Glass went to the NME Awards 2017

THE NME awards at Brixton’s O2 Academy proved to be an action-packed night, celebrating the year’s best independent and rock musical talents.

Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro picked up the award for Best British Band presented by fellow rocker Frank Carter. Frontman Simon Neil accepted the award saying “Thanks NME, thanks fans, thanks Ben and James Johnston for making this group. We’ve been a band for a long time, it means a lot, the support from everyone.”

Wiley_NMEAwards2017_STORYWiley NME Awards 2017

Introducing the Best British Male category was Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan who told the audience, “Can I tell you what an honour it is?” before announcing Skepta as the winner. The grime hero beat other favourites Zayn Malik, Jamie T, Michael Kiwanuka, Richard Ashcroft and Kano to the title. Skepta took to the stage wearing a pair of sunglasses and accepted his award saying, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is the one I wanted as well. I love this trophy. This is my mood right now. Thank you to my family, too many names to mention. Thank you very much. Big up.”

StroryPic_AwardsStage_NMEAwards2017_AF_20170215_0015Awards Stage NME Awards 2017

Grime took a centre stage at the awards show, and Frank Carter said that grime is “the new punk”. Two of grime’s biggest stars were acknowledged for their music and Skepta took to the stage again to award Wiley the Outstanding Contribution To Music award, calling him the “godfather of grime”.

StoryPictureNME Awards 2017_AndyFORD_Best Festival GastonburyNME Awards 2017 Best Festival Glastonbury. Photograph: Andy Ford

MIA won Best British Female and took the time to show her support for migrants and the Help Refugees charity in her acceptance speech before introducing a special one-off performance of the band 4Refugees supergroup made of members of Years & Years, Slaves, Peace, Charlie XCX and Pixie Geldof.

StoryPicture_NME Awards Mike Williams_MGR2612NME Awards Mike Williams

Christine & The Queens picked up the most awards of the night winning both Best International Female and Best Track for her song Titled.

StoryPIC_NME Awards_Bands4RefugeesNME Awards 4Refugees

The 1975 celebrated a win for Best Live Band after winning the Worst Band Award in 2014. Frontman Matty Healy said “Thank you. Stop talking. Listen. This our second NME Award. The first time we were the shittest band. Now it’s for being good, so I don’t know what that proves. I don’t think it proves anything.”

StoryPIc_Goldie_AwardsStage_NMEAwards2017_AF_20170215_0010Goldie Awards Stage NME Awards 2017

Salves won the award for Best Video for Consume Or Be Consumed against a strong competition of international talent such as Beyoncé, Kanye West and Radiohead. In the video the Tunbridge Wells duo are seen taking part in a hot dog eating contest. Guitarist Laurie Vincent accepted the award and said “I’d like to say commiserations to Beyoncé and Kanye – it can’t be easy losing to us.”

StoryPIC_DuaLipa_Live_NMEAwards2017_AndyHughesDuaLipa Live NME Awards 2017

Villain of the Year was awarded to the infamous Nigel Farage and Beyoncé took the title of Hero of the Year.

StoryPhoto_NME Awards_Wiley_Skepta._Jordan Curtis HughesWiley and Skepta. Photograph: Jordan Curtis Hughes

It wasn’t great fun for 5 Seconds of Summer, as they won the award for Worst Band for the third year in a row.

NME_SLAVES_STORY IMAGESLAVES at the NME Awards

STORY_STAGE_NMEThe stage at the NME Awards

See the full list of winners below:

Best British Band
Biffy Clyro

Best International Band
Metallica

Best British Male
Skepta

Best British Female
MIA

Best International Male
Frank Ocean

Best International Female
Christine & The Queens

Best New Artist
Dua Lipa

Best Album
Bastille – Wild World

Best Track
Christine And The Queens – Tilted

Best Live Band
The 1975

Best Video
Slaves – Consume Or Be Consumed

Best Festival
Glastonbury

Best Music Film
Oasis – Supersonic

Best TV Series
Fleabag

Best Film
My Scientology Movie

Music Moment of the Year
Coldplay’s Viola Beach tribute at Glastonbury

Best Festival Headliner
Adele

Best Small Festival
End of the Road

Villain of the Year
Nigel Farage

Hero of the Year
Beyonce

Worst Band
5 Seconds Of Summer

Best Reissue
Oasis – Be Here Now
by Katrina Mirpuri

photographs: Andy Ford and Jordan Curtis Hughes

Leave a Reply