After winning nothing at the Brit Awards, the Leicester group Kasabian returned to the limelight at the NME Awards this week, as they scooped both the "Best British Band" and the "Best Album". The annual Music magazine's award ceremony, which took place at London's O2 Academy Brixton this year, is a slightly less formal event than the Brits and that suited the outspoken band down to the ground, as they received their 'gongs' in typical fashion.
After being given the honour of playing to the star-studded assembly at the recent Baftas and then having nominations for eight awards at the NMEs, their clearly delighted lead singer Tom Meighan said: "It's unbelievable." His band won the "Best Album" for their fifth studio album 48:13 in addition to the top award for "Best Band" itself.
The band also took the slightly less prestigious "Best Quote" award for Serge Pizzorno's comment, in relation to the band's headlining at Glastonbury: "Five records, 10 years. We've earned our shot."
London singer-songwriter Jamie T also won three awards at the musical gathering, including "Best Track" and "Best Video" for the single Zombie.
The awards are also a chance to pay homage to the music from the not so distant past that has helped to shape the music industry. The interestingly named "Godlike Genius" award went to the English alternative rock band of the 1990s Suede, with frontman Brett Anderson pleasantly surprised to be honoured, stating that it was "wonderful to be recognised." The star of The Office and Extras, Ricky Gervais, who was Suede's first ever manager when they were then an unknown band to many, had contributed to a short video for the ceremony in the build up to Suede's award presentation.
