Last night in London was the 2019 AIM Awards ceremony, which sets out to acknowledge and promote the success of independent artists. We were pleased to see IDLES, the winner of our 2018 album of the year, took home not one, but two awards. The Bristol punks received the win for ‘UK Independent Breakthrough’ and ‘Best Second Album’ for Joy As An Act of Resistance. With typical IDLES class, the boys modestly accepted and expressed the sentiment that there is still plenty of work to be done. Revisit the time they graced Hot Press’ cover here.

Also taking home two awards was rapper Dave with his record Psychodrama. He collected the hardware for ‘Best Independent Album’ and ‘Best Independent Track’ for his song ‘Funky Friday.’

Taking the stage for performances was big winners Debbie Harry who won ‘Outstanding Contribution to Music’ and Johnny Marr, who received the prestigious Pioneer award. Phoning in for a special congratulatory message was Marr’s friend, Nile Rogers of Chic fame. During his acceptance speech, Marr acknowledged his colleagues saying that, “The weird thing that this tiny island continues to do is spread really good independent music across the world.”

Other winners from the night included Jade Bird, Georgia, Gerry Cinnamon, and Hot Chip.