Royal Blood – as predicted by the Guardian – have won the best British group award at this year’s Brits. “This is a huge surprise for us - it’s probably more of a surprise for people here as you probably don’t know who we are,” said the band’s Mike Kerr. It completes a startlingly successful seven days for the hard rock duo, who last week won the best new band and best live band prizes at the NME awards.
Bassist/singer Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher only formed Royal Blood in 2013, but received an early boost when Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders wore a Royal Blood T-shirt during the Monkeys’ Glastonbury headline set that summer. Their self-titled debut album, released in August 2014, went straight to No 1 in the UK charts and was the fastest-selling British rock debut album in three years, according to the Official Charts Company.
The pair only started playing to significant audiences a year ago. “That was the weirdest feeling,” Kerr told the Guardian last August. “Going to places you’ve never been to or played and there’s 200 people there. That concept is pretty mindblowing.”
Royal Blood were the only British rock band nominated at this year’s awards, leading Serge Pizzorno of Kasabian to complain about what he called “a conspiracy”, adding: “They’re trying to shut rock’n’roll out.”
