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Snow Patrol alum Iain Archer crashes Adele's party to bag Ivor Novello award

James Bay and Iain Archer with the PRS award for Music Most Performed Work. Picture by Ian West/PA Wire
James Bay and Iain Archer with the PRS award for Music Most Performed Work. Picture by Ian West/PA Wire James Bay and Iain Archer with the PRS award for Music Most Performed Work. Picture by Ian West/PA Wire

CO Down singer-songwriter Iain Archer has won a coveted music award for smash hit `Hold Back the River' which he co-wrote with acclaimed artist James Bay.

The pair won the PRS award for most performed work at the Ivor Novello awards in London on Thursday.

The Bangor-born musician, who was briefly a member Northern Ireland supergroup Snow Patrol, got political during his acceptance speech, thanking Basca (the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors) for its support for the BBC during negotiations with the government over renewing its charter.

"We couldn't have done this without the BBC, so thank you for defending a great institution," he said.

`Hold Back the River' was the second single from Bay's debut studio album Chaos and the Calm and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart.

It was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Song.

Archer released several solo albums in the mid-1990s on the small Scottish independent label Sticky Music and also worked with Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody in his side project, The Reindeer Section before pursuing a solo career.

He was an Ivor Novello Award winner for the album `Final Straw' by Snow Patrol and achieved a UK Number One with their hit `Run'.

In 2013, he was an Ivor Novello Award nominee (Best Song Musically & Lyrically) for `Two Fingers' by Jake Bugg.

This year Adele was the big winner of the night, bagging the top award, Songwriter of the Year accolade for a second time.