Anyone lucky enough to be at the O2 Silver Clef Awards for Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy last Friday would have witnessed an unusually smartly dressed Paolo Nutini receiving the prestigious award for Best New Music from Paul Weller.
The plush surrounds of the Park Lane Hilton saw Paolo in extremely good company, with a whole line up of legends praised for their musical talents including Roxy Music's Brian Ferry getting the award for Ambassador of Rock, Snow Patrol taking home the gong for Best British Group and Rod Stewart receiving the Icon award.
Other winners included Paul Weller (Lifetime Achievement award), John Legend (Best International Male), the Feeling (Record of the Year for 'I Love It When You Call') and Andrea Bocelli (Classical) - who only just made the ceremony after being held up by a security alert caused by the second bomb scare of the day on the same street as the hotel!
The awards ceremony was preceded by an auction in aid of Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy, with guests bidding crazy amounts of money for donated items ranging from luxury holidays to a signed Led Zeppelin Fender guitar. Gordon Ramsay generously bid £37,000 for a diamond encrusted watch but only after living up to his reputation and having a whinge about the quality of food on offer.
The most poignant part of the afternoon was the story of a young boy who has been helped by the charity for many years now, his mother described how Nordoff-Robbins have helped him express himself and communicate with others through music when the only option open to them beforehand was to use prescribed drugs that had terrible side effects. This really brought home to the crowd just how important the afternoon was and how much the money from the auction would directly change young peoples lives.
Paolo had a great afternoon spending much of the day talking to press trying to raise awareness for the charity and even managed to grab a sneaky celebratory mojito or two with Mr Weller himself in the hotel bar afterwards...