NME Awards

TheNMEAwards is an annualmusic awards show in the United Kingdom, founded by the music magazineNME (New Musical Express). The first awards show was held in 1953 as theNMEPoll Winners Concerts, shortly after the founding of the magazine. Though the accolades given are entirely genuine, the ceremony itself is usually carried out in a humorous and jovial manner, and have included categories in the past like "Villain of the Year" and "Worst Record". The trophies given to the winners resemble an extendedmiddle finger.

NME Awards
Logo for the 2016NME Awards
Country	United Kingdom
First award	24 April 1953; 71 years ago (1953-04-24)
Website	http://www.nme.com/awards
Television/radio coverage
Network	ITV

History

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The awards began as theNME Poll Winners Concert and associated awards ceremony in 1953. These continued through until 1972, where concerts were filmed and broadcast onITV.The Beatles andthe Rolling Stones were most commonly featured. Venues included theRoyal Albert Hall and theEmpire Pool, Wembley. In 2008, acompact disc was given away with a special souvenir box set issue of theNME magazine on 27 February 2008, calledNME Awards 2008.

Britpop era

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In 1994, the awards were briefly renamed theNMEBrat Awards, with the title intended as a parody of theBrit Awards. The initial award ceremonies were supportive of the burgeoningBritpop scene withBlur becoming the first band in the modern era to win more than three awards, coming away with five total. Again in 1996, rival band Oasis won four awards: Best Band, Best Live Band, Best Album ((What's the Story) Morning Glory?) and Best Single ("Wonderwall").

Later in the decade, major winners were theManic Street Preachers (4 awards in 1999) and Blur (3 awards in 2000).

Garage rock revival

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In 2002, the awards reflected theNME's support for the "New Rock Revolution"garage rock revival, withthe Strokes winning three awards ("Best New Act", "Best Album" and "Band of the Year").

After the 2002 awards, an article onTelegraph.co.uk reported that the winners of theNME awards "were almost interchangeable" with the winners of the Brit awards and criticised then editor Ben Knowles for what they saw as a hypocritical attack on the commercial nature of the Brit Awards.^[1]

In 2003,Nick Jago, the drummer ofBlack Rebel Motorcycle Club gave a "silent" speech lasting 7 minutes, infavourably compared the show toThe Source awards, was booed and heckled and had to be physically removed from the stage.^{[citation needed]}

The Libertines won "Best British Band" in both 2004 and 2005, as well as "Best New Band" in 2003. The 2003 award win was notable forPete Doherty breaking and entering former bandmateCarl Barât's house stealing many of his belongings, including his award.

In 2006,Arctic Monkeys won both "Best New Band" and "Best British Band" in the same year and became the third band in the modern era to win three awards (Best New Band, Best British Band, Best Track). In his speech, lead singerAlex Turner alluded to how the awards reflected who received the most coverage by the magazine; "Who else was going to be Best British Band? You don't write about something that much and then not tell you that you're Best British Band". Elsewhere that year, whilst collecting an award for his charity work,Bob Geldof called hostRussell Brand a "cunt" to which Brand replied "[It's] no wonder Bob Geldof is such an expert on famine – he's been dining out on 'I Don't Like Mondays' for 30 years."^[2] In the same year,Kaiser Chiefs were nominated for a six categories and won Best Album forEmployment.

In 2007,Razorlight received a worst album nomination for theirself-titled album, whichNME themselves gave 8/10. This made it the highest rated album to receive a worst album nomination.

The 2008 award nominations were criticised inThe Guardian for a lack of diversity and not including any female artists.^[3] Also in 2008, the ceremony was followed by theNME Big Gig at the adjacent O2 Arena, wherethe Cribs performed withJohnny Marr, followed byKlaxons,Bloc Party,Kaiser Chiefs andManic Street Preachers, who also performed with Tom Clarke ofthe Enemy andCerys Matthews.