

Ceremony details

Midnight Oil won "Best Cover Art" for Diesel and Dust and both "Best Single" and "Best Song" for "Beds Are Burning". A fracas developed between manager Gary Morris, accepting awards for Midnight Oil, and former Countdown compere Ian "Molly" Meldrum who was presenting:
Meldrum objected to Morris' political commentary from the podium and making jokes at the expense of Bryan Ferry who was wearing a crumpled suit:
Karen Middleton of The Canberra Times was disappointed by the ceremony where "nsults flowed almost as freely as the wine and all three of the international guest presenters fell victim to flimsy jokes and foolishness". She felt that Morris was "winner of the unofficial prize for least-liked personality.... aimed a poor one-liner at British presenter Bryan Ferry". However the "greatest revelation of the evening proved that there are more sore losers in the business than the small screen would lead us to believe. When a winner happened to be a little unpopular, the beautiful people booed".

Awards and nominations

Winners are listed first and bolded, other final nominees are listed alphabetically.

ARIA Awards

The inaugural Hall of Fame inductees were: