Last night (Wednesday 19th February 2014) saw the airing if the 2014 Brit Awards and while we’re never going to be able to give it a great deal of credit, there were a few memorable moments to take from the night, and perhaps the best of these was David Bowie’s speech. Though he couldn’t make it to the awards ceremony in person, he had Kate Moss on hand to accept his Best British Male Solo Artists award for him and read out a little message from the white duke of spiders himself.
The acceptance speech was read out by Moss, who was on pretty cool form, and went along the lines of, “I’m completely delighted to have a Brit for being the best male – but I am, aren’t I Kate?”, to which Kate replied “Yes”. He went on to say, “I think it’s a great way to end the day. Thank you very, very much and Scotland stay with us.”
It was a speech that did a lot to improve the show, which we’re not big fans of in the first place, although it will inevitably add to the fuel behind the rumours about David Bowie’s health. However, for us it just reiterated how incredibly important Bowie continues to be to great music and brought a little credibility to an award ceremony that often misses the mark when it comes to it’s selection.
The award came on the back of a pretty special year for the spaceman after his surprise return to music with his excellent number one album, The Next Day. With the excellent singles, The Next Day and Where Are We Now, it was one of the best albums of 2013, which is why the award is such a good call. Check out our David Bowie infographic to see his massive contribution to music.
The Best Male award itself was read out by Noel Gallagher, marking one of the more memorable moments in what was often a drab Brit Awards. It wasn’t just David Bowie who got in on the speech action though as Arctic Monkeys were also in pretty fine form with their own speech that said thank you and fork you all at the same time.
They picked up two awards at the ceremony, Best British Group and British Album of the Year (for AM), but a slightly bevvied up Alex Turner stated that a band’s worth shouldn’t be measured by the number if awards they get, but more in the dedication to the work they create.
Accepting the British Album of the Year award, he said, “Ah, that rock and roll hey? That rock and roll, it just won’t go away. It might hibernate from time to time. Sink back into the swamp! I think the cyclical nature of the universe in which it exists demands it adheres to some of its rules, but it’s always waiting there just around the corner ready to make its way back through the sludge and smash through the glass ceiling looking better than ever.
“Yeah that rock and roll… It seems like it’s fading away sometimes, but it will never die, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Thank you very f*#%ing much for this, I do really appreciate it. Don’t take that the wrong way. And yeah, invoice me for the microphone if you need to.”
After which he dropped the mic, although in all fairness in quite a gentle way really. However, it was a part of rock and roll’s resurgence at the ceremony, combining in with David Bowie’s speech, Noel Gallagher’s proclamation that Dave was far too cool for the Brit Awards (which is definitely true) and the the Ice Apes’ opening set to remind the media that there’s more to music than Bieber’s lame mop and bucket piss tricks.
The only other positive to come out of the Brit Awards ceremony this time around, compensating for some of both the music involved and James Cordon’s jokes, was Daft Punk winning the Best International Group following on from last year’s Random Access Memories. However, the highlight for us is still David Bowie’s speech. Hopefully it’ll be enough to bring the Scots back on side.
