Beth Ditto and Jarvis Cocker at the NME awards. Photograph: Claire Greenway/Getty Images
The NME awards are renowned, far more than as an indication of what's hot and what's not, as an excuse for the indie glitterati to get together for an almighty piss-up. This year was no exception, although reasonably tame compared to last year, where Ryan from the Cribs was hospitalised after somersaulting on to the Kaiser Chiefs table and landing on several glasses of wine.
This year had lined up Kate Moss and Pete Doherty to present the godlike genius award to Kate's pals Primal Scream. While they certainly turned up, they seemed, shall we say, distracted from the occasion at hand. Just before the awards started they were slumped on a settee in a dark corner, and then abruptly left halfway through. Apparently Kate had caused a minor commotion in the ladies by asking whether her dress made her look like a man (hardly - it was a black diaphanous number covered in sequins). Whatever, it strikes me as bad grace to leave before the award you're supposed to be giving to your close mate. Question: does Kate still radiate cool, or are we confusing it with wasted arrogance?
Anyway, the rest of the NME awards were a slickly drilled indie machine, superbly MC'd by Lauren Laverne. Once half hour-long prizegiving, it now features five live performances. The Killers pushed the boat out, doing Joy Division's Shadowplay - especially ballsy, given that Peter Hook was in the audience; and Kaiser Chiefs won me over by snarling "we're going to bore you with another one" to the hipper-than-thou crowd. The corner was turned, however, with Beth Ditto and Jarvis Cocker's sensational version of Heaven 17's Temptation, reborn as a torrid stomp that galvanised this most jaded of music biz crowds.
As for the awards, Primal Scream justified their Godlike Genius gong with a set including both Swastika Eyes and White Man In Hammersmith Palais, for which they were joined by Mick Jones. Apart from that, all the usual suspects were gonged - Arctic Monkeys for best album, The View for Best Track and My Chemical Romance for Best International Band. After the ceremony, half the bands hot-footed it to the K-West hotel - kind of a Schrager gaff as reimagined by Ikea - for more mutual backslapping. As for Pete and Kate, maybe they broke the habit of a lifetime and had an early night.
