The 59th Ivor Novello Awards took place yesterday afternoon (May 22) in London.
Winners included Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Mumford & Sons and James Blake. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ ‘Push The Sky Away’ beat Arctic Monkeys’ ‘AM’ in the Album Award category. The prize was collected by Cave and Warren Ellis and presented by Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders. “This is the one to get,” said Cave. “We don’t really go to many of these awards evenings but we come to this one.” He then thanked Ellis, with whom he co-wrote the album, saying, “He taught me how to dispense with three chords and get it down to one.”
Mumford & Sons won the award for International Achievement. Following a video tribute to the band, frontman Marcus Mumford accepted the gong, joking: “That felt a bit like a fucking obituary, but thank you.” He added that the band were currently “hibernating”.
James Blake’s ‘Retrograde’ won in the Best Contemporary Song category, beating Disclosure’s ‘Latch’ and Everything Everything’s ‘Kemosabe’. “Until my second album, I didn’t think I was a songwriter, but now that I’ve got this maybe I do,” he commented when receiving the award.
Other winners at the ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel included The Chemical Brothers, who were awarded with the Outstanding Song Collection prize. Founding member of The Specials Jerry Dammers won The Ivors Inspiration Award, presented to him by The Clash’s Mick Jones, who called him “the tsar of ska”. Dammers asked the audience to give Sun-Ra a round of applause on what would have been his 100th birthday before informing the crowd that it was his own birthday.
Newly rejoined member of Fleetwood Mac Christine McVie was given the Lifetime Achievement award.
Tom Odell was named Songwriter Of The Year and was presented his award by Lily Allen. Florence Welch was also in attendance, giving London Grammar the award for Best Song Musically And Lyrically for their track ‘Strong’, which beat Palma Violets’ ‘Best Of Friends’.
The PRS For Music Special International Award was given to Nile Rodgers by Johnny Marr. Rodgers wept when receiving his award “because I love music so much – I get the same feeling when I walk into a studio with David Bowie or Madonna or a basement studio with Disclosure”.
He also took a moment to stick up for the genre he’s best associated with: “All that disco sucks stuff was garbage. We had more in common with the punk bands than you could ever imagine,” he said.
The winners of the Ivor Novello Awards
PRS For Music Most Performed Work
Passenger – ‘Let Her Go’
The Ivors Classical Music Award
John McCabe
Best Television Soundtrack
Ripper Street
Best Contemporary Song
James Blake – ‘Retrograde’
International Achievement
Mumford & Sons
Best Original Film Score
The Epic Of Everest
The Ivors Inspiration Award
Jerry Dammers
Album Award
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, ‘Push the Sky Away Written’
PRS For Music Outstanding Contribution To British Music
Jeff Beck
Best Song Musically And Lyrically
London Grammar, ‘Strong’
Songwriter Of The Year
Tom Odell
Outstanding Song Collection
The Chemical Brothers
Lifetime Achievement
Christine McVie
PRS For Music Special International Award
Nile Rodgers
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