What's the Story?...NME awards 2018 glory!

Hello!

On Valentine's Day, very much in love couples went out for dinner and did cute coupley stuff. However, if you are like me,  a music fan, you probably were watching the NME Awards, either live or, again like me, at home.

It was a typical night that I would expect nothing less from the NME awards; a load of rockstars coming to celebrate their success as well as celebrations of the success of newer artists.  Anyway, let's have a look at the highlights.

The Performances:

We saw a bit of a varied setlist when it came to the performances. We had Alt J, who performed Cold Blood, off their  2017 Mercury nominated album, Relaxer as well as a collaboration of Stefflon Don and Skepta. We also had newcomers, Pale Waves, who performed their debut single, There's a Honey, taken from their EP All The Things I Never Said.



Finally, we had the man himself Liam Gallagher who performed a collection of songs, from Oasis hits, such as Rock and Roll Star and What's the Story (Morning Glory). He also performed songs from his album As You Were, such as Wall Of Glass.




The ceremony itself.

There was a reason why Liam Gallagher had the honour of performing a collection of hits: he was awarded the prestigious Godlike Genius award. (I would just like to thank the NME for doing this because it meant I could give this blog post a good title!).  When receiving the award, he thanked his mum, fans and...erm...no..not Noel, surprise surprise! Oh and just to prove that he well and truly hates his brother, he said Noel was as bad as...err...Donald Trump...

Someone else who has had a long running career is Shirley Manson, the lead singer of Garbage (who I learnt on NME awards night were Scottish...I thought they were American!). She won the Icon Award and used her award to speak up about women not being afraid of using their platform to speak up about issues that are important to them.

Elsewhere, regarding others that performed, Alt-J won best British Band, beating the likes of Kasabian, Wolf Alice, The XX and Bastille. Meanwhile, Pale Waves and Stefflon Don won awards dedicated to those who had recently, or are just, breaking into the music industry, winning the NME Under the Radar and Best New Artist awards respectively. Furthermore, Boy Better Know won the innovation award.



Kasabian may have lost out to Alt-J in the Best British Band but they did manage to win best live band and I'm not surprised. I'm not a massive fan of them but I have seen them perform at festivals (on television) and they do put on a good show so I do believe they were worthy winners.

Speaking of festivals, the winners of best festival headliners were Muse, for their 2017 Reading and Leeds set. The speech included obligatory thank yous along with Dom Howard stating that Skepta, Stormzy, Haim or Charli XCX should be festival headliners in the future. Also, fans of Muse may want to prepare themselves...in an interview backstage, they have started talking about possible ideas for a tour as well as the possibility of a new album in the not so distant future... In terms of best festival, there was only one winner...of course it was Glastonbury.


 In terms of songs, Charli XCX won Best Track for Boys and Bastille and Craig David won Best Collaboration for I Know You, which if you know me, I was very happy about. Additionally, newish band, The Big Moon, won the best music video for Sucker. Bouff Daddy hitmaker, J Hus, won best album for Common Sense, which was nominated for the 2017 Mercury Prize and is a nominee for the Best British Album at the 2018 Brit Awards.

However, the thing that I am most happy about is the winner of the Music Moment of 2017 and there was only one correct winner in my eyes...and it won. The event? One Love Manchester of course. The massive concert, which Ariana Grande organised, brought people together and provided comfort to everyone after the horrific event at Manchester Arena. Oh and the hero of the year? Ariana Grande of course.

Finally,  during the show, there was a heartfelt tribute to Mark E. Smith, the lead singer of The Fall, who died just a few weeks before the awards, aged 60. It featured classic quotes from Smith, as well as a speech from his wife, Brix Smith Start.

Well...there you have it...my run-down and thoughts on the most rock and roll night of the year.

Here's to next year's!

Em x