A mystery gopher picked up the statue for him.

The NME Awards took place in London last night, and amid the raft of reliably rock-oriented winners (Royal Blood, Suede, Jimmy Page, Frank Turner and so on), one prize stuck out. The Philip Hall Radar Award, which is given each year to an up-and-coming act picked by NME’s editors, was won by the Redeemer himself, Dean Blunt.

As the photo below bears out, he wasn’t there in person to pick up his award, but he sent along a representative in a Strokes-esque military coat, who told the audience: “Thanks to the man upstairs, thanks NME. I finally made it!” Blunt was not in the building, according to NME.

The award was given out by Jarvis Cocker, who recalled first hearing Blunt’s music: “I’d like to ask you, what does NME stand for? Needy middle-aged ego? Nice most elephant? No, it actually stands for New Musical Express. You don’t want the same old, same old, do you? We need people pushing the envelope. I first became aware of this person doing my radio show on 6 Music. It didn’t sound like anything I’d ever heard of before. It makes me very proud to award the Philip Hall Radar Award to Dean Blunt.”

Previous winners of the award include The Naked and Famous, The Drums and The Big Pink.

Last year Blunt released his Black Metal LP on Rough Trade; last month we heard his ‘War Report’.