“We have more readers today than any other time in our history” exclaims Mike Williams as he opens the 2017 NME awards to roaring applause. While NME has gone through a number of editorial shifts in lifespan of over 50 years, good music has always been at its core and last night was certainly no exception. With performances from Bastille, Wiley and The Petshop Boys – the night’s lineup was a glimpse at just how diverse the UK music scene is. Those weren’t the only performances of the night however, FAULT Alumni Dua Lipa and Charli XCX also took to the stage the latter as part of Bands4Refugees.

Christine and The Queens picked up the first award of the night for ‘Best International Female supported by VO5’ but would also later return to the stage to accept a second win for ‘Best Track supported by Red Stripe’ for her critically acclaimed single, ‘Tilted’. Moments before taking to the stage, Dua Lipa fought of tough competition from Anderson .Paak and Zara Larsson to collect the award for Best New Artist supported by TOPMAN.

Wiley’s performance was definitely a highlight of the night. Grime might not have ever gone away but it certainly has seen a huge surge in plays over the past year and who else but the ‘Godfather’ should have been up on that stage. Performing ‘Speakerbox’ and ‘Can’t Go Wrong’ from his latest album, it was great to see Wiley had finally received the recognition he deserved.

Of course, the night isn’t all about music with Louis Theroux collecting his award for Best Film for ‘My Scientology Movie’, Fleabag winning for Best TV Series and Glastonbury winning for best festival.

Best British Female Artist went to M.I.A who took the chance to speak out against the current administration attitude towards refugees before appropriately introducing Bands4Refugees – a group comprising of Olly Alexander, Slaves’ Isaac Holma, Charli XCX and more in aid of supporting refugees worldwide. [You can text REFU to 70700 to contribute £5 to Help Refugees]

NME Coverstars and winners of the ‘God-like Genius Award’ The Petshop Boys closed the night with a spellbinding set and mesmerising light show which closed the evening.

So what’d we think? We had a great time – it was wonderful to see so many familiar FAULTfaces have gone on to do such great things. From both FAULT Magazine #24’s Maya Jama and Frank Carter of Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes presenting awards, to FAULT #16’s Charli XCX performing live and to FAULT #23’s Dua Lipa collecting an award – it’s wonderful to see that everyone is still active in their craft.

For what was quite a dismal year in music, it’s great to see that the arts still managed to flourish in 2016 and it’s that, that was appreciated last night by NME. We look forward to seeing what else is to come in 2017. Thank you to our friends over at ID&C, who provided the fabric wristbands for NME Awards, for inviting us along. Find out more information about  wristband for events on the ID&C website.