Review: NME Awards Tour, Leeds O2 Academy, 10/02/13

The O2 Academy in Leeds was awash with young trendsetters, gearing up for this year's instalment of the NME Awards tour. Now in its eighteenth year, the awards tour has brought the crème de la crème of new music to the nation's cities over the past two decades, and formed the platform for many successes.

This year's pickings were, as usual, very ‘in-crowd’, and taking the opening slot were Birmingham’s Peace. After supporting The Vaccines on their recent UK tour, this definitive retro-modernist guitar-pop group were the ideal opener.

Next up were London’s Palma Violets. Their set is packed with stops and starts, and shifts in tempo and mood. The band have drawn comparisons to The Libertines, and watching the duelling frontmen Sam Fryer and Chilli Jesson it's easy to see why. As they slur over sweaty, pulsating guitar rhythms and demonstrate a fascinating on-stage relationship, it's safe to say that tonight they lived up to the hype currently surrounding them.

Next up was Miles Kane. Somewhat of a spanner within the typical ‘jingly jangly’ NME works, Kane blew a bit of fresh air through the venue. As much as Peace, Palma Violets and headliners Django Django are brilliant within their own right, Miles showed the new kids just how it was done without any of the pretention of these new artists. Taking it back to basics with timeless guitar rock, with the careening hook of 'Rearrange', the thrilling heart palpitation beat of 'Don’t Forget Who You Are' and 'Inhaler'’s signature wildness, it felt like you were attending a Miles Kane headline gig in his hometown. The crowd lapped it up.

Finally, one of the most talked-about new bands of the year take to the stage in delightfully geeky matching shirts. Django Django pulled out the stops when it came to a unique fusion of sounds and instruments on a stage. Despite having to follow on from the show stopping performance from Miles Kane, they did their best to live up to their headline status. ‘Firewater’ has a wonderful bluesy, ‘60s feel and ‘Waveforms’ begins with a hard house “wob wob wob wob wob”, while ‘Skies Over Cairo’ sets a faux-Egyptian scene set to tribal beats, all of which provoke a rapturous response both on and off stage. ‘Default’ defies anyone not to tap at least one foot, and inhibitions are soon lost to this indie-pop stomp.

The NME prove once again that they are the finger on the pulse of new music. It's clear to see that each one of these artists are going to have a very successful year - let's hope they continue the momentum.

Words: Jo-Anne Waddington 

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