NME Awards 2012 – Noel Gallagher receives much-needed boost to his modest ego

The NME awards 2012 made for an entertaining spectacle.

It’s like a cooler and more foul-mouthed older brother of the Brits, and with a better record collection to boot. It was also notable for making some good choices for the awards ( i.e. I found myself agreeing with the decisions – something that is rare at The Brits).

Shy and retiring Noel Gallagher received a much needed boost to his self-confidence by receiving the “God-like Genius” award.

The Machine, (of Florence and the Machine fame) on the other hand received a bitter blow to its self-confidence as Florence received the “Best Solo Act” award, suggesting The Machine had better not get too comfortable. The Machine have already been dumped once of course, when Rage turned against them. Probably.

Florence was gracious enough to acknowledge the discrepancy, but then teamed up with The Horrors for the sort of collaboration that The Brits used to be good at, singing a sublime “Still Life” with The Horrors (The Florrors?). Very cool, although cooler still was seeing Florence later on dancing badly to the Maccabees with all her mates.

The Horrors deservedly won best album for the wonderful “Skying”. The lead singer may look like he’s in a bad Noel Fielding sketch but their mix of My Bloody Valentine-influenced indie pop is getting a lot of listens on my iPod.

Kasabian’s best band award came with the best speech – with a singalong tribute to The Monkees’ Davy Jones.

Host Jack Whitehall’s best gag was when he compared his discomfort at presenting the awards to that of John Terry presenting the MOBOs…

In the meantime The Vaccines took best breakthrough act. Again a deserved winner – their afternoon Isle of Wight festival performance last year was packed out and truly memorable for those of us leaping about untidily in the mosh pit. I get the sense that they are not the critics’ favourite, which I find baffling: there are some great songs on that album. They seemed to acknowledge this upon accepting their award when they defended their apparent lack of originality – but I’m glad they are around: they have great songs and that’s what counts.

Fingers crossed they follow it up with another great album, rather than becoming the next Razorlight/ Courteeners / Franz Ferdinand et al…not least because I think they might just have it in them. More selfishly, I also have a copy of their debut single, which might just be worth a few bob if they can go onto greater things…

Pulp won a lifetime achievement award – more good news – their shows at Isle of Wight again and Brixton Academy last year were magical. They’re a great band live and are playing The Royal Albert Hall shortly for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Jarvis would have gone down in rock folklore if all he had done was disrupt Michael Jackson’s Brit Awards performance, an act which deserved a knighthood. The fact that he produced the best song of the Brit Pop era and three or four amazing albums at the same time is a sign of genuine God-like Genius.

Maybe next year NME?

Record #18 – The Horrors – Still Life