Bring Me The Horizon frontman Oliver Sykes has said the audience at the NME Awards should expect their performance to be “short and sweet” and full of “our greatest hits”.
Sam Fender, Griff and the Sheffield metal band are among the acts scheduled to take to the stage at London’s Brixton Academy during Wednesday night’s ceremony.
The annual event, which first took place nearly 70 years ago, is this year being hosted by actress and comedian Daisy May Cooper and rapper-presenter Lady Leshurr.
Speaking on the red carpet, Sykes discussed his band’s recent performance of Bad Habits with Ed Sheeran at the Brit Awards.
He told the PA news agency: “We got an email from his manager saying this is a mad idea but we think it might be cool if you guys played on Bad Habits and play it at the Brits Award ceremony, and we kind of just said ‘Yeah all right’.
“We didn’t think about it, to be honest. We just said yes. It is a crazy opportunity and we like to do stuff like that, challenge ourselves.
“I reckoned we could make the song sound decent. It came really easily. It sounded like a vibe when we were soundchecking it.”
Adam Lambert criticised a Florida bill, dubbed the Don’t Say Gay Bill, that would ban discussion of sexual orientation in primary schools.
The singer found fame after finishing runner-up on American Idol in 2009 and has since performed with rock band Queen.
He told PA: “It is definitely a couple of steps back in a big way for the progress that we have made in the past decade.
“I would hope that anybody out there that is queer and fighting for their identity, I hope that they know that there are people all over the world that support them and love them, and are just like them.
“It is too bad that there are some small-minded, bigoted, ignorant men coming up with this bill.
“Hopefully there is a way to fight back.”
Asked how she was feeling about presenting the show, Lady Leshurr told PA: “I am biting my nails right now. It is quite overwhelming because I have never done anything like this before.
“And on top of that, who would have thought my Brummie accent would have got me this far? Some people were saying that they couldn’t stand the Brummie accent and now I am hosting a whole event with Daisy, so it just seems amazing.”
She added: “I feel like I am proper representing for Birmingham. I have been for a very long time. It is just good to champion my city, where I am from.”
Fender, Little Simz, Wet Leg, Wolf Alice, Billie Eilish, Rina Sawayama and Chvrches have all scored multiple nominations at the event.
FKA Twigs has already been announced as the latest recipient of the music magazine’s Godlike Genius prize, becoming the youngest solo artist to be honoured.
American star Halsey will also be in attendance to pick up this year’s Innovation Award, while the songwriter prize will go to Jack Antonoff, the lead singer of indie pop band Bleachers and a producer and songwriter for acts including Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey.
