Music
Review
Nordoff & Robbins’ Northern Music Awards 2025
Inside the charity awards show celebrating the best Northern talent – from Luvcat to Dr. John Cooper Clarke
After a successful inaugural ceremony at Manchester’s Albert Hall in 2024, the Nordoff & Robbins Northern Music Awards have returned, this time to Liverpool’s prestigious Olympia.
The event is one of a kind: a celebration of musicians and music industry professionals across the north of England, an area which has been historically underrepresented when it comes to recognising talent within these fields.
The Northern Music Awards are sponsored by the UK’s largest music therapy charity, Nordoff & Robbins. Music therapy enables those who participate to express themselves and to also explore their emotions and reactions to the sounds they create, promoting both physical and emotional wellbeing, and fostering social connections, advocating inclusivity within the arts. The charity’s work boasts a plethora of benefits including improved cognitive function, developed speech and enhanced coordination skills.
“We work with around 6000 people across Merseyside,” said Sandra Schembri, CEO of Nordoff & Robbins. “Many people seeking asylum have been separated from all that they know, isolated in a place that they don’t know, with a language they don’t speak. Music allows these people to process pain and loss, and the first steps to feeling like this is somewhere I belong and for some, relax for the first time in years, those who have come from conflict-torn countries.”
Nordoff & Robbins work across the UK to support people with varied needs and accessible requirements, including people living with dementia, autism, brain injuries, terminal illness, as well as those experiencing grief through a range of one-to-one sessions, community choirs and orchestras, and age-specific learning groups.
“We also work with those with chronic and acute mental health crises,” Schembri explained. “Words don’t work in those situations when people are in such a state of unsettledness with themselves. Music can start a conversation.”
First up were the industry awards, with The Piece Hall in Halifax and The Trades Club in Hebden Bridge taking the gongs for Inspirational Venue of the Year with a capacity of over and under 2000 respectively. Co-founder of SJM Concerts Chris York was posthumously named the Industry Icon of the Year, with York’s sister and Shed Seven’s Rick Whitter accepting the honour on his behalf, both sharing memories of York’s contribution to the industry.
Salfordian bard Dr John Cooper Clarke opened the show with his typically witty wordsmithery and deft delivery charming the audience. He reappeared to take homethe evening’s final and biggest honour, the Northern Music Award. He will perform a one-off headline show ‘In Celebration of World Poetry Day’ at Manchester’s Co-Op Live Arena on 29 March.
Hull hip-hop artist Chiedu Oraka then took to the stage for a thought-provoking performance, flexing his lyrical depth and effortless flow. He also invited fellow Hull garage artist and longtime collaborator Deezkid to the stage for an energetic performance of ‘Champs On My Grave’. “The North has influenced all of my story telling,” he told us earlier in the night. “The Northern Black experience is never really told in the media.”
Accepting the Newcomer of the Year trophy, the self-proclaimed ‘Black Yorkshireman’, told the audience “music saved my life”. The artist has also worked closely with Nordoff & Robbins, having volunteered at the charity’s project Asylum Link Merseyside. Oraka expanded: “Seeing all these people from different backgrounds, some who have lost everything, all speaking different languages but connecting over music was special.”
Next up was Breakthrough Artist of the Year: Luvcat. The last 12 months have been something of a whirlwind for the Liverpudlian songstress, with a string of viral singles already in her arsenal and having recently concluded her first headline UK and European tour. She performed two songs, ‘Matador’ and ‘He’s My Man’, the latter a murder ballad, bearing the macabre influence of The Cure and Nick Cave, and enrapturing the audience in her whimsical gothic world.
Last year’s recipient of the Band of the Year award, English Teacher accepted the Album of the Year trophy for their Mercury Prize-winning debut LP This Could Be Texas. The band were presented with the award by John Cooper Clarke, whom lead singer Lily Fontaine thanked in her acceptance speech, citing Clarke’s volume Ten Years In An Open Necked Shirt as a significant influence on her writing, evident in the post-punk quartet’s enlistment of sprechgesang and wordplay.
Other noteworthy winners included West Yorkshire junglist Nia Archives who took home Artist of the Year presented by Sue Pollard (aka Charity Shop Sue), BBC Radio 1’s Sarah Story for DJ of the Year, and Doncaster pop-punk provocateur Yungblud who was unable to attend the ceremony but accepted his Disruptor of the Year Award with a video message.
Blossoms treated audiences to an acoustic set including ‘Gary’ and ‘There’s A Reason Why (I Never Returned Your Calls)’, shortly after being presented with the Music Moment of the Year award by close friend and collaborator Rick Astley.
The Stockport quintet released their fifth LP which also happens to be their fifth consecutive UK number one album. Off the back of a wildly successful UK tour, thegroup will embark on a series of big outdoor gigs during summertime. The band have also worked with Nordoff & Robbins projects across Greater Manchester, with Joe Donovan revealing that the band had sat in on one of the charity’s music workshops at Manchester’s Contact Theatre. “It was a session using music to improve mental health,” he explained. “The group were preparing for a performance and they were asking us for songwriting tips.”
Ian Broudie of the Lightning Seeds was the recipient of the Special Recognition award, acknowledging his contributions to music in Merseyside and his work with Nordoff & Robbins (“They’re a brilliant charity and I’m so glad they are branching out in the North,” Broudie told us). Meanwhile, close collaborators The Zutons bagged the Band of the Year gong, recognising their successful comeback after unleashing their first album (and fourth overall) in sixteen years in 2024, signalling a new chapter as their career enters its third decade. The group also closed the show with a medley of hits including ‘You Will You Won’t’ and a rousing rendition of their signature song ‘Valerie’. Both The Lightning Seeds and The Zutons are warming up for their respective UK tours, with the former’s tickets going onsale today, while the latter’s kicks off this week.
As Sandra Schembri exclaimed earlier, “Music can start a conversation”, and that was certainly the case tonight at Liverpool’s Olympia, after a showcase of uniquely Northern talent, all in support of a great cause.
