The 51 year old musician will pick up his prize at the ceremony on Februay 9th before closing down the show at Academy Brixton in South London.

Paul Weller rose to fame as frontman of The Jam in 1976, a group he formed when he was only 14 years old. The band was heavily influenced by The Beatles, Amen Corner and The Small Faces.

The group went on to enjoy huge success with hits including ‘Eton Rifles’, ‘A Town Called Malice’ and their classic straight-in-at-number one single ‘Going underground’. They were the blueprint for what would be the biggest band in Britain for the next 5 years.

In 1982, convinced that he had taken the group as far as he could he split The Jam to form The Style Council. The Style Council incorporated rnb with jazz, funk and soul with Weller’s pop instincts; they then went on to record six albums featuring a string of classic singles from 'Long Hot Summer', 'You're The Best Thing' and 'Shout To The Top' which became evocative anthems of 80's Britain.

Paul Weller then re-invented himself, went back to his roots: live –based, raw guitar sounds and began work on his solo album which in the US, outsold all previous work by The Jam and The Style Council.

In 1994, he released ‘Wild Wood’ and was hailed as one of the finest British songwriters of the last three decades. The same album was also nominated for the 1994 Mercury Music Prize, Won him a Brit award for Best Male Solo Artist and sold double platinum.
He was also honoured with an Ivor Novello Award for his outstanding contribution to songwriting.

1995 saw the release of ‘Stanley Road’, winning him a second Best Male Artist at the Brits, 2 NME Brat Awards and not only staying at number 1 for more than 12 months but also reaching 4 x platinum status.

By 1997, the man had reached the milestone of two decades as a record-releasing artist.
Paul Weller has recorded more albums, all critically acclaimed, including ‘Days Of Speed’ and his most recent due for release on April,12, 2010 ‘Wake The Nation’.

Mr Weller has had a 30 year career that has seen him become a musical institution.
In response to this great honour by NME, this is what he said: "I'm very happy to accept the award, I don't feel Godlike or a Genius but I'm happy to have it.

"It's nice to be recognised, you get your rewards in other ways too like playing live and seeing people's reaction, but it's nice to be recognised.
"I'm very flattered. I shall find a special place for it. A little altar to myself with garlands of flowers around it."

We shall hope you do Paul Weller because you sir are a Legend.