Radiohead was named the world’s best band at a major music awards ceremony in London on Monday.
The Oxford-based quintet beat U2, R.E.M., Stereophonics and last year’s winners, Travis, at Q magazine’s music awards.
Radiohead has evolved from recording gloomy rock to soaring epics in a career spanning 14 years and five albums.
Irish rocker band Ash won the best single award for “Burn Baby Burn,” taken from its No. 1 album “Free All Angels.”
Travis, the Glasgow quartet fronted by Fran Healey, picked up the best album award for “The Invisible Band,” which features hits including “Sing” and “Side.”
Newcomer Starsailor – whose brooding sound has been compared to Suede – was named best new act after its single “Good Souls” and album “Live is Here” won critical acclaim.
Kate Bush won the Q Classic songwriter award to mark nearly 25 years in the charts with singles such as “Wuthering Heights” and “Running up that Hill.”
Best video award went to Gorillaz – Damon Albarn’s animated group whose videos feature the band members as cartoon apes – for the single “Clint Eastwood.”
Welsh rockers the Manic Street Preachers capped a year of high profile performances by being named best live act.
The band played to an audience including Cuban leader Fidel Castro at the Karl Marx theater in Havana in February.
Punk icon John Lydon, aka the Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten, won the Inspiration Award, which rewards artists who have left their mark on the music industry.
The editor’s choice prize went to Irish supergroup U2.
First held in 1990, the votes were cast by Q Magazine’s readers, visitors to its Web site and mobile phone users with Orange, the sponsor of the awards.
