NME Awards Tour featuring Kate Nash begins Apr.15

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Los Angeles (March 3, 2008) – NME – the most famous music weekly in the world – today announces that it has joined forces with Goldenvoice to launch The NME Awards in the U.S. The NME Awards – renowned in the UK as one of the most important and prestigious events for British fans of cutting-edge music – will bring the alternative rock n’ roll party of the year to the United States in April.

To be staged in the U.S. for the first time, at Los Angeles’ historic El Rey Theatre on April 23, 2008, the U.S. NME Awards will be an invite-only, star-studded affair, featuring live performances from a host of established and breakthrough artists.

U.S. music fans can make history by voting for the awards via NME.COM across a variety of categories, including “Best Band,” “Best Album,” “Best Track,” and “Best Live Act.” Other categories, including the famous “Godlike Genius Award,” will be chosen by NME’s editorial team.

The first round of voting will open today on NME.COM, with a short list to be announced on March 24 before the winners are finally revealed on April 23.

Dating back to 1953 (a year after the launch of NME), the NME Awards has remained one of the most important events in the British music calendar. In the Fifties, such rock ‘n’ roll greats as Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent played at NME poll shows, and during the Sixties, the NME Poll-winners’ parties at the 12,000-capacity Wembley Empire Pool saw performances before a packed house from a galaxy of future legends including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Dusty Springfield, The Small Faces, Them featuring Van Morrison, The Animals featuring Eric Burdon, The Walker Brothers and Roy Orbison.

Revived by the Britpop movement in the 1990s and voted for annually by NME readers, more recent NME Awards events have honored the likes of Oasis, Blur, U2, Primal Scream, White Stripes, The Strokes, Radiohead, Klaxons, My Chemical Romance, Muse and The Arctic Monkeys, and hosted special performances by NoelGallagher, New Order, Kaiser Chiefs, The Killers and Ian Brown, among others.

As an alternative to the more industry-focused British Award events recognizing commercial success, the NME Awards has always turned its attention to recognizing artists who are seeking to achieve artistic significance, and intends to provide a media platform for great new music deserving of greater public attention.

British artists who have benefited from the support of the NME Awards include Suede, Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Chemical Brothers, Coldplay, Stereophonics, Kaiser Chiefs, Arctic Monkeys and Bloc Party – all of whom were featured prominently at NME Awards events before they became famous.The U.S. NME Awards intends to do exactly the same job for American alternative music as it does for breaking British bands.

Steve Sutherland, editorial director of IPC Ignite, says: “The NME Awards have been bringing together some of the biggest names in rock ‘n’ roll history for over 50 years in the UK. With a special line-up planned for the U.S. as well, the U.S. NME Awards are set to be the alternative rock ‘n’ roll event of the year.”

To celebrate the awards, there will be an NME Awards Tour featuring Kate Nash- produced by Art Show Touring, the national touring division of Goldenvoice, which will run before and after the Awards. Kicking off in Atlanta on April 15, the tour will sweep across U.S. cities, ending in San Francisco on May 13. It also includes two Canadian dates – Toronto on April 28, and Vancouver on May 8.

Tour dates in full:

Date Market Venue
Tue, Apr 15 Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse
Wed, Apr 16 Asheville, NC Orange Peel
Thu, Apr 17 Washington DC 9:30 Club
Fri, Apr 18 Baltimore, MD Recher Theatre
Sat, Apr 19 Philadelphia, PA The Trocadero
Mon, Apr 21 Boston, MA The Paradise
Wed, Apr 23 New York City, NY Webster Hall
Thu, Apr 24 New York City, NY Webster Hall
Sat, Apr 26 Indio, CA Coachella Fest
Mon, Apr 28 Toronto, ONT Phoenix Theatre
Wed, Apr 30 Detroit, MI St. Andrews
Fri, May 02 Chicago, IL The Vic
Sat, May 03 Minneapolis, MN First Ave
Mon, May 05 Boulder, CO Fox Theatre
Thu, May 08 Vancouver, BC Richard’s On Richards
Fri, May 09 Seattle, WA Showbox Theatre
Sun, May 11 Portland, OR Wonder Ballroom
Tue, May 13 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore