 "You
know what Kate? We are worthy," Lydon announced to the throng. '"Your
music is fucking brilliant." In response, she insisted the punk buffer
come up stairs and have his photo taken with her. Initially he moaned,
"I don't do stairs", like a phlegm-spattered Mariah Carey but
chivalry won the day in the end.
At 12.32 a rag-and-bone cart had arrived outside the Park Lane Hotel and
a Steptoe-like Lydon disembarked, a roadkill affair doubling as a haircut
and a North London urchin attitude undiminished by years of residence
in Los Angeles. With him was father John, wife Nora, Lydon Mini-Me and
minder John Rambo, and a cloudburst of scary shouty people chanting, "Johnny
better win one!" Ooh, suppose he better had...
Bush's entrance was more understated, but was met by - if anything - still
greater awe. Famously hermit-like since interviews for her The Red Shoes
album in 1993, subsequent speculation has revolved around everything from
her mental state to her smoking habits to her romantic life. Her arrival
blew all that chaff away and, as she stepped up for her award - presented
by Midge Ure, who mistily recalled "when she almost got her tits
out for Prince Charles" - a spontaneous standing ovation of Liams,
Gorillaz, Lydons and Travises rocked the Q Awards ballroom.
And Bush's reaction? In that tiny, familiar voice she exclaimed: "I've
just come!" |