Top accolade for The Script

The accolades keep coming for Dublin pop rock band The Script. Having already garnered No.1 album status in Ireland and the UK, The Script were the big winners of tonight's Meteor Music awards winning best band and best Irish album for their self-titled debut which was only released in August.

The trio, singer Danny O' Donoghue, Mark Sheehan and Glen Power, are producers turned songwriters and their polished record has sold more than 600,000 copies at a time when album sales are being decimated by illegal downloading.

The album's long gestation was accompanied by personal tragedy for guitarist Sheehan whose mother died while it was being recorded and O'Donoghue's father who died unexpectedly of a heart attack.

Liberties-born rockabilly singer Imelda May, who has become something of an overnight sensation after more than a decade in the music business, capped an incredible year by winning Best Irish Female.

Wearing a green, patterned dress from her favourite shop, Collective, May reflected on a year which saw the release of her debut album Love Tattoo and an appearance on Later With Jools Holland.

"It's just music, music, music at the moment. We've already started the new album. We're going on tour. It means that the party will go on a lot longer that it was going on in the first place. I was happy enough to be nominated. To win is brilliant and especially on Paddy's Day, what a day."

Mullingar band The Blizzards were nominated for three awards and won in the category they really wanted to win in - best Irish live performance for their barnstorming set at Oxegen last year.

Last Sunday they played in front of a capacity crowd at Nelson's Column as part of the London St Patrick's Day celebrations.

Lead singer Niall Breslin said: "Winning this award is not just about us. It was about the people who were there with us."

Cork singer-songwriter Mick Flannery pulled off something of a surprise winning best Irish male in a strong field and ahead of the highly-tipped Duke Special and Choice Music Prize winner Jape.

Wallis Bird, who created something of an internet sensation with her version of the Depeche Mode song Just Can't Get Enough won the Hope for 2009 Meteor Award and Westlife picked up the award for Best Irish Pop Act for the ninth year in a row.

Sharon Shannon was given a Lifetime Achievement Award for her exceptional contribution to Irish music and Phillipines-based priest Fr Shay Cullen was given a humanitarian award and a cheque for €100,000 for his charity.

Among those who played at tonight's event were the Stereophonics, James Morrison, who won best international male, and Mercury Prize winners Elbow. Lead singer Guy Garvey's Irish roots go back a long way and he pronounced delighted to be in Ireland for St Patrick's Day.

"My great-great grandfather left Cork in 1822 and the Garveys have been in Manchester ever since. We're tripping the light fantastic."

Meteor Music Awards
Winners:

Best Radio DJ - National (PV)
Ray Foley - Today FM

Best Radio DJ – Regional (PV)
Dermot, Dave and Siobhan - Dublin's 98

Best Irish Band (PV)
The Script

Best Irish Pop Act (PV)
Westlife

Best Irish Album (PV)
The Script - The Script

Best Irish Female (PV)
Imelda May

Best Irish Male (PV)
Mick Flannery
 
Best Irish Live Performance (PV)
The Blizzards - OXEGEN

Best Traditional/Folk 
Damien Dempsey  

Best Intl Live Performance
Leonard Cohen – IMMA

Best International Band
Elbow

Best International Female
Duffy

Best International Male
James Morrision

Best International Album
Only by the night - Kings of Leon
 
RTE 2FM Hope for 2009
Wallis Bird
 
Most Downloaded Song
Galway Girl by Sharon Shannon and Mundy
 
Lifetime Achievement Award
Sharon Shannon

Industry Award
Niall Stokes Founder of Hotpress

Humanitarian Award
Fr. Shay Cullen, Preda Foundation