Watch Alex Turner make surprise appearance at Music Week Awards to honour Arctic Monkeys’ manager 

Alex Turner made a surprise appearance at the Music Week Awards, helping honour Arctic Monkeys’ manager Ian McAndrew. Check out footage below.

• READ MORE: The NME Big Read – Arctic Monkeys: “We know more tricks now, but we’re still rolling on that same instinct” 

The ceremony took place last night (May 8) at the Grosvenor House Hotel, and saw McAndrew announced as the winner of the Strat Award for 2025 – a prize that celebrates his impact on the music industry and groundbreaking work managing various artists.

He started out in the early ‘90s, working with BRIT Award-winner Tasmin Archer and platinum-selling acid-jazz crew The Brand New Heavies, before going on to team up with the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Travis, Craig David, Royal Blood, Fontaines D.C. and many more.

At the event, he was introduced to the stage by Monkeys frontman Turner, in what was an unexpected appearance. “Good evening. Put your hands together for your 2025 Music Week Strat Award winner, the one and only, Mr Ian McAndrew,” the Sheffield singer said.

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In his speech, McAndrew thanked Turner for his “gracious words” and shared that he was caught off guard by his appearance. “It was a complete surprise, I had absolutely no idea that you were here,” he said. “I thought you were at a place across the channel.”

In his acceptance speech, the renowned music manager shared his admiration for Brian Epstein – the manager who famously represented The Beatles – and Tony Stratton Smith, who founded the  London-based record label Charisma Records, and managed bands including Nice and Genesis.

“My journey in music management started here, at the Grosvenor House Hotel. It was 1989 and I was 22 years old, and I was invited to attend the Ivor Novello Awards,” he added. “George Michael, Dire Straits, the Bee Gees, Paul McCartney – they were all here being honoured. But also here, wafting around the room like modern-day emperors, were the moguls, the hitmakers. This was the music business. I was curious, I was fascinated and I was inspired.”

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McAndrew added: “Standing here 35 years later, I still feel curious, I still feel fascinated and I’m still inspired. But I’m also grateful. I’m grateful to those songwriters and artists who place their trust in us. It’s a huge privilege to serve and represent them.”

He also used his speech to reflect on September 1995, when Oasis, Blur, Portishead, Sinead O’Connor and many others came together to share ‘The Help Album’, which helped raise funds for children and families affected by war in Bosnia. Here, he confirmed that he was now “calling on this community to join us in supporting War Child with the release of a new album”.

This, he explained, has already had numerous artists put themselves forward to be a part of the charity record, and has enlisted James Ford – who is renowned for his work with Arctic Monkeys – to produce the album. More details about this are expected to be shared at a later date.

Check out the full speech from McAndrew above, along with footage of Turner introducing him to the stage.

For Turner, the surprise appearance at the Music Week Awards comes amid Arctic Monkeys’ current hiatus. Their last album, ‘The Car’, dropped at the end of 2022 and was given a glowing five-star review by NME, which described it as “a swashbuckling, strings-fuelled epic”.

It also saw the Sheffield band lock in an epic headline slot at Glastonbury 2023, and head out on a huge world tour – which they ended by bringing out James Ford and Miles Kane as special guests.

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Since then, there have been very few new updates from the band, and little has been seen of Turner, other than a recent photo of him seen with a fan, as pictured above. It also appears that drummer Matt Helders is turning his sights to a solo project in the meantime. He has been dropping brief clips of himself in the studio, working on some ambient, electronic material.

Few details have been shared about the upcoming release, and hints about a solo album have been around since 2018, when he said in an interview that he was underway with work for a new LP and determined to make “a lot” of material to justify a full album.

There have also been rumours from fans that Turner could be working on a new solo project too, although nothing has been confirmed yet by the singer. One of his most notable releases was his 2011 breakthrough EP, ‘Submarine’, which was written for the Richard Ayoade film of the same name. Recently, The Last Dinner Party’s L.Mayland described it as one of the releases that influenced their own debut solo EP.

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