Coldplay have won the Godlike Genius award at the NME Awards 2016 with Austin, Texas.
Kylie Minogue, who has performed with Coldplay live in the past, handed the band their prize. She introduced the band by describing them as “epic songwriters” and saying: “Coldplay are one of the most famous bands Britain has ever produced. A mutual A&R introduced them to me. I saw them at Shepherds Bush Empire and it was an incredible night.”
Chris Martin then stepped up to the stage alongside bandmates Will Champion, Jonny Buckland and Guy Berryman. He began his acceptance speech by saying: “Thanks so much. It’s been a long journey.”
Referencing their rise to the top and reputation, Martin added: “We got nominated for a lot of NME Awards and then in the mid 2000s we got nominated for worst band, worst album, band with the worst haircut. So we’ve come on a big old circle and we’re so grateful. We just make music from our heart and sometimes people really love it and sometimes they don’t and we don’t mind. Now we’re going to play some Coldplay songs.”
Andy Ford /NMEColdplay’s five-song set began in explosive fashion with confetti blasting out across the stage as the band launched into ‘Viva La Vida’. Martin picked up his acoustic guitar for ‘Charlie Brown’ with fans in the front rows flashing lights on wristbands activated for their performance.
Making reference to their recent Super Bowl performance, Martin added: “We did a warm up gig for the NME Awards in Santa Clara and now we just wanna keep on fucking playing. ‘Yellow’ led to a mass-singalong among the audience members, with many clambering on tables to get a better view.
Chris Martin laid in the confetti across the stage from the earlier explosion as the funk-guitar of ‘Adventure Of A Lifetime’ began before saying: “One more song and then we’ll let you go, Thanks so much to NME and Kylie for being so kind to us. This is called ‘Fix You'”
He then returned to his piano to end the brief set with a touching rendition of the 2005 single.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid12850839001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAABumiUU~,CmZu1qzq0Nydx8DqfQUoDJv2_kpwyWWq&bctid=4761189898001
Coldplay played:
‘Viva La Vida’
‘Charlie Brown’
‘Clocks’
‘Yellow’
‘Adventure Of Lifetime’
‘Fix You’
The band follow in the footsteps of Blondie, Suede, New Order & Joy Division, Dave Grohl, Noel Gallagher and Johnny Marr in accepting NME’s Godlike Genius award.
Stay with us here at NME.COM/awards to get all the latest news, videos, photos and gossip from the ceremony, which will also see Coldplay receive the Godlike Genius Award and close the ceremony with a live performance.
PressVoting for the NME Awards with Austin, Texas is now closed. Following thousands of votes from NME readers, The Libertines and Wolf Alice have six nominations in total, including nods in the categories of ‘Best British Band, ‘Best Live Band’ and ‘Best Track’.
A host of stars and musicians have already hit the red carpet, including Blur, Kylie Minogue, Yoko Ono, Charli XCX, Wolf Alice, Foals, Slaves, The Vaccines and The Libertines all in the building.
They join Katy B, Bring Me The Horizon, Ricky Wilson, The Maccabees and cast members from Game Of Thrones and This Is England who are also in attendance.
Foals opened the ceremony tonight at London’s O2 Academy Brixton with a live performance of ‘What Went Down’ from their 2015 album of the same name, which is also nominated for Best Album tonight.
In addition to Coldplay and Foals, Bring Me The Horizon will perform live, as will The Maccabees and Rat Boy. Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens returns to host the show for the third year in a row.