The Shockwaves NME Awards Big Gig 2009 took place last night (February 26) at London's O2 Arena. 15,000 fans turned up to worship at the alter of Godlike Geniuses The Cure, who played a career-spanning, 90-minute set of their favourite tracks.

In support were Franz Ferdinand, Crystal Castles and White Lies.

Below are photographer Jacob Perlmutter's images from the night.

Grab this week's NME magazine for a free The Cure covers CD that comes in a special Awards souvenir box set.

Read more...

To be sure, the NME Awards has the capacity to turn out a bit of a tipsy affair. Some of Team NME will even admit to be nursing hangovers today.

But at least none of us were as drunk as this guy. After the third bottle of wine was poured over him, we thought it only right and proper to start filming. He'll never know how good The Cure actually were.

Signing off...

Tim Burton? Noel Fielding? There were plenty of contenders for the award for rockingest non rock star in the room at Brixton Academy, but a sure lead belongs to misanthropic journalist extraordinaire Charlie Brooker.

He doesn't know a thing about music, but whaddayaknow? He turns out to be a rather nice chap...

From Franz and La Roux to Beth and Jarvis to, well, all the others, the NME Awards boast an illustrious history of unexpected boy-girl pairings. To that list, add electroboy Patrick Wolf and Tennessee Thomas, the British wing of LA girl threesome The Like. My. what fun they're having.

So, the Shockwaves NME Awards 2009 are well and truly over and the entire office (plus half of the rock community, several hundred Cure fans and Sarah Harding) are nursing biblical hangovers, including we suspect this guy:

Read more...

Read more...