Music industry VIPs and celebrities filled London’s Cafe de Paris on Wednesday evening for the 2011 Music Producers Guild Awards.

The annual event – recognising music recording professionals – saw the top award for Producer of the Year (which also earned its winner a Brit Award for Best Producer) went to Markus Dravs, who was nominated for his work as producer on Mumford & Sons album Sigh No More and his co-production work alongside the band on Arcade Fire’s album The Suburbs. Dravs was presented with both his Music Producers Guild and Brit awards by Chris Martin from Coldplay, whose album he is currently producing.

Other award recipients included Mute founder Daniel Miller, who won the Outstanding Contribution to UK Music Award, and producer Tony Visconti, who won the Joe Meek Award for Innovation in Production.

Although only in its third year, The Music Producers Guild (MPG) Awards has now firmly established itself on the music industry calendar. Hosted by BBC 6 Music’s Nemone Metaxas, this year’s Awards were a sell-out, reflecting the importance of recording professionals to the UK music industry and the UK economy.

‘We had many more nominations this year and the calibre and array of genres represented by the nominees was incredibly high,’ says Steve Levine, MPG Chairman. ‘These awards mean a great deal to the UK’s professional recording community because they know they are being judged by their peers. Audio professionals are positioned at the very heart of the music industry – we guide the artistic creation that is the lifeblood of our industry. We are delighted that, once again, we have been able to highlight their remarkable achievements before such an extensive and illustrious audience.”

In total, 15 Awards were presented in front of an audience that included Boy George, The Coral, Alison Goldfapp, Gary Numan and Razorlight’s Andy Burrows.

The Awards

More: www.mpg.org.uk