How we all love the NME Awards – the only music awards even more predictable than the Brits. Last night’s big winners were Arctic Monkeys, who won three, while everyone else won just what you’d expect.
Arctic Monkeys took time out from their busy schedules of healing the sick, walking on water and inventing a completely clean reusable fuel to turn up to the NME Awards in order to accept prizes for Best British Band, Best New Band and Best Track. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, folks…
Arctic Monkeys (CDs) got the hat-trick at the NME Awards – a sort of
gratuitous circle-jerk for the five or six bands that take turns to be
on the magazine’s cover – and then did what everyone expected and
pretended to not really care very much about it. On accepting the Best
British Band prize, lead Arctic Monkey Alex Turner said:
"We did the triple, but in all honesty, I suppose we’re
supposed to display some gratitude. We are grateful because, you know, voted for by the
people and all that, we’re very happy about that but who else was going
to be the best British band at the moment, you know?"
12-year-old
NME mouthpiece Conor McNicholas showed his usual lack of foresight when he
explained to the BBC why Arctic Monkeys were so successful:
"The great thing about the Arctic Monkeys is they are
doing something nobody else has done. They have a depth to their lyrics
that no-one else has."
And
there was us thinking that they were nothing more than some boys singing lyrics by The Streets over old Libertines tunes in Northern accents.
It
wasn’t such a good night for The Kaiser Chiefs, though. Although they
were nominated for six NME Awards, they went home with just two – the
Best Album award, and the Best Dressed Person award for Ricky Wilson.
Which is weird – they may as well just have given the prize to
Granville from Open All Hours and cut out the middle man.
Other
bands won all the stuff you expected them to, as well. Now that Ian
Brown‘s singing She Bangs The Drums at his concerts again, he was
allowed the Godlike Genius Award. Bizarrely, Pete Doherty won Sexiest
Man and Madonna won Sexiest Woman, feats partially explained by the fact that Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire won Best Film.
Still, at least The Long Blondes won something. No complaints there.
Read more:
Arctic Monkeys hottest act at NME – BBC
[story by Stuart Heritage]