Two facts you should know: excellent art-pop dudes Alt-J won Best British Band supported by Zig-Zag at the recent VO5 NME Awards 2018 and, to celebrate, played an awesome gig at our awards shows closing party last night. It all went down at London venue Omeara, which was jam-packed with delicious booze and delirious fans of Alt-J. There was a heady atmosphere at the show, all right, and here are 12 snaps to prove it.
South London venue Omeara was co-founded by Mumford & Sons member Ben Lovett and – handily for us – is just over the road from the NME office. Basically, it’s indie Mecca.
In addition to the gig, there was an exclusive exhibition of photographs of your friend and mine, Liam Gallagher, who was crowned Godlike Genius at this year’s VO5 NME Awards. All shot on Nikon, of course.
We get the feeling Liam would have enjoyed the exhibition, given that it was packed with snaps of him looking cool as fuck. As you were, Liam (literally – he’s quite young in some of these photos).
These lads were gazing upon his Godlike majesty. What are the odds they’ll spend today swaggering around, effin’ and jeffin, acting totally mad fer it?
We were feeling supersonic, so they gave us Bulldog Gin and tonic.
And, like any aspiring rock star chockablock with gin and delusions of Godlike Genius, we tucked into the latest copy of NME as we awaited a set from the Best British Band supported by Zig-Zag.
The Leeds-formed trio opened with the delicious, skeezy funk of ‘Deadcrush’, taken from last year’s esoteric album ‘RELAXER’.
Introducing the track ‘Matilda’, keyboard player Gus Unger-Hamilton implored, “If you know it – if you like it – sing along.” We knew it, we liked it and – you know what? – we bloody well sang along.
It wasn’t long before they unveiled fan-favourite ‘In Cold Blood’, which they followed up with the equally well-loved ‘Tesselate’ – all shimmering synths and vocalist Joe Newman’s slinky, suggestive come-ons.
The audience chanted along with ‘Breezeblocks’, belting out the emotive refrain, “Please don’t go/ Please don’t go / I love you so.” I’m not crying, you’re crying.
There was a little hiccup at the start of ‘Dissolve Me’ and the band had to start over, drawing a roar of support from the crowd.
Rounding off the night, Joe asked, “How’s everyone doing? No-one confused?” We were too busy piecing our tiny minds back together to formulate a proper response, by which time he’d moved on. “Thanks to NME for having us,” he said. “It’s a great magazine; long may it last.” Aw, shucks, Joe – we love you too!
