JOE was lucky enough to be invited to the prestigious Silver Clef awards by Ticketmaster.
The music bash, sponsored by charity Nordoff Robbins, was celebrating its 40th year, and attracted a ridiculous amount of legends in one room.
From Iron Maiden to Duran Duran to Primal Scream to Kasabian, not to mention James Bay and Jake Bugg, the place was swarming with rock testosterone. It may have taken place at lunch time, but the dark and luxurious setting of the Grosvenor Hotel in London made it feel like 1am.
Just looking around the room, you could see this is the sort of place where rock fables are told and plans for collaborations are made. Here are a few of our highlights.
The afternoon featured an auction to raise money for Nordoff Robbins, and some of the artefacts being auctioned off were incredible. From a guitar played by The Edge, a DJ lesson with Mark Ronson or Adele’s song sheets, if someone had robbed the place earlier, they’d have the coolest house – and life – ever!
Around £8.5million has been raised over the years to fund Nordoff Robbins’ work. They work with people with a range of conditions including autism, dementia, depression and learning disabilities. Thousands of pounds were raised at the 40th annual Silver Clef Awards, and long may it continue.
It seems as though everyone is in a good mood. Unlike certain other awards ceremonies where speeches are delivered with attitude and superstars give the finger, all there is at Silver Clef is peace, love – and liquor.
Speaking of liquor, most of the stars can be found at the pub afterwards, including Primal Scream, who picked up the Icon Award. Nothing beats getting a pint with your hero in the local boozer after Especially when they’re buying…
As for the awards themselves, there were a few odd moments, not least Peter Andre presenting Best Live Act to the Arctic Monkeys. Bless him, the Mysterious Girl singer was so out of his depth in a room full of rock gods. No wonder the Monkeys didn’t show up to collect their gong.
Elsewhere, Iron Maiden picked up the special Silver Clef award, which Jimmy Page won last year. They’ve spent years tearing up stages and rule books but they arrived on stage and they’re so god damn nice and polite.
Silver Clef always has an American RnB diva in the house and this year was Gladys Knight turn. During her speech for International Award, not only did she thank God, she also cracked jokes.
And finally, the host – we loved her on The Big Breakfast and it turns out we still love Gaby Roslin. Chris Evans is enjoying a career resurrection so why not Gaby? We think she should present more credible music events. The way she made it clear she didn’t rate Andre sharing her stage at the end was class.
Silver Clef winners:
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