Sam Fender dedicated his first Ivor Novello award to a pub landlord who died recently.
‘A very good friend of mine passed away last week, who was my first boss,’ said the singer, whose Seventeen Going Under won the prize for best song, musically and lyrically.
‘He gave me a job when me and my mum were both unemployed.
‘He used to hit me over the head with a newspaper for being a s*** barman. I was always playing guitar in front of people instead of serving the customers.
‘One day, he went, “Go get your guitar out and sit in that corner,” ’ Sam, 28, from North Shields, explained that the landlord had noticed up-and-coming music manager Owen Davies enter the Low Lights Tavern.
‘Had he not told me to get my guitar that day, I wouldn’t have met that man over there [Owen] and none of this would have happened,’ he added.
The Low Lights Tavern, on North Shields’ Fish Quay, is also home to Sam’s two Brit awards. He donated the first, the 2019 Critics’ Choice Award, to be turned into a beer pull at the pub.
After winning best rock/alternative singer at this year’s ceremony he pledged the trophy would join the first, but not before putting it to slightly different use.
In February Sam used the statuette to smash a piñata in the form of Boris Johnson — and he has similar plans for his Ivor.
‘Keir Starmer, we’re going to smash his face in as well,’ he quipped.
Other winners at yesterday’s Ivor Novello Awards, at London’s Grosvenor House, were songwriter of the year Dave, Little Simz, for best contemporary song, Ed Sheeran, whose Bad Habits was the most-performed and Shakira, who received the international gong. Winner of the rising star award was east Londoner Naomi Kimpenu.
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