The 2016 NME Awards with Austin, Texas, took place at Brixton’s O2 Academy in South London last night. The annual event recognises the successes of the indie-world, with awards voted for by NME magazine readers and fans. This year’s ceremony saw the likes of Coldplay, The Maccabees and Foals perform to an audience of celebrities that included Yoko Ono and Kylie Minogue. Members of the general public could also purchase tickets to watch the star-studded event.
Wolf Alice were the main winners of the night, picking up awards for Best Live Band and Best Track for their song Giant Peach. Also among the winners were Foals with best Album and Charli XCX for Best British Solo Artist, whilst Best British Band went to The Maccabees. Taylor Swift also received the award for Best International Solo Artist. She thanked the NME via video, joking that she was at first confused on receiving the award in the mail due to the large ‘middle finger’ gesture of the trophy!
The NME awards is famed for mocking other celebrities, and this was clear in the award for Worst Band, which this year went to 5 Seconds of Summer. Meanwhile Villain of the year was awarded to Donald Trump, much to the pleasure of the audience. In contrast, the Hero of the Year award went to legendary Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl.
The ceremony also features a special recognition award, known as the Godlike Genius award, which was this year presented by Kylie Minogue. It has in the past honoured the likes of Johnny Marr, Blondie and Noel Gallagher. This year the main prize went to British band Coldplay. On receiving the award, frontman Chris Martin said “thanks so much, it’s been a long journey.” He also noted that the band seem to have come full circle, having previously received the awards for Worst Band, Worst Album and Band with the Worst Haircut! They then closed the show with a 5-song set of their most popular hits.
However, it seemed that not all present were the biggest Coldplay fans. At one point during a performance by Bring Me The Horizon, frontman Oli Sykes leaped onto Coldplay’s VIP table and trashed it completely. There have since been rumours that this was due to the band’s anger at the similarities between the album covers of Coldplay’s most recent album and Bring Me the Horizon’s 2013 record Sempiternal. Chris Marin did not seemed fazed, stating that although he hadn’t heard of the band, he thought Bring Me the Horizon’s actions were ‘very rock and roll.’ Their keyboardist also seems to have disputed the claims that Oli’s actions were a protest against Coldplay. Speaking to NME afterwards he said “I don’t think (Oli) was aiming for Coldplay, I think it was just whoever was nearest.”
What do you think? Were Oli’s actions a dig at Coldplay? Or was it just a fitting part of the rock ‘n’ roll celebrations of the night? Let us know by commenting below or tweeting us over at @CelebMix!