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.”
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.”
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”.
NME 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.
Christine & The Queens picked up the most awards of the night winning both Best International Female and Best Track for her song Titled.
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.”
Goldie 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.”
Villain of the Year was awarded to the infamous Nigel Farage and Beyoncé took the title of Hero of the Year.
Wiley 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.
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
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