Funny how time flies. Nearly
twenty years ago, the NME awards were seen as an antidote to the corporate
schmoozathon that was the Brits. A chance for those languishing in the leagues
of indie to be recognised for their endeavours, quaff a few light ales and let
their hair down without fear of being featured wide-eyed and legless on the
front of the Daily Mail the following morning. Petulantly named The Brats, this was a chance for the NME
and their readership to give the middle finger (hence the statuette) to the Man
and his roster of bland and uninspiring unit shifters. Fast forward to 2012,
and the nominees for this year’s Brit and NME awards are more or less
interchangeable. Florence and the Machine, Adele, Foo Fighters, Noel Gallagher,
PJ Harvey, Arctic Monkeys, The Vaccines, Lana Del Ray, Laura Marling and
Kasabian all received nominations at the two award ceremonies this year. And
while it’s reassuring that One Direction, Olly Murs, Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars
were ‘overlooked’ by the NME, it is a little disappointing that the petulant
child of the annual award ceremony season is seemingly growing up and taking
responsibility for its actions.
However, this is not to say
that this year’s ceremony did not have its highlights (and occasional fist in
the mouth moments). Presented by Jack Whitehall (who we have warmed to since his
star turn in last year’s Fresh Meat), the ceremony got off to a shaky start as
Kasabian - channelling the spirit of nineties rock/rap outfit, Senser – opened
the show with a bit of workaday lad rock. This, and the band’s ostentatious reaction to
winning the Best British Group award and subsequent karaoke tribute to the late
Davy Jones left us wondering if we are actually all being taken in as part
of an elaborate Spinal Tap style wind-up that will reveal Kasabian to be a
social experiment designed to measure how gullible the British public actually
are. On the plus side, live performances by The
Horrors - with Florence Welch (The Florrors?) - and Pulp stole the show, with Jarvis still
looking as sprightly as he did during his Brit-pop heyday.
The
ceremony closed by awarding the God-Like Genius award to this year’s recipient,
Noel Gallagher. The very mention of Noel (and Jarvis) - two
behemoths of the Britpop age - also served to remind us, that despite the mid-90s
period in British music ultimately turning out to be merely a few great records, it did churn out a number of pop stars who all had plenty to say, and were not afraid to say it. Let’s be honest, as great
as recent records by The Horrors and The Maccabees are, you’re not gonna set
the video any time soon to see them being 'grilled' by Jonathan Ross are you? You may argue it’s all about the music, but
Christ on a bike, pop stars are fucking dull
these days aren’t they? Not an
interesting, opinionated, controversial statement between them. You can say what you like about Liam n Noel’s
musical output in recent years, but when either of them open their mouths to
speak, you just know that what comes out is still gonna make for good
copy. There’s no wonder the Chief’s been
on the front cover of NME more than any other musician in the history of the
world ever. He certainly belongs there
more than Tom “there’s always been a strong Monkees element to our sound”
Meighan and his dreary ilk.
Unlike Blur’s faintly
embarrassing turn at the Brits, Gallagher marked his arrival as a Godlike
Genius by giving the crowd exactly what they came for: a few choice thank yous
to those that matter, and a wonderful, uplifting version of one of the reasons
we all fell in love in the first place. As “Don’t Look Back In Anger” brought
proceedings to a euphoric close, and indie royalty from Joe Mount to Jarvis
linked arms and belted the words upwards as one, the thought occurred that, for
once, the term Godlike Genius may not have been too far wide of the mark. Just thank God he didn’t play “Magic Pie”.
The Gallones Brothers
