Rock veterans the Rolling Stones were double winners at the NME Awards on Wednesday night, more than half a century after they first featured in the magazine's pages. The group - who played a series of 50th anniversary concerts late last year - were named best live band, and their documentary Crossfire Hurricane landed the best film prize.
Band member Ronnie Wood, who attended the event with wife Sally, was on hand to pick up both gongs. He later tweeted, "Thanks #NMEAwards from me and the boys @RollingStones". Fellow band member Mick Jagger had previously expressed his joy at the band being nominated for four awards, describing the quadruple honour as "very nice". "It's very nice to be nominated," said Mick. "When I first heard it was four things, I thought, 'Ooh, blimey! That's very nice!'." One Direction star Harry Styles was declared villain of the year. The singer had previously insisted he's not quite the bad boy that he is often portrayed. "I don't think I've done anything that bad, have I?" he said. "I wouldn't say villain. But I don't know, we'll see. I think you've got to take the rough with the smooth, right," he added. "You can’t complain. "Another double winner at the annual bash was Florence Welch of Florence + The Machine who was named best solo artist and she provided the vocals to the track which was named best dancefloor anthem, Sweet Nothing by Calvin Harris.
The event, staged at east London venue The Troxy, saw rock trio Biffy Clyro named best British band, while The Killers landed the best international band prize.Former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr took NME's "godlike genius" award for his 30 years of music-making which has seen him working with acts such as Modest Mouse, Pet Shop Boys, Talking Heads and The Pretenders.And The Cribs - for which Johnny Marr was briefly guitarist - took the prize for outstanding contribution to music.Given To The Wild by Maccabees, which was among the nominees for last year's Mercury Prize, took the award for best album.
