Australian rockers Tame Impala have scooped up best international group at the 2016 Brit awards, which were held on Wednesday at London’s O2 arena.
Frontman Kevin Parker was gracious in accepting the band’s statue. “Oh wow, this is amazing, truly. It’s pretty amazing to be invited to your award ceremony, to this night, let alone be given an award to accept,” he said.
High fives all round to @tameimpala for winning International Group! #BRITs 👏👏👏 https://t.co/xi8zpTyl07
— BRIT Awards (@brits) February 24, 2016
Eagles of Death Metal were among the award’s nominees. The American band recently returned to Paris for an emotional concert, three months after their performance at the Bataclan concert hall where gunmen burst in and killed 90 people.
Tame Impala also muscled out Ireland’s U2 and American acts Major Lazer and Alabama Shakes for the award, after losing to Alabama Shakes at the Grammys in February.
The Perth band have been packing out stadiums around the world since the release of their third album Currents, which won five 2015 Aria awards, including album of the year and best rock album.
According to DIY magazine, Parker said they were “just happy for all the people at our table”, including their record label representatives. “They’re the ones who put all the effort into us getting to the next level. These kind of things are a physical symbol of that kind of stuff,” he said.
Parker said the UK has always been a “special” place for the band, as it was where they held their first overseas tour. His night had so far been “pretty intense ... definitely the most extravagant awards show we’ve ever been to”.
In the past 12 months, the band has also picked up a slew of high-profile fans, with Rihanna covering Currents’ closing track New Person, Same Old Mistakes on her new album Anti.
Parker laughed off the suggestion they would be partying later with the Barbadian singer, who performed her tracks Consideration and Work at the awards show.
“She hasn’t said hello – she was quite rude in that regard,” Parker said, adding: “Obviously, I’m joking!”
Fellow Australian Courtney Barnett was also in the running for a Brit award for best international female solo artist alongside Ariana Grande, Lana Del Ray and Meghan Trainor, but lost to Björk.
