Kasabian pay tribute to ‘The Monkees’ Davy Jones

Kasabian paid tribute to Davy Jones last night by singing the Monkees theme song as they accepted the gong for Best British Band at the NME Awards.

The Rewired group beat off competition from Arctic Monkeys, Biffy Clyro, Foals and Muse to land the prize.

Frontman Tom Meighan used their acceptance speech to pay tribute to Jones, who died from a heart attack  hours earlier.

He said: ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you. Listen before I go any further we lost a legend tonight Davy Jones from The Monkees died tonight – 66. This is for Davy Jones.’

Tom then sang lines from Hey, Hey We’re The Monkees, from the band’s TV show, before saying ‘God bless Davy Jones’.

Florence and the The Machine picked up Best Solo Artist and Best Track supported by Fender for her single ‘Shake It Out’ at the event, which took place at London’s O2 Academy Brixton.

The Smiths legend Johnny Marr presented Noel Gallagher with the biggest prize of the night, the Godlike Genius Award, and he described the former Oasis star as ‘an institution’.

Arriving on stage to the theme tune from 2001  A Space Odyssey, Noel said: ‘Thank you very much.

‘When I was born that tune was played, freaked my Nan out. Thank you to anyone who has bought a CD, a ticket or T-shirt, cause that’s what counts.

‘To the people here who have cited me as an influence you are welcome.

‘I’d like to thank Johnny who was the first person outside of Oasis to notice us. And I’d like to thank NME for still giving a s**it after 20 years.’

He then closed the show with a performance which included Oasis tracks Half the World Away, Don’t Look Back in Anger, B-side (It’s Good) To Be Free, and solo songs Everybody’s On The Run, Dream On and AKA… What A Life!.

He dedicated If I Had a Gun… to his wife Sara MacDonald, saying: ‘I dedicate this next song to my wife who is the coolest person in this room, that’s not my opinion that’s a fact.’

Pulp were the recipients of the Teenage Cancer Trust Outstanding Contribution to Music prize, which was presented by artist Sir Peter Blake, who described the Common People group as ‘one of my favourite bands’.

Upon receiving his prize – which is a cast of a one-fingered rude hand gesture – Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker said: ‘This isn’t quite as pretty as the one you (Peter) designed for the BRIT Awards, Adele wouldn’t have had any problems tonight would she?’

Other winners at the spectacle – which was hosted by comedian Jack Whitehall – saw The Vaccines take home Best New Band and the Foo Fighters win the Best International Band prize.

Not at the event, understandably, was Justin Bieber, whose Under The Mistletoe record was named Worst Album.

He was also labelled Villain of the Year.

And plenty of teenage girls will disagree with heartthrobs One Direction winning Worst Band.

They were also not at the event.

NME AWARDS 2012 WINNERS