Picking up her award, McVie confirmed she had rejoined Fleetwood Mac after a more than 15-year absence and would join them on a world tour. "We are in the process of making another studio album which should be out next year," she added.
Alt-pop trio London Grammar won the award for best song musically and lyrically for Strong. Last year's Mercury Prize winner James Blake received the best contemporary song trophy for Retrograde. The best album award went to Push the Sky Away by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Cave said: "We don't come to many awards ceremonies but this is the one to get."
The Specials founder Jerry Dammers, who won the inspiration award, recalled when the band won a BBC Radio 1 award in the late 1970s. "I smashed it up with a hammer when I got home and threw my gold disc out the window, but when I heard about this, I really was very touched." Referring to his protest song Free Nelson Mandela, he said: "If there any young people here and you feel strongly about something, if you write a song about it you never know where it's going to end up."
Royal Occasion - Prince completed the second leg of his UK Hit and Run tour with his first concert in Leeds. He played a two-hour, 33-song set, with many of his biggest hits reinvented to suit his new, all-female band 3rdEyeGirl. "If you haven't noticed there's been a turn towards the guitar these days," he said. "That's because of this wonderful band behind me."
Theatre News - Cameron Mackintosh has bought the West End's Victoria Palace and Ambassadors theatres, and will re-name the latter after US musical theatre composer Stephen Sondheim. Mackintosh has purchased the venues from Stephen Waley-Cohen, who has owned the Victoria Palace since 1991 and the Ambassadors since 2007. The price of the deal has not been disclosed.
Bringing the total number of London venues he owns to nine, Mackintosh will rename the Ambassadors Theatre the Sondheim Theatre and said he planned to rebuild the venue's auditorium and make it a "transfer house" primarily for seasons of productions from the subsidised sector looking for a non-proscenium performance space.
The Victoria Palace, currently home to the musical of Billy Elliot, will be closed for a year from the autumn in 2016. During this time, it will be redeveloped, with the stage extended by six metres and the front of house "enlarged and completely overhauled". Mackintosh said the Victoria Palace's "shallow stage" had meant it had been unable to accommodate "many of the big shows that might have played there".
On The Streets - A campaign for the right of street performers to work more freely across the UK is to be launched by Equity. It follows Camden Council's decision to require buskers to pay for a licence to perform in Camden from March this year, and a campaign launched by the Mayor of London called Back Busking. This aims to raise awareness of the importance of busking in London and its value to communities.
(Jim Evans)
